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Of American-English origin, the dated noun beau-catcher (plural beau-catchers) designates a circular curl of hair (sometimes artificial), usually pressed flat against the temple or forehead.
The following definition of the noun beau-catcher is from Passing English of the Victorian Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang, and Phrase (London: George Routledge & Sons, Limited, [1909]), by the British author James Redding Ware (1832 – circa 1909) [page 23, column 2]:
A flat hook-shaped curl, after the Spanish manner, gummed on each temple, and made of the short temple hair, spelt sometimes bow-catcher. It is synonymous with ‘Kiss curl’. Now obsolete on this side of the Pyrenees.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun beau-catcher that I have found:
1-: From the Franklin Herald (Greenfield, Massachusetts, USA) of Tuesday 31st October 1815 [page 1, columns 1 & 2]:
From the Dutchess Observer.
EXTRACTS FROM JONATHAN’S MEMORANDUM OF A TOUR TO SEE YORK STATE.[…] Ladies wear their hair comb’d t’other way, all on the top of their head, braided and twisted and squirmed round and round, like I’ve seen sister Molly wind up a bed cord to boil in a kittle to kill the bugs; wonder what they call it—wouldn’t Cupid’s nest be a good name? (Mem To ask cousin Ichabod when I get home)—curl their foretops over their eyes—call it a beau catcher—take a good many to catch me, I guess; look like a spaniel. […] Don’t know whether I’d better get Molly one of the tip up bonnets or not; guess our folks would make a rumpus if they should see her get it on, with her hair combed t’other way into Cupid’s nests, and beau catchers, with cossetts [sic] and short petticoats, faith.
2-: From the following advertisement, published in the Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Wednesday 21st February 1816 [page 3, column 4]:
JOHN SCOTTI, from Philadelphia,
RESPECTFULLY informs the ladies and gentlemen of this town 1 and Washington, that […] he has now with him, at the house of Mr Joncherez, […] the most fashionable ornaments for the hair, large gilt clasps for Redicules 2, hair bands, and all sorts of wigs—net for the hair, kill beaus, heart breakers, beau catchers, frizettes 3—and for the growth of hair and for the promoting the growth of whiskers!
1 This refers to Georgetown, District of Columbia, USA.
2 The noun redicule is a variant of reticule, designating a woman’s small handbag.
3 The noun frizette is a variant of frisette, designating a band or cluster of small curls, usually artificial, worn on the forehead.
3-: From the following advertisement, published in the Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Friday 29th November 1816 [page 3, column 5]:
JOHN SCOTTI
HAS the pleasure of tendering his best compliments again to the Gentlemen and Ladies of Georgetown and Washington […]. He has as usual a small assortment of Ladies Wigs, Frizettes, Kill Beaus, Heart Breakers, Beau Catchers, and a variety of other powerful instruments of love, among which are some handsome Scalps.
4-: From Guess Work, by ‘Old Bachelor’, published in Spooner’s Vermont Journal (Windsor, Vermont, USA) of Monday 22nd December 1817 [page 4, column 1]:
When I see a girl stand one fourth of her time at the glass, twisting her hair into rings, which they term ‘beau-catchers,’ I guess the beau she catches will find himself caught in an evil net.
5-: From The Adams Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA) of Wednesday 22nd July 1818 [page 4, column 5]:
DANGEROUS WEAPONS.
J. Scotti, perfumer and haircutter, advertises the belles and beaus of Philadelphia, that
“A beautiful assortment of Hair Nets, and all kinds of Hair Work, is open for sale wholesale and retail. Titus Wigs for ladies and gentlemen; Caracala Wigs for do. do.; Ninon Wigs do. do.; Grecque Wigs do. do.; Toupee for gentlemen, after nature; hair bands; frizzetts of every description, both French and English; Alexandrian curls; Dove’s Nests; Beau Catchers; Heart-Breakers; Kill Beaus; Cacheping, &c.”
As it is well known to be an offence against law to ride or go armed with scythes, firelocks, or other dangerous weapons, it cannot be doubted that the vigilant police officers of that city will arrest and take into custody all who have so little of the fear of man before their eyes, and whose hearts are so fatally bent on mischief, as to arm themselves with Heart-Breakers and Kill-Beaus. What is the wound from a scythe or a scimitar compared with a contusion of these heart-renders! The first is a mere flesh wound and yields to the skill of the surgeon; the other is mortal and “past surgery.” A just regard to the safety of the lords of the creation, therefore, requires that all amazons who roam abrood [sic], accoutered with these irresistible weapons, should be put under bonds to be of good behaviour and to keep the peace; perhaps it would be a sufficient precaution to put them under the bonds of matrimony, provided they find good bondsmen.
Mr. Scotti probably took the hint of equipping the ladies with this formidable armament of Heart-Breakers and Kill-Beaus, from the Rape of the Lock 4—
“Slight lines of hair surprize the finny prey,
Fair tresses man’s imperial race ensnare,
And Beauty draws us with a single hair.”
4 This refers to The Rape of the Lock (1714), by the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744).
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