Boys' Hair Styles: Style Chronologies


Figure 1.--Boys wearing Little Lord Fauntleroy suits with lace and ruffked collars and bows in the late 19th century are often associated with ringlet curls. Some boys did ear ringlets, but short hair was more common.

We have at this time, however, only very limited overall chronological information developed, although we have developed some more detailed chronological information on specific styles. As we develop chronology pages on the specific styles, we will link them here. We have only a few such chronological style pages at this time, but we do hope to expand these chronological assessments.

Bangs

I am not sure just when this hair style first appeared. I have noted boys earing bangs as early as the 1870s. Based on the relatively limited number of images, however, it would seem that bangs were not very popular for boys from affluent families until the turn of the century. This may, however, be somewhat misleading. I think farm boys throughout the country had their hair cut by their mothers. One common method was to use a bowl to cut a straight line. This led in effect to bangs at the front. These boys in the 19th Century, however, were probably less likely to have their hair cut.

Bows

The first hair bows worn by boys was in the 18th century. It wasn's a child's style, but an adult style. Latter when boys began to wear hair bows in the 19th century, it was a childs' style. Full chronolgical information is not yet available on the wearing of hair styles. I also do not at his time have any information on the manyfacture of ribbons and changes over time. I think silk and satin were the main materials, and at this time am unsure about chronological availability of these materials in ribbons. I don't think that they were commonly available until cloth was commerically manufactured. Another topic that needs to be pursued.

Braids


Buzz Cut

HBC is not sure when buzz cuts first appear or the term was first used. We believe that is was probably the 1980s.

Crew Cuts

Few American boys wore real short hair cuts like crew cuts in the 1930s. Boys with short crew cuts became increasingly common in the late 1940s. GIs coming home from World War II had gotten used to short hair and considered it an ideal style for their sons. I'm not sure what the mothers thought about this. Short hair with a fringe at the front became popular with boys in the 1950s at the same time that coon-skin caps appeared. The style was popular among many boys at it required little care. Once it became an established style, however, and parents became insisting on it in the 1960s, boys becan to insist on longer hair which with Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and other rock stars was becoming more popular. Some boys modified the crew cut slightly and had their hair styles as a "flattop". Interestingly short hair rather like a crew cut, but without the front fringe became popular in the late 1990s.

Double Part

I have first noted the double part hair style in the mid-19th Century. As far as I can tell it was worn from about 1840-1880, although this is only a guess arrived at from the few available images I have. It may have well appeared earlier, howeverm and only becomes detectable at mid-century with the appearance of photograohy. Images continue through the 1870s, but becomes less common in the 1880s--except as part of ringlet curl hair syles.

Hair Knot

As far as HBC can tell this style was worn from about 1850-1885, although this is only a guess arrived at from the few available images we have. This is largely based on an assessment of photograpic images. It is possible that the style was worn earlier in the 1830s and 40s before photographic images were commonly available. I have not noted the style in painted portraits, but there are far few paintings than photographs--so it may just be the lack of images that suggests the style began in the 1850s. We notice a substantial number of images from the 1860s, in part because so many more photographic images were available from the 1860s. I do not think it was must used after the the mid 1880s, aklthough there are a few images of boys with this style in Fauntleroy suits. This means it may have continued into the 1890s, but was much less common than the more standard ringlet curl styles. We note fewer images of boys wearing this style after 1885. I believe this is in part because the Fauntleroy-style ringlet curls generally replaced it. Doting mothers who might have used this style apparently found ringlets much more attractive.

Layer Cut


Natural Curls

This style appears to have been worn throughout the 19th Century. Currently the images I have found date from the 1880s, but this may be a function that the photographic record becomes more extensive during this period. Through much of the 19th Century boys wore short hair, but I believe younger boys often did have longer hair with these natural curls. The popularity was probably affected in the 1880s with the Fauntleroy craze, but I'm uncertain at this time just what the impact was. The Fauntleroy craze made long hair more common, but mothers appear to have preferred longer shoulder length curls, especially in the United States. Natural curls worn shorter than shoulder level seems to have become more popular during the early 20th Century. As ringlet curls became less popular, this shorter style appears more commonly in the photographic record with Fauntleroy suits, Buster Brown suits, and other juvenile styles.

