How did those white wigs come into fashion during the eighteenth century?

This answer of "lice and fleas" is a myth.
Wigs became fashionable in the latter half of the 17th c. because Louis XIV, King of France, was prematurely bald. In a society which still believed in "the divine right of kings", the monarch embodied the might of the kingdom, and hair has always represented potency (just think of Samson in the Bible). So a bald monarch suggested a weak man, and therefore a weak kingdom; King Louis wore a lush, long, curly wig to make himself, his royal position, and his country appear more powerful. Because Louis was the focus of fashion, he set the styles. If the king wore a wig, all the courtiers wanted to, and what was worn at the French court, everyone else wanted to copy. So Louis' baldness set a fashion which lasted for roughly a hundred years.
Wigs were also fashionable because they represented a display of conspicuous consumption. They were expensive to buy, and required expensive maintenance. Wearing one was a display of one's wealth.
And, these wigs were not generally white. Mostly they were powdered. This was probably done to conceal the fact that the "borrowed" hair wasn't usually a good match for the person wearing the wig. Only clergymen and lawyers tended to wear white wigs. The most common color for an 18th century wig was "grizzled", what we would call "salt and pepper".


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