Figure 1.--This unidentiofied American boy wearing a plsin sailor suit is having his ringlets cut by his father. He looks to be about 5 years old. The photographed is undated, but the mount looks like the very early 1900s. We are not sure what to make of the background. A reader writes, "The entry looks like it was a 'camp' in the Adirondacks. During the Arts & Crafts period homes were built looking rustic like that. If that is the case and this is a second home, it speaks to the wealth of the family."

We are not sure just who did the cutting. The work of curling the boys hair was as far as we cam tell entirely done by the nother or female household help in the home. Just who finally cut the curls is an open question. We have virtually no information addressing this topic. The task fell to both mother and father and there were differences from family to family. As mother was primarily responsible for the younger children, it seems likely that in some cases it was she who actually cut the boy's curls. But this was a wrenching decesion for many mothers who were lothe to accept that their little boys were growing up. Thus in some homes it fell to father to do the cutting. We are not entirely sure how this was decided. It must have been a matter of discussion between the mother or father. Here there are few actually records as these were oral dicussions rarely carried on in letters. Some of this discussion was probably in private. Some may have been done with the child present. Presumably the boy may have been allowed to pipe up himself on the topic. Often a decesion was mutually reached. In some cases, mothers were adament on the subject of cutting a boys curls. Some boys who has determined mothers like Elizabeth Barret Browning or who lost their fathers likev Thomas Wolf might have particularely difficult times. We think that often it was the father who dud the curring, bith with or without mother's approval Some fathers actually wirlded the susors. Some may have taken the boy to the barber shop. To this day, the barber shop is a male enclave. It is usually the father who takes the boy there.

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Created: 12:35 AM 9/13/2010
Last edited: 3:31 AM 9/14/2010