Barristers swap horsehair for hemp as they try out first vegan court wigs

The to start with batch of vegan court docket wigs are remaining trialled after a barrister marketed 10 hemp-centered headpieces to colleagues who normally use types built of horsehair.

Samuel March, a junior barrister at 9 King’s Bench Walk, mentioned his ambition to shake-up the Bar’s 200-yr-outdated custom of wearing horsehair wigs in courtroom is now in the “testing phase” as recipients head to the courtroom in his biodegradable creation.

Mr March told The Telegraph that he is examining the wigs can stand the check of time with a compact amount of barristers prior to he pushes in advance with a bigger start.

He explained: “Hemp is a notoriously tough content so I do not anticipate there remaining any troubles, but there is constantly a possibility the place you’re the very first in the entire world to attempt anything. Building them right here [in the UK] on this scale and price position signifies my marketplace is largely minimal to vegan barristers, which is a modest current market – but just one that I intend to hold advertising to.”

He explained he marketed the initially batch of wigs as a result of social media and “robing home term of mouth” but is discovering selling long run batches through the UK’s initially legal clothes shop for gals, Ivy & Normanton.

The Cambridge-graduate very first unveiled his plans for a biodegradable hemp wig on social media a yr in the past, when he posted on Twitter and Linkedin: “The prototype has arrived. This is the world’s first hemp barrister’s wig. 0pc horsehair, 100pc vegan friendly”.

At the time, he envisaged the product to be in generation by the finish of the year and to be the norm inside of courtrooms in the house of “a number of years”.