Figure 1.--This Paris boy wears long ringlet curls with a Eton colar-shaped blouse and bloomer knickers. The CDV portrait is undated, but looks to have been taken in the 1890s. Note the waggon and toy barrels.

Our French 19th century archive is still limited. Thus we can not yet make a detailed chronological assessment of ringlet curls. We know nothing about the early-19th century at this time and very little about the mid-19th century. Interestingly while the Daguerreotype was invented in France (1839), there are far fewer French Dags than American Dags, limiting our assessment of fashion trends in the mid-19th century. We have seen, however, relatively few images of French boys with ringlet curls. We note boys with long hair, but relatively few have their hair done in ringlets. While we still have realtively few 19th century French portraits in our archive, this does in fact appear to be the case. French mothers appear, however, to have been less apt to curl boys' hair. We do have some information on the late-19th century with the appearance of the CDV and larger numbers of portraits become available. Ringlets seem most common in the late-19th and very early-20th cntury. We note Maurice Terrillon in 1894. After the early-20th century, ringlet curls become less common. We do, however, notice a few examples into the mkid 20th centyry. We notice French boys wearing ringlet curls as late as the mid-20th century. We note an undated portait if an unidentified boy, perhaps taken in the 1930s. An dated example is a French Algerian boy in 1949. Interestingly he has been sent off to school still with his ringlets. This was not very common.

The 19th Century

We know nothing about the early-19th century at this time and very little about the mid-19th century. Interestingly while the Daguerreotype was invented in France (1839), there are far fewer French Dags than American Dags, limiting our assessment of fashion trends in the mid-19th century. We have seen, however, relatively few images of French boys with ringlet curls. We note boys with long hair, but relatively few have their hair done in ringlets. While we still have realtively few 19th century French portraits in our archive, this does in fact appear to be the case. French mothers appear, however, to have been less apt to curl boys' hair. We do have some information on the late-19th century with the appearance of the CDV and larger numbers of portraits become available. Ringlets seem most common in the late-19th and very early-20th century. We note Maurice Terrillon in 1894. At about the same time we note the memoirs of Paul Vailland-Couturier.

The 20th Century

We continue to see a few French boys with ringlet curls in the early-20th century. Quantifying this is difficult with a relatively small archive. After the early-20th century, ringlet curls become less common. We note an undated portait of an unidentified boy, perhaps taken in the 1930s. An dated example is a French boy in Algeria during 1949. Interestingly he has been sent off to school still with his ringlets. This was not very common. It seems unusual to find these images with a realtively small archive. Whether this means that ringlets were more common than we expected or just an unsual occurance we are not sure. We do, however, notice a few examples into the mid-20th century. The last dated example we have comes from the 1940s, but we suspect there were some in te 1950s as well.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 8:13 PM 5/27/2010
Last edited: 2:25 AM 11/11/2013