Since we are "behind" the girls in this picture, we can see the 1905 world they viewed with their eyes.

I can think of a couple of possible explanations besides lice, though that might be it, too. One is that it was also done when someone had an illness that involved a high fever, in hopes it would help the heat escape. The other is that there was actually a late-Victorian-through-early 20th-century trend to dress little boys in girls' clothes for some odd reason. I don't have access to it myself right now in order to post, but there is a photo of my grandfather( born around the end of WWI, if I remember right, though in a very remote rural part of Kentucky)at around age 5 or so, wearing a little lacy frock very like the above child. He used to get rather tightlipped and try to claim it was his brother and not him in the pic, but it was apparently marked on the back by his mom.

I think the girls in the foreground are black, with naturally frizzy hair that doesn't lend itself to long tresses. Pixy's hair appears to be pulled back in a rough ponytail that's pointed straight at the camera.

I love the little girl on the left who is about to throw the contents of her bucket at someone--so long ago.

Do you think the little girl with the pixie cut had her hair cut because of lice? I can't think of any other reason she would have short hair.