Who do we blame for the soul patch?
Most narrowly defined, the soul patch is that thicket of hair that sits alone beneath the
lower lip.
It looks like somebody missed a spot shaving for three and a half weeks. How did this happen?
And how did it become the facial hair most likely to be worn by a member of Smashmouth?
You have to go a lot further back than the brooding 90s to find out. You have to go back
to jazz.
As early as 1947, Dizzie Gillespie was one of the first celebrities to shape American
soul patch culture.
He sewed the seeds with his jazz dab, a tiny beard with a moustache that came along for
the ride.
But usually his beard was on its own, and it became world famous.
Because of Dizzy and the general jazz and bebop embrace, beatniks — aka “hipsters”
— copied the beard and quickly picked it up.
“This is gonna start a new trend.”
Though Beatnik beards often had extra hair like Bob Denver on the 60s sitcom Dobie Gillis,
there were soul patches without a chin beard, too.
Even as hippies redefined counterculture hair, soul-influenced artists like Tom Waits kept
beatnik beards alive in the 70s and occasionally went full soul patch.
Equal credit slash blame should also go to the Blues Brothers, whose soul patches were
some of the first to appear in print,
and their iconic SNL performance of “Soul Man” may have helped attach “soul” to
the beard forever.
(Yep, Ray Charles had a famous one too)
In the 90s, soul facial fashion fused with grunge, both in movies with beatnik-style
super patches and examples that were the platonic ideal of patch.
(A patch was even a plot point in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.)
Patches were in the biggest bands too, like Pearl Jam.
In the late 90s, Garth Brooks proved patches had gone from grunge to emo when he gave his
alter ego, Chris Gaines, an ample tuft.
Soul patches weren’t soul music, but soulful. They claimed the faces of even our greatest
heroes.
(It was probably for a role.)
Is there a deeper meaning to be found here?
Trends are always changing.
Soul patches went from the ultracool trademark of a joyful genius to, well, you know.
The moral? Keep your eyes open and - please - have your razor ready.