Wigs have been worn for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians, for instance, wore them to protect their shaven heads from the sun. Wigs are principally a Western form of dress.

Nowadays, wigs are mainly used as a means of compensating for hair loss or to make one look better. They may also be worn for fun as part of a fancy costume dressing, when they can be of bizarre colour. They are quite common at Halloween, when all kinds of weird wigs are available to suit the style of a particular character.

On the other hand, special wigs are also worn by barristers and judges as a professional dress code in Britain and some Commonwealth nations. Judges' wigs are short like those of the barristers, but in a different style for everyday use. For ceremonial occasions, judges and some senior barristers wear full-bottomed wigs.

In the old days, such wigs were made from real hair and powdered in order to give them their distinctive white or off-white colour. Powdering wigs were messy and inconvenient, and the development of the naturally white or off-white powder-free horsehair wig is doubtless what has made the retention of wigs in contemporary court dress a practical possibility. Formerly under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Nations, Hong Kong barristers and judges continue to wear wigs as part of court dress.