Figure 1.--The children here sare unidentified. The portrait was taken at the Decrevel Brothers studio in Virden and Roodhouse, Illinois. There apparetly was a studio in each town. The children look to be about 6-8 years old. Both wear long ringlet curls. The portrait is undated, but was probably takn in the late-1870s or early-1880s.

Individual families adopted a variety of conventions concerning ringlet curls and other hair styling. This was especially the case in the late-19th century when it it was not just very young boys wearing ringlets. For some reason, mothers in the late-19th century lost all inhibitiions about gender styling. We suspect that many mothers always wanted fancy clothing and hair styling for their boys and looked forward with sadness when they would have to cut their son's curls. The Fauntleroy Craze gave them the ability to postpone that day. Here it was almost always the mother deciding on hair styles for the girls and younger boys. The family dynamic varied from family to family. In some cases father might intervene when mother continued to do their son's hair in ringlets beyond the age he felt approprisae. There were several different alternatives that mothers had. We note some mothers doing the hair of both their sons and daughters in curls. We have found a number of examples in the photoraphic record. The more common option was, however, if boy's hair was done in ringlets that the girls' hair was styled differently. This did not necesarily mean short hair for sister, but perhaps a different style of long hair. The idea apparently was so the boy's hair would stand out better and perhaps so that he would not see it as a girl's style. Here the age and gender distribution in any given family would affect hair styling and the alternatives open to a mother. The more common option of course was a short style for the boy and ringlets or other long hair style for his sister. The substantial photohaphic record provides many examoles or us to study the trends.

Identical or Similar Styles

Individual families adopted a variety of conventions concerning ringlet curls and other hair styling. This was especially the case in the late-19th century when it it was not just very young boys wearing ringlets. For some reason, mothers in the late-19th century lost all inhibitions about gender styling. We suspect that many mothers always wanted fancy clothing and hair styling for their boys and looked forward with sadness when they would have to cut their son's curls. The Fauntleroy Craze gave them the ability to postpone that day. Here it was almost always the mother deciding on hair styles for the girls and younger boys. The family dynamic varied from family to family. In some cases father might intervene when mother continued to do their son's hair in ringlets beyond the age he felt approprisae. There were several different alternatives that mothers had. We note some mothers doing the hair of both their sons and daughters in curls. We have found a number of examples in the photoraphic record.

Different Styles

The more common hair style options option was, however, different styles for brothers and sisters. Here the prevalence of the various options is realtively easy to espablish once photography was invented. We are not sure about the early-19th centyry. We know a great deal about the early-19th century. We know a great deal about the second half of the century, especially when the CDVs began appearing in huge numbers (1860s). One option was if boy's hair was done in ringlets that the girls' hair was styled differently, maning some style other than ringlets. This did not necesarily mean short hair for sister, but usually a different style of long hair. The idea apparently was so the boy's hair would stand out better and perhaps so that he would not see it as a girl's style. Here the age and gender distribution in any given family would affect hair styling and the alternatives open to a mother. The more common option of course was a short style for the boy and ringlets or other long hair style for his sister. This was especially common once the boy approached school age. Many very yping boy had curls, but ringlets were less common, in part bcaue really young children do not have enought hair for ringlets. Most boys had their hair cut short by 3-4 yeras of agem even during the fauntleoy era.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 10:03 PM 3/21/2009
Last edited: 6:33 PM 6/28/2019