Hair-powder.

Hair-powder. a pure white powder, made from pulverised starch, scented with violet or some other perfume, and at one time, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, largely used for powdering over the head. The fashion became universal among the higher and middle classes, and by ladies as well as gentlemen. To make the powder hold, the hair was usually greased with pomade, and accordingly the fashion was extremely troublesome. An act of parliament fixed that the fine dust of which the powder was composed should be made from starch alone; and we learn from the Gentleman's Magazine, that on November 20, 1746, fifty-one barbers were convicted before the Commissioners of Excise at London, and fined £20 each, for having in their keeping hair-powder not made of starch, contrary to act of parliament. In 1795 a tax of a guinea (afterwards £1, 3s. 6d.) was put on the use of hair-powder, and at one time yielded £20,000 per annum, but it had the effect of causing hair-powder to fall into general disuse. The French Revolution, which overturned so many institutions, contributed also to the people of Europe returning to natural and unpowdered hair. At the present day powder continues to be used by some of the footmen of the nobility and higher ranks as part of their livery. The tax on hair-powder was repealed in 1869. At the time of its abolition it was paid by about 800 persons, and yielded a revenue of about £1000 a year.