Powdered hair and partners

While visiting Bath in 1798, the young Elizabeth Canning wrote to her mother.

"Well my dearest Mamma, how do you like my red locks? For here I am without a grain of powder in them, all as one as if they were of the most beautiful brown!!"

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, both men and women powdered their hair or wigs. Hair powder was primarily used to create colour effects without damaging dyes.

Hair powder was made from various materials, from the poorest quality corn and wheat flour to the best quality in finely milled and sieved starch.  It was usually white but could also be brown, grey, orange, pink, red, blue, or violet.  The application of white powder over dark hair produces shades of light to dark grey, not the paperwhite seen in films and costume wigs.  White powder applied over very light hair produces a heightened blond effect.  The powder was applied with a bellows or with a puff for touchups and a knife for removal.

A very rare survival of a wig-powering sink can be seen from the street in a house in Gay Street, Bath.

Elizabeth's transition in style mirrors the societal shift towards more 'natural' looks in the 1790s. This shift, which saw powdering gradually lose its appeal, was further accelerated by the imposition of a tax on hair powder in 1795 to fund the war against the French. This tax marked the beginning of the end for hair powdering.

The portrait below of a younger Elizabeth and her mother gives some indication of the difference between natural and powdered hair.