Goatee - Definition and Overview

A singer with a moustache and a goatee

A goatee is a beard formed by a tuft of hair on the chin, resembling that of a billy goat. The goatee underwent a rennaissance in the 1990s, when a close-cropped variant with an integrated moustache was popularized by the baseball players, athletes and sports heroes of the day.

The related royale (or impériale) is a tuft of hair under the lower lip, and, as such, is not truly a goatee.

Like the beard, the goatee and the royale are most commonly seen in combination with a moustache. However, since the beginning of the 21st Century, this has begun to change and new styles have begun to emerge.

In satirical fiction, the goatee is often a symbol of a character's evil twin. This stems from an episode of the television series Star Trek, in which the character Spock had an evil alternate in a parallel universe who possessed a goatee.

Goatee Styles

• Musketeer - a small, pointed goatee with an English moustache (narrow, prominent), as worn by the French mousquetaires
• Royale - historically, worn by French officers as a badge or adornment of military rank or status. This is sometimes referred to as a "soul patch".
• Van Dyck - a thick goatee and moustache with upturned ends, as worn by the XVIIth Century Flemish painter, Sir Anthony van Dyck. In modern usage, a Van Dyck is often any mustache and goatee combination.

See also

• Facial hair
• Other facial hair styles: Beard, Moustache, Sideburns
• Beards, moustaches and military styles: Military uniforms

External links

• Goatee.org (http://www.goatee.org)