With Mars in sight and humanity on the verge of colonizing another planet, very little has ever been mentioned about wigs in space. Little, if any knowledge on the subject has been written, however wigs have been used in the space program for decades. Starting with NASA in the 70s and eventually being adopted by the ESA recently; wigs have been used for a variety of reasons and continue to be used as we grow as a species.

Following the Apollo program of the late 60’s, NASA was on the verge of loosing a majority of its funding due to loss of interest generated by the public. Interestingly enough, the engineers working on launching men into space had no idea how to market the idea to the masses, so they reached out to the professionals in Hollywood and Manhattan for help. This in turn, gave birth the widely used Men’s toupee for many of the astronauts of the time. It’s hard to understand the decision to allow this, however when you realize that the astronauts of the time we’re mostly late aged men in their 30s and 40s who were already experiencing hair loss, putting them in front of a black and white television only made them look older and less interesting. This is why in the 70’s, the astronauts in the NASA space program began sourcing and wearing wigs while being interviewed before launch.

This trend continued into the 80’s until NASA began allowing public interviews broadcasting live on television from space. The problem was that human hair toupees we’re never tested for the rigors of space flight, and thus only used for pre-launch videos. This continued until the public noticed many of the astronauts appeared differently, raising health concerns. Eventually, the engineers worked out a way that would allow astronauts to wear toupees in space, without compromising the integrity of the mission.

Starting gradually and eventually lasting many years, NASA astronauts began wearing toupees during the full missions, even under their flight helmets. Surprisingly, there was a great benefit to this. Because of the colder temperatures maintained in the cabin during spaceflight, prior wearing toupees, astronauts would carry wool hats to keep their heads warm. These wool hats took up precious cargo space and weight, which ultimately lead to higher overall mission cost’s. Given the option to wear toupees, there was no need for the additional wool hats, thus allowing more flexibility in budgeting cargo and weight.

In modern years, the European Space Agency has allowed female astronauts to wear human hair wigs during full flight missions. There was a benefit found in allowing women to wear wigs because it was easier to sanitize and maintain their hair in space, without using additional resources such as water. Women astronauts have also noted a benefit of the wigs was that it allowed them to keep their natural hair relatively short, and still have confidence during televised sessions with the public during missions.

Uniwigs.com has always been on the vanguard of manufacturing technology and all of our wigs will be sure to give you the confidence you want, no matter where your journey takes you. We also do custom wig orders and our customer service is always available to help you find the perfect wig.