Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, is best remembered for her legendary extravagance and her death: she was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason.

In July 1793, she lost custody of her young son, who was forced to accuse her of sexual abuse and incest before a Revolutionary tribunal. In October, she was convicted of treason and sent to the guillotine.

At 12.30pm, Marie Antoinette was taken to the guillotine at the Place de la Revolution. After the queen’s head fell it was shown to the crowd, who cried: “Vive la République!”

Antoinette’s hair was a sort of palette for power: one hairstyle even featured a model ship to celebrate a French naval victory. Marie had a taste for the extravagant, from 72-layered powdered creations to allegorical hairstyles adorned with charms and figurines that represented political themes.

One of the most well-known poufs included a model of a ship that sat atop the waves of her hair, in honor of a French naval victory. The queen was both revered and reviled for her taste in fashion and lavish beauty practices. The latter especially got her into trouble due to her hairstyles’ high price tag.

The name of this condition comes from folklore about the French queen Marie Antoinette, whose hair supposedly turned white suddenly before her execution in 1793. Graying of the hair is natural with age. As you grow older, you may start to lose the melanin pigments that are responsible for your hair color.

The phenomenon of hair turning white from fright (or shock or grief or stress) persists in literature, poetry and even a handful of medical journals. But is there any truth to the rumor that we can actually scare our hair? Yes and no, says dermatologist Dr.

The study paves the way for understanding how stress affects other tissues and organs in the body. For centuries the legend of people’s hair turning white with fear has persisted.

The human body has millions of hair follicles or small sacs lining the skin. The follicles generate hair and color or pigment cells that contain melanin. Over time, hair follicles lose pigment cells, resulting in white hair color.