Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows an unidentified family, probably in the early-1880s. Notuce that both boys have double top curls and ringlets. Having a group helps estimaye the ages Given basic biology, yhe children are about 1-6 yeras old. The oldr boy could have been about 5 yeras old, but 6years old seems more likely. The studio was Fintaine in Lowell, Massachsettes.

The limited number of images we have at this time do not permit me to reasonably assess the age at which boys had their hair styled in these top rolls/knots. It appears it was most common on boys 5 years old of younger. Some older boys also wore this style, mostly boys 7 or 8 years of age. A few images old older boys up to about 10 years of age also exist. The age range, however, requires, however, some further research. We have mostly found porttaits of pre-school boys wearing these top curls. And few note the ages of the boys. We can only estimate. Gere it ius helpful when ghere a re multiple children in the portraits. We have an extensive archive of school images and have not yet found a boy at school with this hairbstyle. A good example of a boy with this hair styke is an Ohio boy in the 1890s. He looks to be about 3 years old.

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Created: 10:53 PM 8/4/2020
Last edited: 10:53 PM 8/4/2020