To avoid some of that lower lip sensitivity to blackwood, I thought I’d try and start one of those lower lip brushes, just for experiment’s sake.
Since I was doing that, I figured I may as well go ahead and start a mustache…of sorts.
As it turns out, the lower lip brush increases the irritation, and even leaves beaded moisture on the wood. So it has to go.
I’m getting kind of attached to the upper lip brush though. Can anyone out there with a mustache offer an opinion on how or if the sound may be affected?
Ahem, well, it may seem that an upper brush could get in the way of things, but surprisingly, it doesn’t really seem to, or it does quite less than may seem intuitive. However, by being in the airstream, it does collect moisture, as condensation, and so, after some playing, it could, um, drip.
Well, I agree, but I put that effect into a category even less than that of hiss, that it may be more noticable to the player than to anybody at a distance, and I believe it doesn’t materially detract from sound projection. Of course, that is only my perception, and here I am willing to accept that somebody else’s mileage could well vary.
I gave up on flute to stick with whistles. BUT, I happen to have a big curly handlebar moustache. The only problem I have is when a defiant hair breaks out of the wax and ends up in my mouth. As long as you keep it trimmed I don’t see it affecting your playing any.
No problem whatsoever with the flute - full mustache and goatee. BUT when I play the chromatic harmonica a hair will occasionally get caught in the slide bar when released and OUCH, there goes the tune and the stray.
The list of great players with facial hair is pretty long, from Malloy to Galway, to Joe Burke, to Ian Anderson, to me… oh. Well, I’m a player anyway, and I have a full beard.
Far as I can tell, the mustache doesn’t grow on my actual lip. I have to trim it occasionally for other reasons. Bad for soup, for example. Moisture from playing has yet to creep upwards into the mustache, but I do think that if you’re having an allergy reaction below your lip, hair will keep the moisture - with the allergen/oils - trapped there longer, unless you have an unusually thick beard that repels moisture.
Ultimately, the problem you’re having will happen with or without facial hair, so I think you need to do something with your flute – a silver plate, or any of the myriad other suggestions found on this forum in earlier allergy-related threads.
Oh – BTW – beards in their early incarnation tend to itch a bit anyway, having nothing to do with allergies. The itchiness passes quickly, after the hair softens and your skin gets used to it. Make sure this is not what’s happening before you shave, if you happen to like yourself in a beard.
Actually, this is the first time I have even considered the issue of hair affecting the air stream. I guess it depends on the materials used in making a flute.
I “wood” guess that static electricity would play a role if the flute is synthetic.
I just don’t understand mustaches. In my (female) opinion you go all the way or you don’t get started at all.
I like beards. I can’t see how on earth you can play a flute with one, but it’s not a problem I have had to face. So far the mustache isn’t too much of an issue for me
One doesn’t actually play the flute with a beard. You just can’t see the upper lip, so it looks as though the beard is playing, but it’s not. But I can understand your confusion.
if you didn’t mention this i would have. i have a honher golden melody diatonic that is the best at snagging a mustache hair between the silver reed cover and the red hole part of the harmonica. all my other harmonicas are ok.
