As with many fashion trends, beauty patches did not go without scorn, satire and even outright banning. The amount of patches worn by some did not go unnoticed by those who opposed the fashion, and was often commented upon in poems, plays and publications such as The Spectator.

English clergymen were often opposed to patching – conversely, others having been noted as wearing them! Some in society felt this vanity, along with the painting of one’s face, was the root of all evil, leading to things like prostitution or plague. Patch fans no doubt simply ignored all such naysayers.

Oliver Cromwell was a spoilsport in general and disapproved of many things – and patching didn’t go unnoticed. He used the power of government to ban the practice, if only for a short time, in England in the mid-1600s. After the Restoration in 1660, patching resumed and flourished.

The region of Zwickau in Germany prohibited patches by law in 1705.