# When did Canadian lawyers stop wearing wigs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-canadian-lawyers-stop-wearing-wigs/321064>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 11, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-canadian-lawyers-stop-wearing-wigs/321064 "2005-09-11T03:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-canadian-lawyers-stop-wearing-wigs/321064/21 "2016-06-18T01:24:58Z")

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> [@Monty](#):
>
> Didn’t lawyers and judges in the newly-minted United States of America also wear wigs in court for a while?

Not according to anything I’ve read. Many upper-class men in the early republic did wear wigs, but that was a mark of class and not a badge of office limited to law-talkin’ dudes. Here’s a famous painting of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States (I’ve seen the original myself in the Supreme Court building). He is wigless: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/John\_Jay\_(Gilbert\_Stuart\_portrait).jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/John_Jay_%28Gilbert_Stuart_portrait%29.jpg)

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-canadian-lawyers-stop-wearing-wigs/321064/22 "2016-06-18T03:54:22Z")

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According to [this interview on NPR](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128127227), there was one Supreme Court judge who began by wearing a wig, but abandoned it:

> [@](#):
>
> SIMON: Now, there was no dress code for the Supreme Court when it was established?
> 
> Mr. JACOBS: That’s right. Early on, people didn’t know what to wear. And one justice made the mistake of coming in a white powdered wig like the British. And this caused quite a ruckus. Apparently kids on the street were pointing at him and mocking him.
> 
> And he was eventually shamed into ditching the wig, partly by Thomas Jefferson, who said of wigs, he said, For heavens sake, discard the monstrous wig, which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum. Oakum, a kind of rope.

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-canadian-lawyers-stop-wearing-wigs/321064/23 "2016-06-18T06:27:39Z")

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As opposed to the England and Wales judges…

> [@](#):
>
> Second Judge: Well, I was quite pleased actually. I was trying to do my butch voice, you know, ‘what the jury must understand’, and they loved it, you know. I could see that foreman eyeing me.
> 
> First Judge: Really?
> 
> Second Judge: Yes, cheeky devil.
> 
> First Judge: Was he that tall man with that very big… ?
> 
> Second Judge: No, just a minute - I must finish you know. Anyway, I finished up with ‘the actions of these vicious men is a violent stain on the community and the full penalty of the law is scarcely sufficient to deal with their ghastly crimes’, and I waggled my wig! Just ever so slightly, but it was a stunning effect.

Apparently when Monty Python was suing ABC in New York, they played a number of the sketches that had been censored in violation of their contract. With the Poofy Judges’ “waggle my wig” line, the court reporter was laughing so hard he could not record the proceedings.

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