Figure 1.--This English boy was playing in the backyard (backgarden) of his home. The image is undated, but we would guess about 1905. He looks to be about 6 years old. He has been breached, but his mother was not about to cut his curls yet. His curls were done with a very sharp center part. Notice how his mother has formed small curls on both side of the center part. Click on the image for a fuller discussion of this portarit. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

The center part is clearly a dominate feature in hair styles with ringlet curls. Some images are not clear enough to tell. But many images show a center part beginning at the forehead with out any fringe or bangs. Both girls and boys wearing ringlet curls commonly had this center part. The center part in the nid-19th Century was a style primarily for girls as boys did not commonly wear long hair. While it was mostly worn by girls. Little boys still in dresses and curls might have center parts like their sisters. This began to change in the latter half of the 19th Century. The style was gradually being adopted by boys and young men. I do not recall seeing boys in the first half of the 19th Century wearing center hair parts, although girls and women often did. This changed in the 1880s when boys with ringlet curls were given center parts. The center part was convenient for mothers of boys whose hair was done in ringlet curls. Center parts were not generally worn by men. After the turn of the century men did wear center parts. This was, however, rather unusual in the 19th Century. Comparing boys' and girls' center parts, those of the girls appear ti have been more severe. This may have been due to the need to pull the hair down to the sides in order to curl it or otherwise style it. The boys hair, on the other hand just needed to be curled. The center part of boys in ringlets is mich like that of girls, rather than the center parts of boys wearing short hair.

Created: March 7, 2003
Last edited: March 7, 2003