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boys hair styles -- Ameican country trends United States U.S. 19th century 1860s parts
American 19th Century Boys' Hair Styles Chronology: 1860s Parts
Figure 1.--We at first thought this was an early-1870s portrait, but it is clearly from the mid-1860s becaue it had a Civil War revenue stamp on the back, dating it to 1864-66. It is as good as having a date written the back. The vportrait fives us a good idea on bous' hair styling. We see the evolving shortbhair stylesand mjore clearly delineated side part. But notice the younger child who ar first glance would seem to be a girl. But look at their side part. That means that the child is almost cerainly a boy. Notice the left and right parts. We are not sure how to explain that. Perhaps readers will have an idea. The studio was Whipple in Boston.
An important part of hair styling was how the hair was parted. Boys had side parts. Girls has center parts. There were of course exceptions, but this was widely followed convention. As a result, it is useful in determining the gender of younger children because both boys and girls wore dresses through the 19th century. Today boys have only one part, normally a left part. But we also see right patts and occasionally center parts. At times center parts were fashionable for boys, but here we are talking about older boys and only for relatively short period in the 20th century. Center parts since the 19th century have been prinarily an element of girls' hair styling. We know this because in the portraits where we do have names, almost always the children with center parts are girls and side parts are boys. There are no absolute rules, but the gender parts conventions are so strong that it can be reliably used. This enables us to identify who is who in the CDV portrait here (figure 1). We at first thought this was an early-1870s portrait, but it is clearly from the mid-1860s because it had a Civil War revenue stamp on the back, dating it to 1864-66. It is as good as having a date written the back. The portrait gives us a good idea on boys' hair styling. We see the evolving shortbhair stylesand mjore clearly delineated side part. But notice the younger child who ar first glance would seem to be a girl. But look at the side part. That means that the child is almost cerainly s boy. Notice the left and right parts. We are not sure how to explain that. And we have noted twin parts, usually a boy's style. They are not very common, but we do see them. The younger boy on the previous page has twin parts, although the second part is difficult to see). Twin part styles are usually associated with top knots or top curls. They are useful in gathering the hair to create these styles. Parts were useful in a range ofd styles, helping to form the hair needed to form some styles. We are able to see all of this clearly for the first time in the 1860s not only because with the CDVs and cabinet cards we have so many images to assess, but also because of the shirter styles, it is easier to see where the hair is parted.
