Figure 1.--This 1929 studio portrait shows theww siblings abour 3- 7 years old. Notice they all have closed-cropped hair. This was fairly common for boys before World War I, nut gradually became less commonm especially by the 1930s. It was not very common at all for girls unless there was a lice problem.

The general pattern in Europr and other countries is for biys to have short haior stylrs anf girls longer styles. There have been many exceptions over time and periods on which various styles persisted. And Russia has the further pattern of two distinct groups. First the urban population was influenced by European styles. The aristocracy in particular was influenced by French styles and actually commonly spoke French. The great bulk of the population lived in rural mreas--the peastanttry. Much of the peasantry were serfs and even after Tsar Alexander II emancipated the serfs (1861), their life style and dress changed relativel slowly. Boys's hair styles in Western Europe varied from country to country. For ther most part boys in Western Europe has enough hair to comb, In Rweasrern Eurioe inckusing Russia, it was nore common to crop their hair. Younger boys in Western Europe might have longer haoir than the ilder boys. In some cases they even wore styles more associated with girls like ringlet curls. This was much less common in Eastern Europem from Germany east to Russia. This was much less common for girls, but we do see some girls with cropped hair. We are not sure if this was an actual style ir a sanitatioin measure if lice were present. Cropped hair was also a style associated with schools and kind of used as a form of military discipline.

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Last updated: 9:35 PM 2/10/2008
Created: 4:22 PM 2/13/2008