Wigs: Selling Hair in 1980s London

In the 1980s Peter Marshall took pictures of shops selling hair and wigs as he walked around London

“If your hair gone with the wind?”

– sign in a wig shop, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, London

 

London wigs

Men’s Wigs, High Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989

People were keen to fix their hair in the 1980s. Before the buzzcut became the norm for men with a thinning thatch and hair extensions for women became popular, Peter Marshall spotted high street shops selling wigs. As he walked around London, he took pictures of what was on sale.

There was a plenty of choice. At one shop, you could get the full set: a human hair wig (£125) plus beard (£24.90) and moustache (£4.50).

Let’s take a look around…

 

Wigs

Wigs for sale, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, London

London wigs

High Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989

London wigs

Tooting, Wandsworth

London wigs

Streatham, Lambeth, 1996,

Streatham High Rd, Streatham, Lambeth, 1990

Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, Hackney, 1989

London wigs

Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1989

Wigs, High St, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, 1989

Wig sale, London, 1987

Wig, High Rd, Bruce Grove,Tottenham, Haringey

Wig shop, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, 1994

Maurice, Long & Short Hair Stylists, 345, Commercial Rd, Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets, 1986

King George V Dock, Royal Albert Dock, Newham, 1984

Kilburn Lane:Regent St, Kensal Rise, Brent, 1981

Joyces Hair Fashions, Romford St, Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets, 1986,

Heads, Wigs, shop, Streatham High Rd, Streatham, Lambeth

Heads, Wigs, shop, Streatham High Rd, Streatham, Lambeth, 1990

Head, Wigs, shop, Streatham High Rd, Streatham, Lambeth, 1990

Hairdresser, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990,

Hairdresser, Hornsey Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990

Hairdresser, Fulham, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1990

Hairdresser, Chapel Rd, Ilford, Redbridge, 1992

wig

American Dream, Human Hair, Cowley Rd, Acton, Ealing

More hair in the archives.

Follow Peter Marshall on Flickr.

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