Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows three siblings, two girls and a boy with similar hair styles. They look to be about 3-8 years old. The portrait is undated, but was pribably taken in the 1890s. The studio was Jarett Brothers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We note some younger children who had their hair done alike regardless of gender. This seems common in the 19th century. We do not have a lot of information on earlier centuries at this time, lthough paintings privuide some limited information. We do have considerable information on the 19th century, especially after the invention of photography (1839). Subsequently photography generated large and increasing bnumbers of images on fashion and hair styles for the first time. We see this very extensively in both 19th and early-20th century photography. century photography. We see boys and girls with ringlet curls, but younger boys had their hair done in many other styles more associated with girls. A limiting factor here is that many really young children did not have much hair. We even see boys with hair bows. Many mothers resisted cuttung boys' curls for some time and when cut kept the curls as keepsakes. In some cases this was only done when boys appropached school age. This trend seems to have declined after World War I. This situatiin continued fir several days with even younger boys commonly had their hair cut short. This became more complicated when biys began wearing longer hair (1970s). Near the turm of the century we see more varied hair styles for boys with longerr hair seen, but not standard. The styles for younger boys could also be longish, but we never return to the girlish styles of the 19th and early-20th centurues.

Created: 8:40 AM 12/25/2023
Last updated: 8:40 AM 12/25/2023