Figure 1.--This unidentified American boy had his hair done in very loose ringlets. He looks to be about 5-years old. Tightly formed ringlets were more common in America. The studio was Theo C. Marceau, 826 market St., San Francisco, California. The portait is undated, but looks like the 1890s to us. The boy wears a Fauntleroy blouse without a jacket. He has a woven waist sash. This was unusual when just wearing a blouse.

Most American boys with long hair in the 19th and very early-20th century had their hair done in ringlets, much more so than in Europe--especially on the Continent. The ringlets American mothers so lovingly styled were endlessly varied. American ringlets tended to be tightly curled and lon. This is the common depiction and it is confirmed by the photographic record. We see some loosely curled ringlets, but the tightly curled, fully formed ringlets were much more common. They varied in thickness, length, placement, and other factors all at the mother's disgression. The primary variable was the amoiunt of hair the boy had. Ringlets curl styles varied in many other ways. Some mothers added hair bows. This was a particularly American touch. As far as we know, these different ringlet styles did not have specific names and thus we see no referebves to the vatrious styles. This was in part because they were almost always done at home and not by a hair stylist. Thus we can only use basic descriptions to describe the various styles.

Tightness

Most American boys with long hair in the 19th and very early-20th century had their hair done in ringlets, much more so than in Europe--especially on the Continent. The ringlets American mothers so lovingly styled were endlessly varied. American ringlets tended to be tightly curled and long. Many Euriopean boys had very loose curls, more of wave thn a curl. This is the common depiction and it is confirmed by the photographic record. We see some loosely curled ringlets in America, but the tightly curled, fully formed ringlets were much more common.

Thickness

Another charisteristics of ringlet curls was the thickness. We see slender, narrow, medium, and thick ringlets. we are not entirely sure on what basis mothers chose the different thicknesses. The amount of hair avilable to work with surely was a factor. This varied from child to child, but some younger children did not have as much hair to work with as some mothers desired. Thickness did not affect affect the length of the ringlets. It did affect the number of righlrts. More slender ringlets could be formed than thick ringlets. It was just a matter of the amount of hair available. Thivker ringlets required more of the hair to be used. We tend to notice more slender and regular than thick ringles, but this is just a preliminary assessment. We do not know yet if chronology was a factor. We do tend to see more thick ringlets done for boys than girls. We do not know if the thicker ringlet curls were more difficult to form than the slender righlets. We hope to be able to say more about these trends as HBC expnds.

Length

Ringlets were done in a wide range of lengths. We see some short stubby ringlets thst just teach the ears and long slender ringlets thst extended below the shoulders and every length in between. These seem to be the same different lengths that girls wore ringlets. Short ringlets do not seem very common. The most common ringlets fell well below the ears to the shoulders or just above the shoulders. This is what we see most commonly in the photographic record which is we think a good indicator of relative prevalence. We would group these different lengths into short, medium, amd long. Ringlets that extended any length below the shouders were relatively rare and might be called extended-length ringlets. We do not notiuce any mnjopr chronological trends for these various lengths. There was a age variable in that most really young boys did not have sufficent hair for really long ringlets. We do not notice any particulsr length associated with different styles of garments. We see the same lengths of ringlets wirn with kilkt suits, Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits and other sttles populasr for younger boys.

Placement

Hair Bows

Ringlets curl styles varied in many other ways. Some mothers added hair bows. This was a particularly American touch. As far as we know, these different ringlet styles did not have specific names and thus

Constraints

The primary factors constraning a mothers work on ringlets wrre the amount anf type hair the boy had.

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Created: 6:26 PM 6/6/2010
Last edited: 7:30 AM 9/29/2014