# When did goatees come in style? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354 "2001-10-19T02:35:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/1 "2001-10-19T02:35:39Z")
It seems in the early 80s mustaches were still in vougue. There was a bit of a flirt with the beard (the George Michael Thing) in the mid to late 80s. When and Who popularized the goatee? I noticed mustaches on a couple of guys which is hinting they may be coming back but you rarely see them now. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/2 "2001-10-19T02:38:00Z")
To add I ment the current trend. I realize the goatee has been around for a while. I mean in the 80s it came back. When and Who popularized it this time around? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/3 "2001-10-19T05:47:21Z")
I could be wrong on this but I think it was in the early 90’s when Seatle grunge bands became popular, bringing with them the goatee. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/4 "2001-10-19T07:55:26Z")
In my simple and basic experience with fashion trends, I’ve noticed a cyclical pattern. Goatee’s got popular (again) during the flannel shirt and torn jean days of the early nineties, and faded out of style just as quickly as they came in. Could be that the guys you’ve seen are like me and wear their facial hair as they see fit, regardless of what is “in”. Hey, with that attitude, we’re trendy once about every ten years. Still waiting for the ripped jeans and leather jacket look to come back though. Not to long ago I was the epitome of cool. Recently I was offered food at a bus terminal as I was mistakenly taken for a homeless man. ---
**Author:** ![dead0man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@dead0man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dead0man)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/5 "2001-10-19T08:19:48Z")
Ripped jeans, leather jackets, flannel and goatees AINT IN??? No wonder I get made fun of. I personally dont do the ripped jeans thing, I wear shorts. In Omaha. All winter long. Dead0man ---
**Author:** ![Intrinsic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e9a140/32.png) [@Intrinsic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intrinsic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/6 "2001-10-19T19:22:47Z")
I grew mine around '94. Still have it. You see them everywhere in Boston, mainly on guys 40ish and younger. ---
**Author:** ![TexasSpur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@TexasSpur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexasSpur)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/7 "2001-10-19T19:51:14Z")
Well, I think the Goldberg/Steve Austin look with the shaved heads and goatee (or van dyke) has been picking up steam the last couple of years. It seems like if you start losing the hair on top of your head, you need to compensate with hair on your face. ---
**Author:** ![Demise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@Demise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demise)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/8 "2001-10-19T20:22:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by soulmurk \* > \*\*Goatee’s got popular (again) during the flannel shirt and torn jean days of the early nineties, and faded out of style just as quickly as they came in. \*\* I’m not sure where you live, but here in Austin, TX goatees are extemely common, especially on men in their mid-to-late 20s and 30s. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TexasSpur \* > **It seems like if you start losing the hair on top of your head, you need to compensate with hair on your face.** Maybe, but then again, when I was 17 I had more hair on both my head and my face than I do now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lucie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@lucie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucie)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/9 "2001-10-19T21:53:54Z")
I have pictorial evidence of several guys, including my brother, supporting the early '80’s as a start date for the trend, at least in the L.A. area. I think it took a few years to get all around. Certainly by 1990 nearly every other guy under the age of 40 seemed to be sporting them. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/10 "2001-10-20T00:55:17Z")
If you look at TV and movies into the mid to later 80s men had mustaches only. Or a few took the George Michael beard look. Then around the end of the 80s and beginning 90s you stopped seeing mustaches all together. For the last two or three years I almost never saw just a mustache. Now in the past three months I have seen a few with mustaches only. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/11 "2001-10-20T01:29:35Z")
In my experience, the goatee has always been popular among many high school guys, who really can’t grow much else but still want to sport some kind of facial hair. I know I had one in high school for partially this reason, but mostly because it was a tradition among us track members (of course, the tradition probably started for the reason stated above.) But being in college now I still see a lot of them. Some are just the pure hair on the chin, and others go for the ‘surrond the mouth with hair’ look (referred to as the George Micheal look in previous posts, I believe.) Not a full beard, but including the mustache hair. ---
**Author:** ![Bilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@Bilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bilder)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/12 "2001-10-20T02:08:29Z")
I don’t if “in style” is the correct term. Most of the people with goatees are anything but stylish. I think it came in with that guy on Scooby Doo. The dork. His fans finally got old enough to grow beards (i.e., 30) ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/13 "2001-10-20T02:26:31Z")
Ahem. I do belive that _Satan_ (aka Beelzebub, Lucifer, Lord of Flies) was the very first fellow to make the goatee a fashion must-have for hipsters. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![smaft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@smaft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaft)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/14 "2001-10-20T15:14:39Z")
When I first grew one, I was wearing a black turtleneck and a friend’s first comment- “you’re looking very Mephistopheles today.” Hmm, compliment or complaint? ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/15 "2001-10-20T15:29:08Z")
It seems to me that in about 1986 or 87 there was a minor revival of beatnik style. The early to mid eighties had seen a revival of sixties styles which were played out by 86. At that time, those who wanted to be hip but hadn’t the imagination to develop their own styles began to look toward the roots of the hippie movement. In addition, I think a lot of the old beatniks were doing college speaking/poetry/art tours then. Thus the goatee as part of the stereotypical beatnik ensemble - with bongos, turtlenecks, and berets. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/16 "2001-10-20T17:18:51Z")
On March 25, 1998. Didn’t you folks keep copies of the e-mail? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/17 "2001-10-20T17:51:36Z")
I think, as usual when this comes up in apparently any form, there’s some amount of confusion as to what the beard styles are called. A _goatee_, to be strict about it, is the lower-lip tuft, the Shaggy of **Scooby-Doo** , the Harley of [Boy Meets Boy](http://boymeetsboy.keenspace.com), the beatnik/hipster type of thing. A _Van Dyke_ (named for the painter, not the actor), is the “hair-surrounding-the-mouth” thing, though it’s usually called that only when it’s got the pointed tip at the chin. I do wear a van dyke, without the pointy end. But only because it’s the facial hair style that requires the least maintenance, as well as the only one that doesn’t make me look completely dorky. And I do need a beard…there’s too much facial real estate not to have some landscaping. Besides, I think if I shaved completely, I’d have to hand in my Official Gay Bear Membership Card and try to lead a sad, lonely life as a fat twink. _shudder_ jayjay ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/18 "2001-10-20T18:50:57Z")
What about mutton-chop sideburns? I see a few in my school with them. I see people with worse facial hair than I have going around with Elvis-style burns. I find them about as attractive as those tufts of hair on the sides of an orangutan’s face. I saw an old comic comparing the two styles, and almost spit out my drink as I laughed my guts out… I once saw an old man walking around with his long beard in a braid. He reminded me of something out of a Tolkien novel. It looked weird. Van Dyke facial hair reminds me of the Spanish Inquisition (bet you didn’t expect _that!!!_). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/19 "2001-10-20T19:21:37Z")
I think the goatee is now a regional thing. When I left Denver early this year, goatees were **extremely** common, especially among “outdoorsy” males in their 20s and 30s. Nothing says “Denver guy” like a goatee, chocolate Lab, ten year old SUV, flannel shirt, and cloth baseball cap. Here in Orlando, goatees are quite rare. Mullets, on the other hand … ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-goatees-come-in-style/88354/20 "2001-10-20T19:43:41Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Redukter_ > Van Dyke facial hair reminds me of the Spanish Inquisition (bet you didn’t expect _that!!!_). NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!! 😃