Figure 1.--This brother and sister have different outfits, but wear very similar ringlets with front bangs. Click on a image to see their outfits. More commonly mothers who decided on ringlets for their sons used a different hair style for their daughter. This image is undated. but we would specualte it was taken in the 1910s.

A girl's hairstyle was and continues to be her most important fashion accessory. Massive rows of tightly curled locks have in many ages been highly fashionable for little girls. Never was this fashion so widely esteemed than in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The extension of this fashion to the girl's brothers is a much more unusual fashion. Many Victorian and Edwardian mothers viwed their sons and their hair styles in the same light. For this reason, some boys in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century were done up in the same long ringlet curl styles once worn by their sisters. In most cases, the sisters of boys one up in ringlets often had their hair done differently. Boys at the middle of the 19th Century wore generally short hair. By the end of the century, however, spurred on by the Fauntleroy craze of the 1880s, young boys as well as some older boys of 12 or even 13, were wearing long ringlet curls just like their sisters.

Sister Styles

A girl's hairstyle was and continues to be her most important fashion accessory. Massive rows of tightly curled locks have in many ages been highly fashionable for little girls. Never was this fashion so widely esteemed than in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The extension of this fashion to the girl's brothers is a much more unusual fashion. Many Victorian and Edwardian mothers viwed their sons and their hair styles in the same light. For this reason, some boys in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century were done up in the same long ringlet curl styles once worn by their sisters. One factor here is how stylish ringlets were for girls. We need to assess the chronology of girls' ringlets to speak more authoritatively here, but at least in America ringlets appear to have been more popular for girls in the mid- than the late-19th century.

Gender Styles

Mothers who decided on ringlet curls for their sons then had to decide on how to do their daughter's hair. HBC believes that in most cases, the sisters of boys one up in ringlets often had their hair done differently. There are chronological and country variations here. We note that in mid-19th century America, when ringlets were very popular for girls, even younger brothers still in dresses rarely had ringlerts. There were several options in fact. The sister's hair could be done identically or simarly. Or it could be done differently. Here the mother could chose a different style or different length or both. The possible variatuions give rise to quite a few possibilities. HBC does not fully understand the different approaches of mothers, but we plan to pursue this toopic in more detail.

Country Trends

A HBC reader reports, "I believe you are correct in that American and English boys with curl wore a different hair style than their older sisters. Boys' useally wore ringlets and girls' had a wider range of hair styles. I think that boys' still in dresses, not boy dresses, but regular dresses like their sisters may have worn similar hair styles. If the boy was dressed just like his sister why not the same hair style. In France I think young boys and girls were dressed alike (like girls) including hair styles."

Chronology

HBC has noted that the principal appraoch of mothers seems to have been to do their sons' and daughter's hair differently. This is the case of many of tyhe 19th century images we have seen. After the turn of the century when fewer boys had their hair done in ringlets, we seem to notice more brothers and sisters with identical ringlets. We are not positive about this, but at first look it does appear to be the case. It may be that the mothers who continued to do their son's hair in ringlets as the fashion became less common wre so taken by the style that that were more likely to use it for both sons and daughters.

Created: November 18, 2001
Last edited: November 26, 2001