Wig curlers

While straight hair may be the fashion of today, objects found at Hungate indicate that it was not always so. Recently, excavators have been finding numerous examples of wig curlers, made of white fired clay similar to that used to make tobacco pipes. In use, these simple objects – possibly made by the same manufacturers as clay tobacco pipes – would have been rolled in damp paper, and then the wig hair wrapped around. The wig was then baked to set the curls. As this group found at Hungate shows, the curlers varied in sizes, the smaller curlers being used to make tighter curls than the larger ones.

The fashion for curled wigs was particularly popular in the late 17th to 18th centuries, and was favoured by both men and women of means.