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We do not have much information on gurls' ringlet curls during the 19th century yet. Ringlet curls were extremely popular for women and girls in the early 19th Century. This is confirmed by both fashion magazines and artwork. Our general assessment is that they were very common among girls and young women during the early and mid-19th century, but became less common after the 1860s as the style was used for boys. The style never disappeared for girls, but by the late 19th century we tend to see more boys with ringles than girls. The shift seems to have begun in the 1870s, but this may in part be a reflection of the inccreasing number of photographic images. Many mothers who styled their sons' hair in ringlets did not want to do the same for their daughters. Some did, but this appears to have been the minority approach. We are still collecting information on this, but this seems to be the general case.
Ringlet curls were extremely popular for women and girls in the early 19th Century. This is confirmed by both fashion magazines and artwork. A 1813 fashion magazine reports, "The Hair, both in the morning and evening party, is of entire fanciful composition; in some of our elegantes, it is yet seen in the style of the Kneller and Lely beauties;
but many chuse it, particularly for the morning walk, in natural curls round the neck, or a stray ringlet over the left shoulder. The ridicule has at length resumed its sway; but the demi botte is evidently declining." The style was not allways a full set of ringlets, sometimes small numbers of ringlets were mixed with other styles. Paintings from the early 19th Century commonly show girls in ringlet curls. A typical painting of the era such as a 1830s might show a young girl and her sister, both in profile, the girl with three large ringlet curls to the side of her face and two to her neck, a simple necklace and a 1830's large puffed gigot sleeve dress with frill to the low neckline; her older sister with elaborate ringlets round hair piled high, and more ringlets framing her face and neck, similar necklace, large drop earing, similar dress without the frill, larger puffed sleeves. While paintings of girls in ringlets are common
place, I have little information on boys wearing ringlets during this period. Also there is little or no mention of ringlet curls in the for boys in contemporary fashion magazines.
We have noted girls commonly wearing ringlets at mid-century thoughg the Civil War era of the 1860s. The Daguerreotypes are a little diffuicult to date so we are not always sure about the differences between the 1840s and 50s, but the 1869s CDVs are very destinctive. We see many girls wearing ringlets, but they are generally ringlets falling only at about chin level or short of the shoulders. Less commonly do we see the ringlets actually touching the shoulders although this seems more common during the 60s. Ringlets seem more popular for girls thn boys and were just worn by younger boys. The trends seem fairly similar through the 1840s-60s, but we have just begun to a study the period and a fuller understanding will develop as our archive grows. There is a defenite shif\t in fashions during the 1860s. We see nmore boys wearing suits than was the case in the 1840s and 50s. We also see a trend for shorter hair. We do not botice any major shioft in the popularity anhdf styling of ringlets. There seems to have a change which began in the 1870s. We do not see a major shift until the 1870s. We know most about the 1860s because that is the first decade with large numbers of photographic images which occurred because of the appearance of the inexpensive, popular CDV format.
We have more information about the late 19th century. A HBC reader reports, "I have looked at a lot of images of girls the last few days and I will be darned if I can find a single image of a girl with ringlets. I am beginning to believe that ringlet hairdos in the 1880s-1900s were probably worn by boys. Girls seem to have a wide variety of hair styles, e. g., long loose curls with hair bows, hair pulled back behind their heads and tied with a large ribbons, hair pulled back close to the head so they almost look like they have short hair, and finally very long straight or naturally curly hair." HBC has noted girls with ringlet curls in the late 19th cenbtury, but they are not as common as we initially expected. We believe a primary factor is thatt many mothers were doing their sons' hair in ringlets and did not want to use the same style for their daughters.
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