Sunday, Nov. 07, 2010
Thomas Jefferson
It's not your fault that you don't think of Thomas Jefferson as a redhead. He and his revolutionary compatriots will always be known as the guys in the dusty gray wigs. But this particular founding father did have natural red hair, according to records and a few portraits. Yet the style at the time was to douse your bonnet with various scents and powders and pin a wig or hairpiece atop it. Jefferson was not immune to this fashion. Even when not wearing a wig, his hair would be covered in powder. Writing to a grandson in Philadelphia from his Virginia estate, he implored, "I must pray you to put half a dozen pounds of scented hair powder into the same box. None is to be had here, and it is almost a necessary life with me."