Hair Parts: Gender Trends Chronology--20th Century


Figure 1.--This is Mable Brimm and her two boys. The younger boys wears a tunic suit. The older boy a blouse anbd knickers. The studio was Oscar Grossheim in Muscatine, Iowa. The portrait was taken on November 12, 1912. Both boys have center parted hair. This is often considered a girlish marker, especially during the 19th century. It illustrates how chronological factors have to be considered in identifying gender.

Side parts continued to be the primary hair styling convention for boys in the 20th century. There was one major exception. Hair styling, including the part, varied somewhat chronologically Center parts became popular for boys of all ages during the early-20th century, at least once their curls were cut. This seems even more popular for teenagers than boys. We believe this fashion was particularly prevalent in America, but not an exclusively American style. Meaning it was a fashionable style adopted by the youth themselves rather than imposed by mother. A good example is an American boy, Clarence Rogers in the 1900s. We are still wirking out the chronology here. These center parts seem very popular in the 1910s, but we see them during the 1900s and 20s as well. The 'Our Gang' star Alfalfa not with standing, the center parts were much less common by the 1930s. Girls after World War I commonly bobbed their hair. We also see German boys increasingly wearing hair that was long enough to comb and they almost always had side oarts. Even so it tended to be longer than boys;' hair and because their clothing was so gender specialized, it is usually eay to identify gender. Although center parts were fashionable, even when popular, they were not the primary hair part for boys shown in the photographic record. The hair part as a gender indicator becomes less important after World war I as children's clothing became more gender specialized. After World War II many returning servicemen helped to create a fashion for short cropped hair (butch, crew, flar top, ect.) from the late-40s to the early-60s. The hair was to short to part in these styles, but boys with somewhat longer hair, always parted in in the left. We begin to see longer hair in the late-60s ndquite long styles in the 70s. With these styles the part is hard to detect, but center parts were a rarity. By the80s, hair stules began to become shorter and were almost always side parts. We see very short hair, sometimes even cropped hair in the 90s, but hair long enough to comb was still popular. Some boys as a fashionable statement parted their hair in the center. It was not the most commoon approach, but we see a mumber of examples.







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Created: 9:58 PM 8/25/2011
Last updated: 9:58 PM 8/25/2011