Over the Ears Styles

We note many boys athe mid-19th century wearing their hair over the ears. We are not sure if this style had a specufic name, but it was a very common cut. We do not see boys with shoulder lebgth hair, but we see many boys during the 1850s-50s with hair well over their ears. A good example isd an unidentified American boy about 1847. We see this again in the 1970s.

Long Hair

Boys have generally worn short hair, although this has varied over time. Boys in the 19th century had short hair woth the exception of mid-century when it was common for boys and men to wear the wear their hair down to or over their ears. Younger boys might even have shoulder-length hair, especially in the late 19th century. In America, long hair for boys was often done in ringlets. After the turn of the century long hair became less common, but we stoll see it before World War I. An example is an America boy in the early 20th century. Boys mostly wore short hair throughout the first half of the 20th centurry. Especially short styles were common after Wirld war II. Longer styles appeared in the late-1960s, in part influenced by the Beatles. Some boys in the 1970s were wearing their hair down to the shoulders. Boys in the 1990s began wearing cropped hair.

Page Boy

Page boy hair cuts have been worn in different historical periods. The page boy cut was based on the hair style of Medieval pages at royal courts. A page was a boy servant or attendant. He was of nobel birth serving kings or other high ranking aristocrats and in the process learning the ritual and skills of the court. The page always attended someone of rank, often as part of the process of becoming a knight. I'm not positive that what we call the page boy cut is a style worn just by the pages or rather was the adult male style of the day. The page boy style is also referred to as the Prince Valliant cut after the meddieval comic strip character. It was worn by boys in the late 19th, but was more popular in the early 20th century. Using the relative appearance of page boy cuts in available photographic images, only a very small number of boys wore page boy cuts at the turn of the century. It was not a major style worn by large numbers of boys. By the 1920s only a small mumber of younger boys wore page boy cuts. There was a revival in the 1970s when American boys began wearing longer hair. It was not, however, one of the major styles of the 70s. Many of the boys wearing long hair did not want to keep it as carefully styled as a page boy.

Pig Tails


Ringlet Curls

The fashion of ringlet curls for boys appears to have developed at about the same time that it did for girls. Ringlets were being widely worn by the 1830s. Mothers began tonface a difficult choice. Some mothers decided to cut their son's hair before breeching. Other mothers decided to delay cuting their boys' curls even after he was breeched. The style was most popular for boys in the 1880s and 90s after the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett's clasic book, Little Lord Fauntleroy. The style was still common in the 1900s, but declined in popularity during the 1910s. I have little information on the 18th Century, but believe ringlets were not widely worn. This change markedly in the 19th Century when ringlets became the height of fashion, at first for girls, but eventually for boys as well.

Short Back and Sides


Shaved Heads

HBC does not have good chronological information at this time about shaved head styles. It is clearly a 19th century style. Soldiers in the 18th century wore elaborate whigs, this was the common fashion throughout Europe. This did not change until the French Revolution about the turn of the 19th century. HBC is not sure about the chronology. It appears to be a style adopted in Prussia, first by soldiers and then adopted by school boys. Just when this occurred, but it appears to have been well established by the time Prussia forged the German Empire in 1870-71. It was a hair style worn by some boys in the late 19th century, but few details are available. By the early 20th century, school boys in Germany, Japan, Russian and other countries often had their hair shaved, but this had bcome much less common by the 1930s. Only in Japan were shaved heads still commonly. After World War II this style continued for some secondary schools boys into the 1960s.

Standard Short Cut

We note a standard short cut with the hair cut around the ears and a side part becoming standard in the 1870s. A good example is an Amrerican boy, Dan Browm.

Wigs









Christopher Wagner






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Created: September 16, 2002
Last updated: 5:52 PM 12/19/2006