Figure 1.--The older brother here wears ringlets with his front bangs curled instead of falling down over his forehead. His younger brother's hair is probably not curled because he does not yet have long enough hair. One wionders if he was looking foreward to having his hair dome like his older brother. Unlike his brother, he wears a pinafore. Click on the image for a closeup.

Ringlet Curls: Curled Bangs

Some boys had instead of regular straight bangs at the forehead, the traditional style with ringlets, wore their ringlets with variously styled curled bangs . Mothers appeared to have curled the boys bangs rather than having them fall straight over his forehead. There were several different ways in which the bangs could be styled or curled. Some mothers were very imaginable in this regard. This seems to have been less common than other styles, but several available images show that this style was not unknown. The different styling of the front bangs varied in popularity. This was a particularly fancy style and was probably most common in affluent families. Some of the different bangs styles were not very common, at least based on the small numbers of photographic images available.

Bangs

Most boys wore ringlets curls with standard bangs at the forehead. Some boys had instead of regular straight bangs at the forehead wore their ringlets with variously styled curled bangs . Mothers appeared to have curled the boys bangs rather than having them fall straight over his forehead. There were several different ways in which the bangs could be styled or curled. Some mothers were very imaginable in this regard.

Popularity

This curled bangs style seems to have been less common than other styles of ringlets, but several available images show that this style was not unknown. The different styling of the front bangs varied in popularity. Some of the different bangs styles were not very common, at least based on the small numbers of photographic images available. The rolled bang style in particular does not seen very common.

Social Class

This was a particularly fancy style and was probably most common in affluent families. Fancy hair styles require a great deal of work. Especially on an active boy--maintaining a fancy hair style must have been a major effort. It must have involved either a mother with a great deal of time on their hands or the mony to employ an extensive housegold staff.

Styles

HBC has noted two basic styles in the`limited number of images that we have found. There there may be more. We are constantly adding images to HBC and will provide links to new pages here as we expand our archive. We have not noted any previous discussion of this topic so we are not sure about the proper terms or the terms used by contemporary mothers. There was a great deal of diversity herebecause the styles were for the most part fashioned at hime and mothers put a great deal of imgination and ingenuity into the process.

Rolled bangs

The older brother on this page wears bangs that have been curled into a roll (figure 1). They appear to have been curled into a ringlet along with the rest of his hair. This boy's head seems to have curls everywhere. Also, the hair bow appears to be there for decorative purposes only. The younger brother rather suprisingly has short uncurled hair. I assume that his hair hasn't grown long enough yet to curl. I wonder what his older brother in ringlets thought about that. The younger brother wears a lace trinmed and heavily ruffled pinafore. His older brother wears a Fauntleroy lace-trimmed blose without a bow. On the back of the photo is written "Emma Gersh's two boys". The photo is undated, but HBC would estimate about 1890.


Figure 2.--This brother and sister have different outfits, but wear identical ringlets with front bangs. Click on a image to see their outfits.

Front curl

While not the most common style of ringlet curls, a style forming a semi-ringlet curl falling to one side with the front bangs appears to have been more common than the rolled-bangs style. This was essentially a further development of the sweep bangs style. HBC has noted this style more around the turn of the century and the 1900s than during the earlier 1880s period. It appears to have been primarily a boy's style, but some girls also had such styles. The image here shows a brother and sister with identiacal front ringlets (figure 2).

Natural curls

We note some boys wite forehead fringes that are curly. Unlike some of the other styles here, the front is not dine in a large curls, but rather there re a lot of small curls. We think in some cases this may be bots with naturally curly hair. It is not always easy to tell. A good example is Robert Mason Hamilton who was about 6 years old in 1897.

Bangs with front curls

Some styles had the curl at front rather than bangs. It was more common to have bangs or center parts. We notice some ringlet styles with frnt bangs and a top curl right behind. To an extent this limits the length of the bangs as hair is drawn away to form the top curl. We have noit seen many examples of this, but we do see a few. One example is an American boy, Robert L. Wickline.






HBC






Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing hair style pages:
[Return to the Main ringlet style page] [Return to the Main long hair page] [Return to the Main curl hair page]
[Bangs] [Ringlet curls] [Hair bows] [Caps] [Collar bows]



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



Created: November 24, 1998
Last edited: 7:50 PM 6/29/2007