Figure 1.--This colorized portrait shows two school-age brothers in the 1930s dressed alike. We are unsure just to what extent schools were responsible for the cropped hair here. Both have cropped hair. Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

Japanese boys have worn different hair styles over time. We do not have much information about Japanese hair styles at this time,but we have begun to acquire ome information. There have been differences over timne, but Japanese hair styles seem less varied than childrn's styles in the West. We do not know why this is. It probably is t least partially related to the fact that Japanee chidren all have the sme staight black hair. We have begun to collect information, but our archive of Japanese hair styles is still relatively limited. We note many boys wearing cropped hair in the early 20th century. This was common through World War II (1941-45). We are not entirely sure why this was so common. I believe the schools required it. At least it was especially common for school-age children. The cut has a military look to it. This continued after World War II, but generally disappeared in the 1950s. Since then the principal hair style has been bangs. Here both boys and girls wear bangs. Bangs are especially popular for girls, but boys also have their hair done in bangs. Some boys wear short hair so the bangs are not very pronounced. We also note a kind of shaggy bangs as well as bangs that are very sharply cut.

Short Cropped Hair

We note many Japanese boys wearing cropped hair. We are not yet sure hiw common this was in the 19th centyry, but it was very common in thecfirt half of the 20th century. We assume it is cropped, but some boys may have had shavd heads. This was common through World War II (1941-45). We are not entirely sure why this was so common. I believe some schools required it. We are not sure why,perhaps for discipline or health reasons. Hopefully our Japanese readers can provide some insights here. Short cropped hair was especially common for school-age boys. The cut has a military look to it. This continued after World War II, but generally disappeared in the 1950s.

Bangs

Another major stykes for Japanese childen was bangs. We are not sure how common bangs wre in the 19th century. We hink that they were worn by girls. We note both boys and girlswering thm in the 20th century. Girls wore bangs throughout the century. After World War II hen boys did nt connonlt=y have their hair cropped, we see many wearing bangs, especially primry-age boys. Girls continued to wear bangs in their teen years. Some boys wear short hair so the bangs are not very pronounced. We also note a kind of shaggy bangs as well as bangs that are very sharply cut.

Swept-back Hair

we note some boys with swept bav=ck hair. We think that this was primarily a style for teenagers and men nd not very common for younger boys. Here we still assessing this style, but we have not yet found many exmples in the photographic record. We are not yet sure about the 19th century s our archive is still limied. Mny biys ha ckise0cripped hair, but we re not sure how commin this was in the 19th century. We know that close-cropped hair was very common in the early-20th century so few boys anbd schoo-age would have had this style. Our limited 19th century archive means that we can not fully assess this style, especially because we have virtually no images from the early- and mid-19th centyry. We do note one young teenager with swept-back hair in the 1880s. This may have been a traditional style,perhaps worn by well-to-do boys who were tutored at home and did not attend school.

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Created: 4:49 PM 3/24/2009
Last updated: 10:10 PM 6/4/2012