Figure 1.--This American cabinet shows three children who look to be about 5-13 yerars old. The portrait is not dated, but the mount and white wicker furniture suggests it was taken around the turn of the 20th century in the eraly 1900s decade. The girls are dressed alike with plain white dresses and black long stockings. They have long crimped, wavy hair. Thus was not a real common style, but we do see examples. The photographer was thev Triby Studio in Tacoma, Washington.

Hair waves are a style usually reserved for women. This is largely because it can only be achieved through hair styling and permanents. It was usally used with long hair and so named because the classic style sought to reproduce ocean-style waves in the hair with crests and depressions. The high maintenence made it impractical, but not unknown, for girls. While waves were most common with longer hair styles, we do see them with a least one style of short hair--the iconic flapper style of the Roaring 20s. It was nammed after the fashionable young woman of the decade intent on enjoying herself with abandon and flouting conventional standards of dress and behavior. Which of course is why we see few girls with flapper hair styles and mostly advant guard young women. Most did not see it as an appropriate style for girls. We do see, however, a few girls with the flapper look. A good example is American girl Lo Benta with her cousin Ben. We think that this was most common in America, but certainly not unknown in Europe.

Created: 8:26 AM 1/3/2022
Last updated: 8:26 AM 1/3/2022