Howie Mandel's soul patch

A soul patch, also known as a mouche,[1] is a single small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin.

Soul patches have been fashionable in Europe at various times in the past, for instance in 17th-century Holland (though the term "soul patch" itself is more recent).[2]

Soul patches came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, as a style of facial hair common among African-American men, most notably jazz musicians. It became popular with beatniks, artists, and those who frequented the jazz scene and moved in literary and artistic circles. Jazz flutists players who disliked the feel of the flute mouthpiece on a freshly shaven lower lip could use a soul patch. On the other hand, jazz trumpeters preferred the goatee for the comfort it provided when using a trumpet mouthpiece.[3]

The soul patch saw reinvigorated recognition in the early 1990s when Luke Perry's Buffy the Vampire Slayer character Oliver Pike wore a soul patch. The soul patch was also briefly referenced in the 1992 book Garden State. Multiple prominent athletes also started donning soul patches, such as Mike Piazza and Apolo Ohno.[4] The facial hairstyle also rose to prominence in the mall goth and nu-metal scenes around the late 1990s to early 2000s.

In Sri Lanka, it is known as Kandy Patch / Kandy Shadow / Kandy Point.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "mouche, n." OED Online June 2003. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 11, 2010: "a small patch of beard shaped and allowed to grow under the lower lip".
  2. ↑ "Soul patch (keyword filter search results)". RKD. RKD. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  3. ↑ Maggin, Donald L.: Dizzy: The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie. HarperCollins, 2005
  4. ↑ "The meaning of the soul patch: a brief history". Trivia Happy. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
Look up soul patch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soul patch.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.