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In our modern age the greatest attention is given to women's hair styling. Lesser attention is given to that of men and children. This has not always been the case. Men have given great attention to hair styling in some ciltures and historical eras. In our modern era, boys have begun gicing great attention to their hair. This began with Elvis Presly and his side burns in the 1950s and the Beattles in the 1960s with what was at the time considered long hair. The teenage boy in the 1990s might spend considerable time preening in front of a mirror. Perhaps not as much time as the modern girl, but certainly more than was common in the 1950s. have listed here the boys' hair styles with which I am familiar. Unfortunately in many cases I do not know the formal names for these cuts or much information about them. Please let me know if you are aware of any others or have any childhood
memories about your hair styles. Hopefully someone with barbering experiences swill eventually help us analize the various cut styles.
Afro-America boys and young adults also began wearin their hair
longer in the 1970s. The bushy cuts were called Afros.
Bangs are hair that is cut to hang brushed down over the forehead. This is called a fringe in some countries. Bangs in America have been commonly worn since the 19th century. They were less popular in Britain. The "Dutch boy" cut was popularly worn with Buster Brown suits at the turn of the century. Younger boys often were kept in bangs throughout the 1900s. Jacki's choice of hair cut for John Kennedy Jr. and the Beattles made bangs popular even for older boys in the 1960s and the style was commonly seen through the 1980s. Bangs tend to be a very popular style for girls and little boys in Japan.
Bowl cuts were commonly used for hundreds of years by poor and rural families. Mothers in the 19th century, especially rural or low-income families often cut their child's hair themselves, using a bowl over the child's head for an even cut. Movie goers will remember the hair cut of the boy in the classic western Shane. It is also called a
pudding basin haircut--another term for a bowl cut that is derived from the history of the cut. This term is not a widely used term these days. Other names for this haircut are bowl crop, basin cut and basin crop. The roundheads of English 17th Century history got their name from this haircut. The apprentices rioting in London wore their hair 'cut around the head' using a bowl as a guide; hence the name roundhead. Two German names for this haircut are Topfschnitt and Pottschnitt. The cut gets its name very obviously from its origins of mother placing a bowl on a boy's head and then cutting off everything that protrudes from under the bowl. The resulting hair cut may be several inches in length on top with and rather close cropped hair below the bowl line. There is no blend (or transition) between the two lengths. The bowl cut was common in rural America in the 19th Century and became popular again during the Great Depression (1930s) when many families had to economize because it was an easy and inexpensive way of cutting boy's hair. While techniques may have improved, the cut still has the same basic characteristics of longer hair on top and short hair below a "bowl line", which is usually just above the ears. This style reappeared again in the 1990s for boys with the hair cut long, often with bangs at the front, but cut very short around the ears and neck.
Hair bows for girls became very popular in the late 19th century. The bows grew in size until by the 1890s they could be huge, nearly as large as the girls'head. Some mothers were not content just to put bows in their daughter's hair. Some romatically inclined mothers decided that keeping their boys in long hair and curls might add a decorative hair bow. This practice was realtively uncommon in Britain and the United States, although there are many instances none the lessd. It seems to have been more common in France. I imagine the bnoys involved were not to pleased with this, but have no actual first hand accounts.
Some boys in the late 19th and early 20th century wore their long hair in braids. While popular for girls, this was not a common style for boys. In America, it was more common to curl long hair, but some boys wore braids.
One particularly popular style in the 1990s was a short brush cut with a long tightly permed fringe at the back. This is basically a longer variation of the crewcut. It gets its name because the hair is cut to stand up like the bristles of a brush.
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This is essentially the same as an induction cut.
The butch is a short cut in which the hair is cut an even, short length (usually around 1/4 inch or less) all over. Outside the United States, this cut is generally called a crewcut. Within the U.S., a butch would be usually considered shorter than a crewcut. The butch is distinguished from a classic American crewcut by its even length all over. An American crewcut has a little extra length at the front of the head. commonly commbed up if long enough with a little hair oil.
The buzz cut is another short hair style. HBC is not sure how some of these short hair styles varied. The buzz cut appears to have been a popular style in the 1990s as the long hair styles of the 1970s and 80s decline in popularity.
A Ceasar sut is moderate short cut modeled on the style worn by worn in the style of Julius Caesar. The hair is layered at lengths varying from 1-2 inches all over. The hair is them brushed forward to a short bang or fringe at the forehead. This is not a style I have noted on boys.
A French reader has described a boys hair style with a curl on top of the head rather than ringlets hanging down. We note this style being worn by French boys during the 20th century. It probably dates to the 19th century, but our archive of French 19th century images is limited. We have noted American boys with a rolled top curl in the 19th century. This seems essentially the same as the choupette, although I m not sure what it was called at the time. We also see this style in Canada at the same time.
