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Wigmaker Kay Duff at work
© AFP Franck Perry

Here in a corner of her kitchen in her traditional, long village home in the western department of Deux-Sevres, wigmaker Kay Duff turns out a dozen horsehair wigs every month to adorn the heads of British barristers.

The British woman, who lives in the tiny village of Lorigne, population just 298, has been making by hand wigs to cover some of Britain's greatest legal minds for the past seven years.

"It takes patience to make a wig, about 15 hours. It's not difficult but it takes a long time," Duff said.

She works for legal outfitters Stanley Ley, established in London since 1903, and is proud to be part of the country's legal tradition, allbeit one which is often under scrutiny as an anachronism in this modern day and age.

Wigmaker Kay Duf at work
© AFP Franck Perry

Wigs first made an appearance in British courts in the 17th century, when Charles II returned to England from exile in the French court of Louis XIV and introduced the fashion of wearing wigs in polite society.

While over the centuries wearing wigs gradually faded from general fashion, the tradition has hung on in the courts, although there is no law stipulating that they should be worn by barristers and judges.

Duff admits she closely follows the recurrent debates in England proposing that wigs be scrapped, acknowledging that it does worry her that the tradition could die out, together with her livelihood.

She anxiously surveyed the tools of her trade lying on a table -- a wooden head, curling tongs, round wooden tips, needles, a horse's mane and a tail from a Chinese breed of horse specially reared in an English stables.

Hong Kong judges and lawyers in traditional British attires
© AFP/File Robyn Beck

Each wig takes patience and some dexterous finger work. A net is stretched over the dummy's head, and Duff stitches little curls to it, made with the help of the tongs. Bigger curls wound round the wooden tips are then attached to the sides and back using hair from the horse's mane and tail. Hair from the mane is more supple, but more expensive.

Once the wig is finished it is boiled up and then dried to retain its shape. Most lawyers only buy one wig in their lifetime, and a battered, slightly dishevelled hairpiece is testament to a long, and hopefully distinguished, career at the bar.

"You don't wash the wigs, but they can last for two generations," Duff said, adding they are the same for both men and women.

Duff, 41, fell into the trade by chance. She and her husband fell in love with the Deux-Sevres region during family holidays and at the end of their stay found it harder to leave each time.

Finally they decided to up sticks and relocate to France. Their two children are in school and are now perfectly bilingual, and her plumber husband has had no trouble finding work.

Wigmaker Kay Duf
© AFP Franck Perry

But Duff, a former manager of a Gloucester dairy, found it hard to get a job. In the end two British friends living in the village who were wigmakers agreed to teach her the trade and pass it on as they were close to retirement.

Duff has never looked back.

"There are 10 different sizes. But I can also do made to measure. I make about a dozen a month for a London shop which gives me the orders. The wigs are then sent out in boxes of four," she explained.

"I think there are two other workshops in England making wigs and they sell for about 400 pounds (580 euros)," she added.

Proud of her work, which she usually completes while watching the television or listening to the radio in her kitchen, she has so far not tackled the bigger, longer wigs for judges which sell for upwards of 1,000 pounds.

"It's great to have an original job which fits in with family life," she added.

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