Figure 1.--This Canadian boy is identified only as Uncle Willie, meaning his name was William. We do not know his last name. He looks to be avout 4 years old. Rather unusually he wers a cap. Mothers usually took off headwear for boys with ringlet curls. Willie wears an unusual light unusual reefer coat over a equally unusual checked sailor blouse. The large floppy bow obscures the blouse. The ringlets are thick, but not long, hanging above the shoulders. The portrait is undated, but the clothes and mount suggest the 1890s to us. We can not make out the studio name, but it was located in Tilbury, Ontario.

We are not entirely sure at what age Canadian boys wore ringlet curls. Our Canadian archive is too small to form any defenitice assessment. We suspct the age conventions were similar to those in America and Britain. Age conventions varied chronologically. We do not have any information on the early-20th century. The peak of popularity was during the Fauntlerpy era (1885-1905). And this seems to be the time that we hav the oldest boys with ringlet curls. We note boys from about 2-8 years of age wearing ringlets. Younger boys did not have ringlets because few had enough hair to be done into ringlets. Within that range we do not have a lot of insight, at least until the boys reache age 6 years. The largest number would have been in the 2-6 year category. At age 6, children began school and we rarely see boys with ringlets at school. There is an exception here. Children began school if they had reached age 6 years by the beginning of September. hose with later borthdays would have to wait another year. This is, however, a very preliminary assessment based on our knowledge of American and British trends. It is possible that some older boys had their haif done in ringlets, but there would not have been very many. A more detailed asessment will only be possible asour Canadian archieve expands.

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Created: 8:59 PM 3/7/2018
Last edited: 8:59 PM 3/7/2018