Swedish Hair Styles



Figure 1.-- This Swedish boy was named Harry. He looks to have been photographed about 1930. Most boys had shorted hair cutws with parts at the time. Younger boys might have longer cuts. Harry looks like mother may have styled his hair at home. He has long blonde, shoulder-length hair with straigth-cut bangs in front. The bangs seem fairly common, the long hair less so. The boy is wearing knit H-bar shorts with a white short-sleeved shirt and a very large bow. He also wears heavy woolen long stockings, clearly supported by the Swedish equivalent of a Leibchen. The boy is very young--probably no more than about 3 years old. The photo may be a studio portrait since the seat on which the boy is sitting doesn't look like home furniture, and the plain background suggest a studio to me. Normally knitted shorts were not worn with long stockings, but Sweden is a Sxandinavian country with long, cold winters so this may have been more common there.

We know very little about Swedish hair styles at this time. Our relatively small Swedish archive has not allowed us to develop much hair styling information at this time. We have begun to acquire some photigraphic images, but our assessmaent is just beginning. Hopefully Swedish readers will be able to offer some basic information to this section. Much of what we notice in our Swedish section looks very similar to German styles. We have few Swedish images from the 19th century. We suspect cropped hair was common for the boys as in Germany, but we do not yet have the images in our small archive to confirm this. We know more about the 20th century and hair styles do seem similar to Germany. We note rural boys with bowl hair cuts. Bangs seem very popular. Parted hair syles seem very similar to Germany, but our assessment is still tentative. Longer hair lengths appeared in the 1970s and were similar to those elsewhere in Germany. We notice cropped hair again in the 1990s. Many girls had braids and oigtails, one reason why the famous literary charaacter Pipi Longstockings was depicyed with pig tails.

Boys Hair Styles

Most of the boys' hair style we notice in our Swedish section looks very similar to German styles. We have few Swedish images from the 19th century. We suspect cropped hair was common for the boys as in Germany, but we do not yet have the images in our small archive to confirm this. Some younger boys had longer styles like the boy here (figure 1). The stanfadrd style, hoerver, was short cuts. We know more about the 20th century and hair styles do seem similar to Germany. We note rural boys with bowl hair cuts. Bangs seem very popular. Parted hair syles seem very similar to Germany, but our assessment is still tentative. Longer hair lengths appeared in the 1970s and were similar to those elsewhere in Germany. We notice cropped hair again in the 1990s.

Girls Hair Styles

Like the boys, Swesish girls had hair styles simiklar o the ones we see in Germany. Many girls had braids and oigtails, one reason why the famous literary charaacter Pipi Longstockings was depicted with pig tails.

Hair Parts

Hair parts are a particularly imprtant element in hair styling. We focus on parts because they are a very useful gender indicator. This was badly needed in the 19th century when younger boys were commonly dressed in dresses and other skirted garments. And as younger boys and girls often look alike, determining gender is a real problem. And e can not verybwell address fashion trends without knowin if individuals in the portaits are boys or girls. Girls commonly had center parts and boys side parts. It is of course impossible to tell in many photographivc portaits where the children are not identified, but in the portraits with identifification, this was certainly the case. We can never be sure about unidentified portrait, but the part is the best single gender indicator we know about. This of course is mpy only true of Sweden, but Europe genrrally and the United States.







HBC





Related Swedish Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
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[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer]
[School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]



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Created: 12:18 AM 12/26/2010
Last updated: 3:51 PM 11/14/2019