Figure 1.--This boy has long uncurled hair and a hair bow which we wears with a rather oplain plain outfit of a blouse with a large collar and suspender shorts. HBC suspects that he was a bout to begin school and his mother wanted his portrait taken before his hair was cut. Click on the image for a more detailed analisis of this image. |
HBC believes that boys from affluent families were most likely to wear hairbows--but cannot confirm it at this time. There do appears to have been a element of social class here. Many of the boys wearing hairbows, other than infants, appear to be from wealthy familes. This is suggested by the fact that they are also wearing fancy or very fashionable dress suggesting that they came from an affluent family. Many of these children were raised and schooled at home and their interactions were primarily with family. Thus the were kept away from boys of other classes that were less likely to wear hairbows. We know from memoirs, however, that middleclass boys alsomwore such bows. One boy noted by HBC, Paul, remembers being sent to school during the 1890s in curls and being teased. However, his mother only added a hairbow to his curls at home. HBC notes that while the ringlets worn by American boys required considerable time and effort to maintain. This was not the case with long uncurled hair. or at least hair that was not curled into tightly curled rinlets. Virtually any mother could afford a small ribbon and tie it into her son's hair with little effort. Thus while hair bows may have been most common with affluent families they were not unknow among families of mor modest means. And in fact we have noted boys in realtively plain outfits wearing hair bows.
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