Green’s Dictionary of Slang

repentance curl n.

[? the lock of hair hanging over the heart signified repentance]

(UK society) a woman’s hairstyle, pioneered by the Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra; 1844–1925), in which a single lock of the back–hair was brought forward over the left shoulder and allowed to hang over the left breast .

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[UK] (ref. to 1863) in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.