A college cut is a short, layered hairstyle with the front and top a tad moppy and the back cut nearly bald or to a nunber one or higher. A reader explains, "A number one is a razor length size or size of the shaving cut and higher is a greater length of cut again." The bang at front can vary from 1-3 inches. The bangs are done variously. Some are allowed to fall straight down. Other comb them to the side. Similar to an Ivy League cut.
Short hair with a fringe at the front became popular with boys in the mid-1950s at the same time that coon-skin caps appeared. The style was popular among many boys at it required little care. Once it became an established style, however, and parents became insisting on it in the 1960s, boys becan to insist on longer hair which with Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and other rock stars was becoming more popular. Outside the United States, the term crewcut has a much narrower meaning than inside the U.S. The non-U.S. definition is a cut that is short all over (about 1/4 inch), perhaps tapered a little at the back and sides. Inside the U.S. Within the U.S., crewcut is used more broadly to refer to a range of short haircuts. In general the U.S. definition refers to a cut that is tapered at the back and sides but may be up to one inch on top.
We notice large numbers of boys in Germany and other European countries dyring the laste 19th and early 20 centuries with close cropped hair cuts. This style was much less common in America and England. We do not know a great deal about this style. It appears more common with working-class than middle-class families. Apparentyly it was no only a hair fashion, but also a matter of hygene. Masny school photoigraphs in particulsar show boys with these cropped hair styles. They became much less common after World War I (1914-18). There does not appear to be a lot of styling with these cuts, just close cropped all over,
An on-going problem in assessing hair styles is that we do not know the names for many styles or in fact if there was a name for the style. This style is a case in point. It is certainly not a style that we have seen very commonly. We note a CDV portrait of a little boy with greased out hair that stands up in the middle, peaking at the crown. His hair, however, is short at the sides. Our approach is to just desribe the style until we can find an actual name. He is wearing a cut-away jacket and small white bow. The word Lincoln is written right below his photo on the front side. We assume that is his last name. He looks to be about 8-years old. The photographer was Vaughan at 18 Third Street, Chico, California. We would guess that the portrait was taken in the late-1860s, although the early-70s is possibly. This is confirmed by the fact that Vaugh opened his studio in 1868.
Boys have over time worn a ide variety of hair styles which included curls. The most common was the hair oy younger boys whivch before the child's first hsir cut may have natural curls. Boys wore natural curls in manu different lengths. The most famous type of dstyled curls were the ringlet curls associsted with Fsuntletoy suits in the lsae 19th century. We notice other styled curls, but often do not know the proper name for them.
A reader informs us of the cut part style. "I have a funny question. When I was a kid there was a hair style we all thought was cool. The hair was cut short then a
part was cut in. I believe that this was used during the 1950s and 60s. My daughter cuts our 4 year old grandson's hair. She is afraid to try the "cut part" technique. How is this done?" This is not a style that we were familiar with. I'm unsure how popular the style this was. Hopefully our readers will know more.
I'm not really sure what to call this style either, nor have I seen it mentioned in the literature consulted so far in my research. For want of a better term I will refer to it as a double part. The style involves two parallel parts on both sides of the head. I know that boys with ringlets hafd the side parts joined as a "U" at the back of the head. I'm not sure about the boys without ringlets. I believe thid was an exclusively boys' style, although I still know very little about it. As far as I can tell it was worn from about
1840-1880, although this is only a guess arrived at from the few available images I have. I have only noted this style in American photographs and not in Europen photiographs, although admittely I have seen fewer European photographs.
Dreadlocks are the trade-mark style of Rastafarians, a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. The hairstyle is referred to as dreadlocks or dreads. It is worn by blacks and is hard to achieve without the kinky hair which many blacks have. It is so named because so the hair is left uncombed until it "locks". It was adopted by Rastafarians when they noted photographs of Ethiopian tribesmen. Dreadlocks have proven to be an issue at some schools which banned the style. This not only has occurred at schools with largely White student populations, but also at schools with black staffs and students. Here policies havde varied from country to country. They are strictly banned in Cuba, but beconing increasingly accepted in other Caribbean countries and the United States. Some see it as a basic matter of good groming. Others see such regulations as an example of the "petty tyrannies" that boys, but not girls,
have to endure. One newspaper article sees it as an ironical example "... of a black principal of a virtually all-black school taking extreme action against a hairstyle that originated among blacks. [Ebbin] Some Bermuda schools required boys who wear dreadlocks to cover their hair. Many schools do not specifically ban dreadlocks, but requires boys' hair to be off the ears and above the collar. Another issue is that Rastafarians wear dreadlocks for religious reasons. The style has become increasingly accepted in recent years. American entertainers like Whoopi Goldberg and Bobby McFerrin wear dreadlocks and the style is sometimes noted among Black professionals, especially in liberal environments like universities.
Ebbin, Meredith. "Dreadlock deadlock: Schools can't agree on whether or not they should tolerate dreadlocks," Bermuda Sun, September 20, 1996.
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