Hair on Men in the 1840s
Hairstyles come in such a bewildering variety, that we are going to look at styles one decade at a time, and have separate posts on men and women. That gives us subjects for 22 posts to cover 1839-1949 (we include 1839 with the 1840s since it was photography’s first year), so we won’t do them all consecutively, but will look at other subjects in-between.
This post covers 1839-49, the earliest years of photography. In her book, Dressed for the Photographer Severa has this to say about men’s hair styles for that period (I paraphrase:) at the end of the 1830s a soft fringe of hair around the face was replaced by ear-length styles parted high on one side. Clean-shaven styles prevailed, though a short fring beard from the sideburns to beneath the chin was sometimes seen. Mustaches did not become popular until 1848, when long thick mustaches turned down at the ends were fashionable among younger men. In 1849-50 a common style was a high oiled wave at the forehead, combed toward the face and trimmed straight up the sides forming a vertical fringe at the temples.
By ’soft fringe’ I think she means the style of hair with the under-chin beard she mentions later, plus sideburns. If that was the predominant style in the 1830s, it continues well into the 1840s, but only among a minority of men. The oiled-wave style she describes at the end of this period was not clearly evident in our sample of images. Several elements of hair style for men seemed to have been left to personal choice, rather than dictated by fashion, while others were highly influenced by the character of the hair available.