Powdered wigs, the acme of Rococo fashion
Wigs are now, as they always have been, in particular in the case of men, a means of disguising hair loss. Baldness in the 15th and 16th centuries, however, also carried the stigma of disease. Syphilis was rampant throughout this period of European history, and aside from the sores, rashes and blindness, hair loss was an obvious, and difficult to disguise symptom. Hirsuteness, therefore, became symbolic of robust health, and no doubt of virility, and as with codpieces, when an item became associated with virility, more is good, and the bigger the better.
Powdered wigs, however, are also symptomatic of the excesses of European aristocratic society at that time, which was extremely excessive. This was reflected not only in human couture, but also in the beautiful, but nonetheless extravagantly ornate architecture and art of the Baroque and Rococo periods. It was, however, in the often ridiculously flamboyant fashion of the age that it all came to a head. King Louis XIV, who commissioned the magnificent Palace of Versailles, set the ball rolling with his appearance in public in a series of flamboyant wigs, worn, of course, to disguise his premature hair loss. Four years later, English King Charles II followed suit, and began sitting for regular portraiture in a similarly extravagant wig, worn for much the same reason.
Powdered wigs were simply an extension of this early trend, and the powder was nothing more than a device to keep the tresses looking fresh and clean, and no doubt smelling better. This, however, was also the point at which wigs stopped pretending they were real hair, and began to glorify in the magnificence and sheer absurdity of volume. By the mid-18th century, thankfully, things were quieting down, and while wigs were still required wearing for men of substance and breeding, they tended to be less ostentatious and more practical. By the dawn of the Victorian era, they had disappeared almost entirely, with the exception perhaps of that most traditional of institutions, the courts of law. To this day, barristers and high court judges in Britain and most Commonwealth countries still wear the legal wig in combination with a white ruff and the red gown. That particular tradition looks like it is here to stay.