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Coined in the mid-19^th century, the noun kiss-me-quick designated a small bonnet standing far back on the head, which was then fashionable.—Cf. ‘kiss-me-quick’ (bonnet): meaning and origin.

But this noun also designated a circular curl of hair (sometimes artificial), usually pressed flat against the temple or forehead.—Synonyms: kiss-curl and beau-catcher.

The noun kiss-me-quick was also used attributively—as in, for example, “a jaunty little kiss-me-quick curl” in quotation 2 below.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences that I have found of the noun kiss-me-quick used in the sense of a curl of hair:

1-: From a letter to the Editor, by ‘A Bachelor’, published in the Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland) of Monday 8^th November 1858 [page 3, column 1]:

Sir,—The trumpet is summoning the hosts, not to battle, but to dinner, to celebrate the centenary of the Poet’s ¹ birth! […] Every phase of society will cast in representative proxies, from the Cottager to the Peer! […] One thing lacks—what is to become of Mary? Are the lords of creation to eat their “haggis,” and chatter over their “sheep’s head and trotters,” and “ring their Dumbarton bells,” without admitting to their table or their glee their better-halves, or the eclat of beauty? Où est-allée mademoiselle votre sœur? The warblers of the hearth who first captivated you with the ballads of the Ayrshire ploughboy—who are even now serenading you to Hymen’s Altar by the charms of the affectionate exciseman—who, on the Anniversary of St Valentine, throw their caps at you with acrostics from the pen of your hero—shall they be absent? Sir, this anomaly must be removed, doubt and uncertainty on this gallant point must be cleared away. Two days’ notice won’t do to doff the crinoline and substitute the wincey. The toilet of 1858 won’t do for reviving the days of 1758, when at the Court of George the Second, “Come kiss me quick” was represented by the neat curl upon the temple!

¹ This refers to the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796).

2-: From the second edition of A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words: Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James (London: John Camden Hotten, 1860), by the British publisher and lexicographer John Camden Hotten (1832-1873) [page 103]:

BOW-CATCHERS, or KISS-CURLS, small curls twisted on the cheeks or temples of young—and often old—girls, adhering to the face as if gummed or pasted. Evidently a corruption of BEAU-CATCHERS. […]
[…]
When men twist the hair on each side of their faces into ropes they are sometimes called BELL-ROPES, as being wherewith to draw the belles. Whether BELL-ROPES or BOW-CATCHERS, it is singular they should form part of the prisoner’s paraphernalia, and that a jaunty little kiss-me-quick curl should, of all things in the world, ornament a gaol dock; yet such was formerly the case. Hunt, the murderer of Weare, on his trial, we are informed by the Athenæum, appeared at the bar with a highly pomatumed love-lock sticking tight to his forehead. Young ladies, think of this!

3-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Odds and Ends, published in The Banffshire Journal, and General Advertiser for the Counties of Banff, Aberdeen, Moray, Nairn, and Inverness (Banff, Banffshire, Scotland) of Tuesday 20^th October 1863 [page 8, column 6]:

The Latest Freak of Fashion.—M. H. Pene, in his ‘chronique’ in the France, announces that among the fashions to be adopted by the fair sex in Paris during the coming season is that of feminine whiskers! The little tuft, says the writer, which starts from the root of the hair at the side, and which formerly formed the little curl known as an accroche-cœur ² (or, more popularly, ‘a kiss-me-quick’), is now to fall straight down the cheek in a thick mass.

² The French noun accroche-cœur translates literally as heart-catcher.

4-: From a transcript of the lecture on the Irish author Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) that Mr. J. Tell Topham delivered at the Literary Institution, Weymouth, on Wednesday 2^nd March 1864—transcript published in The Western Flying Post, Sherborne and Dorset Mercury, Yeovil and Somerset Times (Yeovil, Somerset, England) of Tuesday 8^th March 1864 [page 2, column 3]:

Now-a-days there were adding to their vocabulary new words which even Dr. Johnson ³, if he could revisit his loved Fleet-street, would have some difficulty in comprehending their meaning. Many of these words were exclusively under the patronage of the rising generation. No one until within late years ever heard of a lady dressing “loud.” In former times people did not “come to grief” as quickly as they did now, neither did one person “take the shine” out of one another as in modern times. Who could have ever thought that a neat coquettish covering for the head should called a “pork pie;” or that a curl of small dimensions, and of stiff appearance, should be known by the really alarming title of “kiss-me-quick.”

³ This refers to the English author Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).

5-: From The Newest Things in the Shops. Dress and Fashion, Personal Adornments, and Domestic Inventions, published in The Queen, The Lady’s Newspaper & Court Chronicle (London, England) of Saturday 29^th July 1865 [page 77, column 2]:

Gold and silver cord twisted in the hair is one of the latest fashions; it is of the thickness of a rope, and the effect, especially in dark-coloured hair, is exceedingly pretty. […]
Another pretty style of headdress was quite that of the pictures in the “Annuals” of a bygone day. The hair was parted on the forehead, brushed smoothly back, and arranged in one French curl on each side, just above the ear, made more becoming, however, by the addition of one or two of the little “kiss-me-quick” curls. The parting at the side was very forward, and the hair behind arranged in a plaited flat knot. A gold-and-pearl comb occupied the centre, and a gold band was twice twisted round the head. A pair of very long antique gold earrings were appropriated to accompany the toilette.