Elizabeth I: Was she really bald?

[luverlylou]

I have always heard rumours that Elizabeth I was actually bald? Is this true?

[firefly]

I believe so-that red hair was a wig.

[andy hughes]

It is probable that the bad diet, unsanitary living conditions and sundry diseases made hair loss a common feature for both men and women in the sixteenth century. Wigs were a fashionable and simpler solution, and historians generally agree that a by-product if the lead-based white face make-up worn by ladies at the time, would be loss of hair, and probably teeth as well. Mary Queen Of Scots' famous red hair was a wig, dislodged from her decapitated head, revealing straggly and thin grey locks beneath.

[rekstout]

Elizabeth was badly sticken by smallpox when she was younger which may have contributed to her hair loss

[babthrower]

In those days, and until the 1800's really, a lot of people shaved their heads and wore a wig because lice and fleas were so prevalent. If she slept alone, only her ladies in waiting need have known. They would be sworn to secrecy, but... With the advent of medern chemistry, toxins were discovered that could control lice, and the custom died out.