Figure 1.--This American girl was photographed in 1865. Many such images show hat ringlets curls were very common for girls in the Civil war era. Note the hat streamer

Chronology of Girls Ringlet Curls

Girls appear to have worn ringlets in the 18th century, although we have only limited information on this. We know more about the early and mid-19th century. We have noted girls commonly wearing ringlets thoughg the Civil War era of the 1860s. We have less informatin about the late 19th century. A HBC reader reports, "I have looked at a lot of images of girls the last few days and I will be darned if I can find a single image of a girl with ringlets. I am beginning to believe that ringlet hairdos in the 1880s-1900s were probably worn by boys. Girls seem to have a wide variety of hair styles, e. g., long loose curls with hair bows, hair pulled back behind their heads and tied with a large ribbons, hair pulled back close to the head so they almost look like they have short hair, and finally very long straight or naturally curly hair." By the late 1920s and early 1930s with the appearance of Shirley Temple--ringlets had become an entirely girls' fashion.

The 18th Century

Little boys commonly wore long hair in the 18th Century as did adult men. I do not believe the style of ringlets, however, was not common for boys, except for very young boys. Many boys did wear long hair in the 18th Century, but it was not commonly curled. Girls on the other hand did wear ringlet curls. We have noted many drawings showing girls with ringlet curls. One example are drawings of Washington traveling around the country in the early 1790s. One drawing shows the girlsof one city greeting him in white dresses and ringlet curls. There are many literary references to ringlet curls during the 18th Century. A typical reference, "Rape of the Lock Lord Petre, in a thoughtless moment of frolic gallantry, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair; and this liberty gave rise to a bitter feud between the two families, which Alexander Pope has worked up into the best heroic-comic poem of the language. The first sketch was published in 1712 in two cantos. The machinery of sylphs and gnomes is most happily conceived. Pope, under the name of Esdras Barnevelt, apothecary, says the poem is a covert satire on Queen Anne and the Barrier Treaty. In the poem the lady is called Belinda, and the poet says she wore on her neck two curls, one of which the baron cut off with a pair of scissors borrowed of Clarissa. Belinda, in anger, demanded back the ringlet, but it had flown to the skies and become a meteor there."

The 19th Century

We do not have much information on gurls' ringlet curls during the 19th century yet. Ringlet curls were extremely popular for women and girls in the early 19th Century. This is confirmed by both fashion magazines and artwork. Our general assessment is that they were very common among girls and young women during the early and mid-19th century, but became less common after the 1860s as the style was used for boys. The style never disappeared for girls, but by the late 19th century we tend to see more boys with ringles than girls. The shift seems to have begun in the 1870s, but this may in part be a reflection of the inccreasing number of photographic images. Many mothers who styled their sons' hair in ringlets did not want to do the same for their daughters. Some did, but this appears to have been the minority approach. We are still collecting information on this, but this seems to be the general case.

Early 20th Century

We note images of girls wearing ringlt curls in the early 2oth century. Many are undated so we often unable to definitively date them. As a result we are not yet sure to what extent the ringle curl fashion differenrd in the 1900s and 1910s. We know that boys in the 1900s still wore ringlets, but this was much less common in the 1920s. We note that girls on the othr hand coninued to wear tringlets in the 1920s. Much of our information comes from America as we have primarily American images. We are less sure about the popularity of ringlets in other countries. We do note that girls in the early 20th century commonly wore hairbows, often quite large ones, with ringets.

Inter-war Years

By the late 1920s and early 1930s with the appearance of Shirley Temple--ringlets had become an entirely girls' fashion.

Individual Girls

We note that short hair seems very popular for girls in the early 18h century. We are still accessing the hair styles of girls in painted portraits and have not yet reached conclusions over hair style trends.

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Created: June 1, 2002
Last edited: 4:41 AM 2/24/2011