Figure 1.--This portrait is unidentified, but we believe it is American taken in the 1890s. The brother and sister are dressed differently. Their hair is not styled identically, but there are clear similarities. We assume the younger child is a girl, but in the 1890s a boy that age commonly wore dresses as well as girls. The portrait was taken at the Wingert Studio. Rather than an address or city, however, the only other incription is "5'K'D". I am not surewhat that meant.

Coordinated hair styling was more common than identical styling because it gave a mother more flexibility. She could coordinate the hair styles of her children even though they may be different genders and different ages. Hair conventions in the 19th century were generally looser than in the 20th century. This gave themother a great deal of discression in how she styled her children's hair. Fancy hair was more a function of the well to do for mothers who had the time any money to devote to such matters.

Twins

It was very rare for parents to both dress the children in coordinated hair styles without clothing coordination, although here idenbtical hair styling may have been more common. The two often accompanied each other. This was especially true for twins of the same gender, but fraternal twins when younger could also have their hair coordinated.

Other Siblings

It was not just twins that had their their style coordinated. It was probably more common to coordinate the cloths, but many siblings also had coordinated hair styles. Again this was most common for like-gender siblings, but hair style cordination was by no means limitd to siblings of the same gender. There are many different alternatives here, especially in large families. For example a mother might outfit the boys similarly and then style the younger boy's hair like his sisters. We also notice many instances where the children are dressed quite differently, but their hair styles are identical or coordinated. Also some mothers may choose identical and others similar styles, perhaps age graaded in some way. Similarly mothers may select both identical and similar styles such as ringlet curls with differnt parts. This was most common of course for same gender siblings , but it was also done for brothers and sisters as well. We note an example of an American brother and sister with coordinated hair styles about 1905. We note another American brother and sister, this pair with idebntical hair styles, although the boy is younger and has shorter hair.

Created: November 10, 2002
Last updated: 6:10 AM 9/25/2004