In the October 1871 issue of The Health Reformer,
[1] Ellen White wrote of
"hurtful indulgences" that militate against the highest interests and happiness
of women. Among these "indulgences" she included wigs that, "covering the base
of the brain, heat and excite the spinal nerves centering in the brain." As a
result of "following this deforming fashion," she said, "many have lost their
reason, and become hopelessly insane."
In the context of today's comfortable wigs, critics tend to ridicule
this statement. But Mrs. White was referring to an entirely different product.
The wigs she described were "monstrous bunches of curled hair, cotton,
seagrass, wool, Spanish moss, and other multitudinous abominations."
[2] One woman said that
her chignon generated "an unnatural degree of heat in the back part of the
head" and produced "a distracting headache just as long as it was worn."
Another Health Reformer article (quoting from the Marshall
Statesman and the Springfield Republican) described the perils of
wearing "jute switches"--wigs made from dark, fibrous bark. Apparently these
switches were often infested with "jute bugs," small insects that burrowed
under the scalp. One woman reported that her head became raw, and her hair
began to fall out. Her entire scalp "was perforated with the burrowing
parasites." "The lady . . . is represented as nearly crazy from the terrible
suffering, and from the prospect of the horrible death which physicians do not
seem able to avert." [3]
With reports such as this in the public press, it is easy to understand
why Ellen White would warn women against the possible dangers of wearing wigs
and trying to "keep pace with changing fashion, merely to create a sensation."
[4]
[1] The Health
Reformer, October 1871, pp. 120, 121.
[2] Ibid., July
1867.
[3] Ibid., January
1871.
[4] Ibid., October
1871.