fright wig

• fright-wig

fright wig (plural fright wigs)

1. A wig, usually worn for humorous or novelty effect, having voluminous, frizzy, long hair, suggesting the hair "standing on end" of a person who is extremely frightened or who has experienced a powerful electric shock.
   • c. 1920, Rex Ellingwood Beach, "A Bitter Root Billingsrbiter":

     There's an awfulness about the voice of a blood-maddened club-swingin' mob; it lifts your scalp like a fright wig, particularly if you are the clubee.

   • 1989 Nov. 3, Janet Maslin, "Film Review: Second Sight (1989)," New York Times (retrieved 6 June 2014):

     Mr. Pinchot, wearing a long-haired fright wig, plays a guileless nut named Bobby McGee who has been struck by lightning and turned into a psychic.

   • 2006 Jan. 19, Arifa Akbar, "Warhol's final self-portraits reveal his darker side," The Independent (UK) (retrieved 6 June 2014):

     Six months before Andy Warhol died of a heart attack, he finished painting his last series of self-portraits. . . . In the images, set on an inky black background, his bald head is covered by his famously disconcerting "fright wig".

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