Why Do English Attorneys Wear Wigs?

Wig History
 
Wearing a peruke, or wig, became a must for English gentlemen of wealth and prestige (not just lawyers) when Charles II imported the fashion from France after the Restoration. By the 1700s, certain styles were associated with particular métiers, but even after they'd been largely shed by the 1800s, wigs continued to be worn by "the three learned professions"—doctors, lawyers, and the clergy. Today, lawyers continue wearing wigs simply because of tradition, not because of law.

 
Who Wears What?
 
Barristers (lawyers who try cases in superior court) wear the Bar wig, which has rows of curls at the sides and back, plus two short tails. Judges typically sport the curl-less, not-so-frizzy Bench wig, but on ceremonial occasions they wear the full-bottomed wig, its shoulder-length "spaniels' ears" formed by 20 rows of tight curls. Queen's Counsels, a self-selected upper tier of barristers, also wear these when receiving precedent-setting judgments in the House of Lords, the Supreme Court of the U.K.
 
How Much for the Wig?
 
Forensic wigs have been handmade from horsehair since 1822, in a process developed by Humphrey Ravenscroft, whose firm, Ede & Ravenscroft, is the Microsoft of the legal-wig world. Wigs come ready-to-wear (off-the-peg, as the English say) or custom-made, which requires having one's head measured five times, "like buying a hat," says an E&R's wigs sales associate. Prices range from $840 (Bar) to $1,355 (Bench) to $3,600 (full-bottomed).
 
Wig Lore
 
The fitting of a novice barrister's first wig is an exciting rite of passage, "especially if they come in with their parents," says E&R's Haynes. Depending on care, she adds, a wig can last for an entire legal career. The yellow patina of long use confers status, and hand-me-downs from retired legal lions are especially prized-though they can smell a little funky.
 
Wig Future 
 
In 2003, instigated by irate solicitors—unhappy with the implication that barristers were bigger shots than they—the lord chancellor (the UK equivalent of the attorney general) conducted an official survey of the legal profession on the matter of wigs. The verdict: While most senior judges and solicitors want to do away with them, most barristers and lower-level judges disagree. The lord chancellor also canvassed 1,571 members of the public and 506 witnesses, jurors, plaintiffs, and defendants. Only 34 percent of them think barristers should continue to wear wigs, though 68 percent want judges to wear them at criminal hearings (31 percent for civil proceedings). A formal decision hasn't been made.