American mothers varied widely on which to do first, cut their boy's hair or buy his first pair of knee pants. The actual occasion when a boy's curls were cut usually brought tears to the eyes of many a doting mother. Long hair and curls for boys was given new impetus by the Fauntleroy craze of the 1880s . Not all American boys, as mentioned above, kept in dresses had long hair. Some had quite boyish short hair.
Long hair appear s to be primarily a custom in urban families.
Rural boys were much less likely to have long hair. Presumably this was primarily because busy farm mothers just did not have time for the involved process of curling their boy's hair. Britain I have less information on Britain. I think hair styles were similar to American styles, but at this time cannot confirm it. France French mothers appear to have been especially prone to have extended the age at which boys continued to be dressed in dresses, especially in the 1870s and even the 1880s.