Figure 1.--We note some European boys in the mid-20th century with bobby pins, even younger school-ge boys. We have never noticed that in America. Here we see a German boy in 1955.

We do not have a great deal of information on hair styling implements yet. The basic item is scissors. They were invented in the 14th century. We are not entirely sure how common they were, but you might think that most families no matter how poor would have scissors. Otherwise a boy would have to go to the barber which would have been more expensive. Many mothers cut their children's hair. By the 20th century many mothers had clippers. Some other equipment was needed, especially for fancy styles like ringlet curls. Here hair rollers and heating irons might be used. These items were more for girl's hair except for the lare 19th and early 20th century when quite a number of boys had fancy hair styles. Bobby pins or flat spring-like metal pins appeared in the 20h century. The two priongs of the pens were held together by tension and used to keep hair in place. The term appeared in the early 1930s, although I am not precisely sure this is when the pins themselves appeared. The term derived from their use with bobbed (short cut) hair styles. A reader writes, "I've noticed school photos from both France and Germany in which boys' hair parts are held in place by bobby pins." Here we see a German boy from the 1950s (figure 1). I've never noticed this in America. Of course at the time many American boys had crew or other short hair cuts.

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Created: 2:19 AM 5/17/2006
Last edited: 2:19 AM 5/17/2006