Figure 1.--This portrait shows Prince Rupprecht's sons Luitpold, Albrecht, and Rudolf with their mother showing their different hair styles. The portrait was probably taken about 1912, the year that shed died.

The boys wore relatively short hair, although longer when they were younger. Luitpold had the longest hair when young. There hair was never done in the long ringlets like some American boys wore--although this fashiomn was declining in popularity after the turn of the 20th century. The boys wore their hair over their ears until they were about 7 or 8 and then it was cut to mid-ear level. We are not sure vabout the precise age at which their hair was cut shorter. At about 11 they received short hair cuts. The basic styles for all the boys were simulkar. Differences in the boys' hair caused some differences in the styling. Alnrecht seems to have had curlier hair than Luitpold..

Luitpold

rince Luitpold in all the images we have seems never seems to have extremly long hair, commonly cut in bangs. Some images show him with his hair over his ears. As a younger boys his hair almost, but never quite reached hi shoulders. We have not noted any images with extremely long hair or ringlets. The longest hair vwe have vnoted is Luitpold in a sailor suit. We do not, however, have any portraits taken when he was very young. We do not have, for example, portraits of him wearing dresses to see what hair style he wore then. I had thought that his hair got gradully shorter as he got older, but on closer examination it looks like his hair was rlatively unchanged for many years with a length well over his ears. As a boy of 12 or 13 he had quite short, but not cropped hair as was cmmon in much of Germany. I'm not sure precisely when his hair was cut, but it looks to have been done at about age 11 years.

Albrecht

There seems to have been less attention give to hair styling than clothing. Their hair is not elaborately styled, buut has a rather casual look. The different hair cuts were staged by age and got progresively shorter as the boys got older. The same basic hair styles were used for all the boys. Prince Albrecht, like his older brother Luitpold, in all the images we have seems to have rather short hair, commonly cut in bangs. Albrict's bangs are not sharply cut and are often rather unruly, in contast to his often elegant outfits. Some of the hair styles show an implied center part, but it is not clearly defined. In many of his portraits there is no part apparent at all. The boys never had long hair, although as younger boys their hair was over their ears. While some images show him with his hair over his ears, the boys never wore extremely long hair or ringlets. This was the case even when he was very young. Gradually as he got older his hair was cut shorter and shorter. His older very young. His brother when he was about 11 got a short hair cut, the same was probably true of Albricht. We do not, however, have images of him with the shorter cut like the one his brother wore about the time he turned 11 years old. None of the boys wore shaved or even cropped hair as we have observed elsewhere in Germany.

Rudolf

Ridolf died when only about age 3. Imaages of him show curly hair that is not particularly long.

Created: May 10, 2002
Last updated: May 10, 2002