Breeching in America: Hair Styling


Figure 1.--Here we see the three children of an unidentified family, a baby with his big sister and brother. The boy looks to be about 3-4 years old and wears a tunic, or a tunic-styled dress. The girl looks to be about 5 years old and wears a dress. Theyvare all dressed in white. The studio was Philips in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The portrait is undated, but looks to be about the turn-of-the 20th century.

Conventions concerning breecing and hair styling varied greatly from family to family. Families varied as to the age of breeching as well as whether to cut a boy's hair before or after breeching. Thus you see boys with their hair cut before they were breeched. We note a variety of longer hair styles, including ringlet curls. Other bots had their hair cut at the same time they were breeched. Another option was delaing the cutting of their curls until after they were breeched. And the actual ages varied as well. There was no established conventions for all this. It was entirely up the family, usually the mother. Most of this was done before age 6, but some older boys were involved as well. And all this was further complicated with hair bows, types of skirted garments, and chronological trends.









HBC






Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web dress pages:
[Return to the Main U.S. breeching page]
[Return to the Main U.S. skirted garment page]
[Return to the Main U.S. national dress page]
[Pinafores] [Ringlet curls] [Smocks] [Bodice kilts] [Kilts]
[Fauntleroy dresses] [Sailor dresses] [Fancy dresses]
[Dresses: 16th-18th centuries] [Dresses: Early-Mid-19th century]
[Dresses: Late-19th century] [Dresses: Early 20th century]
[Difficult images] [Movie dresses]



Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [Essays] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]



Created: 3:03 AM 7/23/2010
Last updated: 3:03 AM 7/23/2010