Figure 1.--This CDV oval format portrait shows the son of Frank Cummings. We do not know his first name. Notice how his ringlets are set behinf his wears. We note quite a few examples of this in the 1860s. The studio was Thomas & Conrad in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. The portrait is undated, but was probably taken in the late-1860s, although the early-70s is possible. A reader asks about the boy's age, "How old would you guess the boy's age. I think he looks to be 6 or 7 years old." We are not sure. We thought he might be a bit younger, perhpas about 5 years of age..

We have only a few images of boys with ringlet curls during the 1860s. Given the large numbers of available images from the 60s, this suggests that ringlets were as common as later in the century. Thus we can not yet say much about the various styles of ringlet curls popular in the 1860s. We have just begun to assess available portraits of ringlet styling during the decade. We do know some ringlet styles were done with top rolls, such as the boy on the previous page, probably during the late-1860s. Herbert Lockwood about 1867 is another good example Herbert has a very large top roll and the curls seem somewhat set back. The unidentifued boy here clearly shows this (figure 1). Here the boundary point was the ear. Many of the boys have their ringlets set behind the ears or at least not covering the ears. The ringlets worn by girls usually covered the ears. This was a convention that does not seem to have changed over time. The set back curls seem to be a popular style in the 1860s. This was not a popular style later in the century. The actual ringlets look similar to those we see later, but the placement and the prevalence of top curls seem characteristic of ringlet hair styling in the 1860s and to a lesser degree in the 70s. As we add more images here we will hopefully be able to discuss styling during the decade in more detail.

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Created: 4:50 AM 8/10/2014
Last edited: 5:44 PM 8/10/2014