What was the term they had for them, it sounds something like: bourgose, or Bu-zeh-wah-zee Dose anyone know how to spell this? thanx -sage13

The word you are looking for is bourgeoisie, I think. Not really sure what this has to do with wigs, tho.

"It is precisely because it is fashionable for Americans to know no science, even though they may be well educated otherwise, that they so easily fall prey to nonsense. They thus become part of the armies of the night, the purveyors of nitwittery, the retailers of intellectual junk food, the feeders on mental cardboard, for their ignorance keeps them from distinguishing nectar from sewage."
Isaac Asimov

Well ... from the phonetic writing it''s "bourgeoisie" indeed, it''s a French word (in this spelling) that comes from "bourg", the word for a village. A "bourgeois" was someone that had raised above the masses but wasnt born from a rich family, if you prefer, a "bourgeois" was originally from the worker class/order but had a wealth that propelled him/her in the higher ranks of the social life of the times.

But the wearing of wigs wasnt exactly something bourgeois had the exclusivity of doing...
Are you sure you are not thinking about something else ?
In France and the rest of Europe it seems there was a real trend of wearing wigs from the XVIIIth century (around the time Louis the XIVth was king in France). It was more or less anyone who had some sort of social life and the higher you went, the more extravagant it became. It was more aristocrats than bourgeois who would have been wearing the most impossible dress and wigs...
Before that, I am not sure it was that trendy, nor as fanciful as at that time.

Maybe if you precise your thoughts ? Which historical period, what kind of people you are thinking about ?


Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

The whole wig and heavy clothing thing was actually a matter of personal hygene. I mean, some people can get renk after a few days with out a shower. Imagine people that had at best weekly baths, at worst bi-monthly baths. To cover the grime, a nice wig and a good jacket would probably suffice.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

oooookay....

Like previously stated, the whole wig-wearing thing was a question of fashion - not simply rank and favor. Wigs were around for men, but good ol'' Louis turned it into an industry. When he realized he was going bald, he had wigs commissioned to imitate the long, curling locks that had been the fashion rage in France at the time (and that he''d had in his youth). Others at court wanted to emulate their king and had wigs commissioned; pretty soon if you didn''t have a long, curling wig you were out of the loop. It got to such an extreme that the clergy eventually followed suit. Soon the wig fashion changed from long, flowing curls to the upright pompadours that were similar to the female fashion of the era.

Wigs became a European rage, and our early American colonists wore wigs themselves.

So...what group were you really trying to define by "those people who wore wigs"?