Author Topic: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?  (Read 7596 times)

Offline Brittaya

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Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« on: Wednesday 04 June 14 19:32 BST (UK) »
I hope this is the right place for this.

I'm in a group for postmortem photographs. Often a person will post a photo of an infant or toddler who appears to be deceased and everyone automatically assumes it is a girl because the child is wearing a dress. I finally got tired of this and asked someone what made them think the child was female and they had no answer. Anyway another poster commented that you can supposedly tell the child's gender by the part in their hair. I had never heard of this before so I tried some google searches. I haven't been able to come up with anything conclusive. There was one website that claimed boys hair was parted on the side, but there was no citation or sources. And  looking at my own little collection of Victorian & Edwardian photos of children whose gender is known to me, I wasn't able to prove this to be true. I do know that it was somewhat popular for girls to have a middle part as Queen Victoria did, but I'm not sure I would conclusively guess that every child with a middle part is female based on that alone. So I'm looking to you lovely people, what is your experience with this? Is there any truth to this? 

Thanks for weighing in,
-Brittaya
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Offline Craclyn

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 04 June 14 20:08 BST (UK) »
When I was growing up we were told that boys had their parting on the left and girls on the right. It annoyed some of the older women in my family that my parting fell more naturally on the left as I am female.
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Offline Treetotal

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 04 June 14 20:11 BST (UK) »
Hi....It is a commonly held belief that infant boys have brows but girls don't...not sure how scientific this is though.
Carol
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Offline Brittaya

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 04 June 14 20:19 BST (UK) »
Thank you for your replies!

Hmm interesting. Brows as in eyebrows? I'm rechecking the photos I have and it appears both the boys and girls have very light eyebrows, these ones specifically are related to one another so I'm wondering if it's simply a genetic trait to have light coloured eyebrows? I had not heard that boys parted on one side and girls on the other, very interesting. Though most of the photos I am looking at the baby/toddler has no part at all, the hair is simply brushed forward. And the older children seem to have their hair all parted on the same side (the left) boys and girls alike. Though one of the teenage boys has a middle part..

-Britt
Black - Aberdeen
Milton - Aberdeen
Houston - Canada, Ireland, Scotland
Joslyn - Canada, England
Ross - Scotland, Ireland


Offline Treetotal

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 04 June 14 20:52 BST (UK) »
I should have said that baby boys have prominent brows whereas girls don't .
Carol
CAPES Hull. KIRK  Leeds, Hull. JONES  Wales,  Lancashire. CARROLL Ireland, Lancashire, U.S.A. BROUGHTON Leicester, Goole, Hull BORRILL  Lincolnshire, Durham, Hull. GROOM  Wishbech, Hull. ANTHONY St. John's Nfld. BUCKNALL Lincolnshire, Hull. BUTT Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. PARSONS  Western Bay, Newfoundland. MONAGHAN  Ireland, U.S.A. PERRY Cheshire, Liverpool.
 
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Offline LizzieW

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 04 June 14 23:59 BST (UK) »
Attached is a photo of my dad and his twin sister aged about 9 months I guess (they were, of course, alive at the time).  They've both got their hair parted on the same side and both wearing dresses but I'm sure you can tell which is my dad and which my aunt.

Offline trystan

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 05 June 14 00:15 BST (UK) »
Your Dad was on the left? (ooh - I don't know now)

(I bet he loved that photo :) )

Trystan
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Offline LizzieW

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 05 June 14 00:23 BST (UK) »
Trystan - He's the blondish one on the right as you look at the photo. ;D  He ended up with hair as black as his sister though.

Offline LizzieW

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Re: Can You Tell if a Baby/Toddler is a Boy Based On Hairstyle?
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 05 June 14 00:25 BST (UK) »
I don't know what he thought of the photo, I only came across it after his death well after my mother's death, 4 years after his.  The original is in a bad state and I posted it on here for it to be restored, to what you see now.