Hair is one of the most beautifying aspects of a woman, wigs and extensions are considered beauty and fashion accessories and are a billion-dollar industry for a reason. A married woman was commanded to cover and conceal her hair after marriage precisely because hair is so beautifying, this beauty is meant for her husband only- not for other men. The sin of man looking at a married woman is very great, and her head covering is supposed to create a barrier between her and other men, to prevent men from noticing her and having any thoughts. The wigs today do the complete OPPOSITE of the reason for the commandment of hair covering (which is not a chok), they beautify the married woman causing her to look more attractive to men. We have just become so desensitized to this major issue, because wigs have gotten more and more natural looking and beautifying slowly over time and we are just so used to seeing frum married women with gorgeous “hair” everywhere we go. Wigs have become a major money-making industry in the frum world too, and there are ads for wigs in every frum publication and women are obsessed with their wigs (which makes sense as wigs are a major item of vanity and women love how they are transformed in their sheitels- one of the biggest yetzer horas today for woman).
For centuries Jewish married woman wore cloth head coverings which is the real mesorah, wigs started to be worn by Jewish women about 200 years ago as breach from this mesorah (wigs were allowed by some Rabbanim to save the mitzvah of kisui rosh because Jewish women started walking around bareheaded due to the haskala movement). Before that wigs were only worn in the house, even the “peah nachris” mentioned in the Gemara was referring to a piece of hair that women would add to their own hair to better their appearance for their husbands in the home. Many Gedolim asured the wigs at that time (and those were stiff, short and ugly wigs), but the wigs took off. And here we are today, the same frum sheitel companies that are selling wigs to Hollywood actresses and celebrities (wigs are all the rage in Hollywood right now) for glamour and pritzus, are selling wigs to Jewish women for “modesty”.
Do people really not see the glaring hypocrisy and sheker of the modern wigs?
