Figure 1.--Here we see three American sibling in the 1890s. The boys have short hair cuts. Their little sister has bangs with long hair at the back. Bangs were a populaer element in girls hair tyling. It was also used for boys' hair especially but not exclisively for younger boys.

Bangs are a popular ctyle for children, both girls and younger boys. They are called a fringe in Britain, but we have not heard that term used in America. Bangs are a shaped cutting and combing of the front of the hair so that it falls down over the forehead. Bangs are commonly cut rather straight at or above the eyebrows, but we have also seen them tapered at the side. They also vary in length. Some come down to the eyebrows and others leave vary anounts of the forehead exposed. The term bangs originated from the term cutting bang-off (straight across the front). This was derived from the practice of cutting horses' tails straight across. We are not sure about early periods, but by the mid-19th century there is an extensive photographic record showing how popular bngs were for boys and girls. It was used as an element with many other style. This is less true for boys. With short hair, the bangs rather dominated the style. With the many longer hair styles popular with girls, the bangs were just one of the stylistic elements.

Created: 10:01 AM 12/13/2015
Last updated: 10:01 AM 12/13/2015