Figure 1.--
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Figure 1.-- |
Styles varied from country to country. There were three long hair styles for 19th century young boys: sausage curls, uncurled hair bangs, and loosely curled or uncurled long hair without bangs. The first two styles seem to be favored in the U. S. and Britain. Many available images of American boys show them wearing their long hair with ringlet curls. Uncurled hair was also worn, but it appears much less common. HBC has noted boys wearing both curled and uncurled hair in Britain, but insufficent information is available at this time. French boys also commonly wore long hair, but while HBC has only limited information at this time, it appears that ringlet curls were much less common in France. French boys appear to have worn long hair without curling it. Long hair appears much less common in Germany. Information on other important countries such as Austria and Italy is lacking at this time.
The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was a still major, but declining power in the late 19th century. We have only limited information at this time. We believe that Austrian boys more commonly wore long hair than German boys. We have no information on how hair styles varied among the many national groups which made up the Empire.
HBC has noted boys wearing both curled and uncurled hair in Britain, but insufficent information is available at this time. We're not sure what was more fashionable in England. We believe long
straight hair was more popular than the ringlet curls popular in America,
but I could be wrong about this. Comments from our HBC British
contributors would be appreciated.
Figure 2.--French photographs and paintings are difficult to assess because both boys and girls might be in long hair and dresses. In this Renoir painting, the child's whip and blue bow suggest he is a boy. And in this case the identity of the boy is known. It is Etienne Goujon, who was about 5 years old when painted in 1885. |
French mothers appear to have let the boys' hair grow long without curling it. Some French mothers even added bows to their sons'
long flowing locks. It is difficult to assess this as there is little
written about it in the historical works on fashion and clothing. Hair bows for boys was not a specificlly French style. Mothers in other European countries sometimes added bow to the hair styles of younger boys. Even some American mothers thought the look attractive. No where, however, was this fashion so popular as uin France. The photographic record and paintings are difficult to assess without details on the images as young boys in dresses look much like girls. Further complicating matters, painters may have used young boys as models for young girls. Renoir, for example, used his youngest son Jean to model paintings of young girls. Renoir painted some particularly interesting images. One particularly nice
painting shows Madame Renoir and two of her children in an outing
in the park. (The picture can be viewed on the
hair bow page.) There is also a third child protrayed in a red
dress to the right. The hat style, the plainess of the dress, and the
ball he is playing with suggest he is a boy. According to a one
source, the child is the daughter of Paul Alexis, Renoir's neighbor.
However, the source doesn't identify the child
by name. Actually he may not know the gender of the child, but because
of the dress, like many observers. assumes it is a
girl. Another source tells me that an item that may indicate a boy is
the hat. Girls' hats that I have observed in Renoir's usually have
flowers or other
feminine decorations while this hat has just a plain band. A
portrait of Jean (his youngest boy), posed as a girl, shows
him sitting, wearing a smock-like dress with a hat on his lap
elaborately decorated with flowers. The painting on this page is
Child with Whip. It is a pair to Girl with Hoop painted in 1885. The subject is Etienne Goujon (b. 1880), son of Dr. Goujon.
HBC at this time has very limited information on late-19th century hair styles in Germany. We believe, however, that long hair for boys was not very coomon in Germany.
Figure 3.--Note this boy's (H. Christie) long tresses which have not been curled. His mother has kept him in a dress with elaborate work on the skirt and a very wide, lacey Fauntleroy collar. The picture was taken in the late 1880s. |
HBC has no information on Itlaian hair styles at this time.
American mothers appear to have liked long sausage curls. Long hair was not just worn with Fautleroy suits. Many of the boys kept in
dresses also wore their hair long. Some American mothers allowed
their boys to get their hair done cut while still in dresses. French mothers appear more prone to keep their boys' hair long while still in dresses.
The 1880s--France: Delesseps family
The 1890s--France: Jacques Zola
The 1890s--France: Renoir family
The 1890s--France: Jean Daubeville
The 1900s--France: Paul
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