This is back to whether you want you unit to look like toy soldiers or mini representations of reality.
In an age when colonels paid for everything themselves and then claimed money from the government one thing is certain, whatever men wore it would be cheap. It then follows that it would fall off if crap quality or be protected if good quality. Think about taking lace 'off' or putting it back 'on'. How would that be done? It was probably flimsy white or off white tape. Sewn on? pinned on? glued on? It probably fell off after a couple of weeks if it was ever on in the first place.
Wear a white shirt whilst mowing the lawn or cutting some wood in the forest. Keep it on whilst you fire up the BBQ. Get caught in the rain with it, wear it next to a pair of new non colour fast jeans and keep them both on for a week.
Look at the colour of it after that time..... not white anymore!
Now transpose those gentle modern outdoor activities into the early 18th century to a man who can barely feed himself from day to day, sleeps outdoors, has no soap, smokes a pipe, probably uses his hat as a basket, wears it 20 hours a day on campaign for 6 months.... what does it look like?
Think the discussions about hat lace are not really too relevant unless you want to depict units straight from the tailors for a Royal parade. Otherwise, in an age of non colour-fast vegetable dyes, dirt, no washing, no shaving, sleeping under sheet tents or in barns .. there would be no hat lace or it would be brown. You can sleep at night Guedens without worry.
The whole discussion can be easily extended to uniforms. You wouldn't go far wrong with this painting guide:
Thomas Erle's sentinel 1704:1709
Hat : misshapen patchy dark grey floppy hat pinned up on one side, no discernible lace. Possible sprig of greenery pinned onto the crown.
Coat: brown or possibly dirty pink with light brown or greyish cuffs. Many patches, hems fraying, few buttons if any remaining.
Waistcoat: stained yellow brown sleeveless and possibly buttonless rag.
Shirt: dirty grey
Breeches: indeterminate colour stained with food, urine, faeces, and dirt.
Socks: none
Shoes: flapping like open mouths or with rope or string holding them together.
Neckcloth: possibly in pocket, - around hat, - around lock mechanism of musket.
Carrying: extra sacks of possessions and plunder, bundles of twigs for lighting campfires, possible dead animals such as rabbits or fowl.
Lank, dirty hair, unshaven, possibly missing teeth, infested with lice and quite possibly carrying some medical condition relating to skin, lungs or sexual health.....
Yup, yer average WSS infantryman
Think I'll do a unit of those soon
