This was sent to today from a highly respected talmud chachum in response to this discussion:
I saw the text you posted on the psak of the Shiltei Giborim allowing sheitels. I have done extensive research on this topic and I would like to share a few fundamental points:
Firstly, let us honestly ask ourselves a profound question:
“DO THE SHEITELS OF TODAY RESEMBLE IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM THE WIGS THAT THE SHILTEI GIBORIM WAS REFERRING TO?
Even if one would like to rely on the psak of the Shiltei Giborim (which was disputed upon by many poskim – see later)- what type of sheitels were prevalent in his times? Do they come close to the natural looking, eye-catching, enticing sheitels of today.
Many Gedolim in our times were deeply pained about this and stated their opinions in writing and in various public speeches:
HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l declared, “The wigs of today look just like hair and are certainly assur. On this (type of wig) – not even one posek has given a heter. The wigs of today are actual ervah, they look just like hair; and there is no difference!
The posek hador, Harav Shmuel Halevi Wosner zt”l, stated, “The wigs that were worn approximately sixty years ago—even in the more modernized country, Vienna—were clearly recognizable from a distance. It was clear that it wasn’t the woman’s own hair since those wigs did not have the natural characteristics of hair. Yet the wigs of today look just like natural hair.” He then added, “They incite the yetzer hara even more than natural hair, and there would be no posek in previous generations who would be able to find any type of leniency to permit such a sheitel.”
Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l declared, “Why are people rationalizing that the women in the previous generation wore wigs? Those wigs looked like straw! Today, they come to me and I don’t know the difference between a wig and hair!”