The first time I got my eyebrows waxed I was a junior in high school. I’ve never been too terribly attentive to beauty things like that and based on the way the rest of my awkward teenage years played out, it made sense that I was pretty late to the game on eyebrow grooming. I only got it done because I was with my mom at a salon and the lady cutting my hair offered. My mom basically said “why not” and I agreed.
The whole thing took about 10 minutes and I left that salon feeling like a new woman. I wish I was kidding. The shape of my eyebrows changed the way my face looked and I thought it was cool. But that’s only one of two times I’ve ever gotten my eyebrows waxed. I loved it, but I quickly decided it wasn’t worth it.
If you’ve never done it, you’re more than likely not a woman. Honestly, I don’t know that I’ve ever talked with a woman who hasn’t had her eyebrows professionally shaped at least once. Somewhere along the lines of history it became a very normal thing to change the shape of your natural eyebrows. It’s so much of a thing that it’s unusual to admit to not doing it.
Some women go so far as to shave or wax off their entire actual eyebrows just to draw new ones on with a pencil. I remember clearly the first time I ever realized this phenomenon existed. It was in the Easley Walmart. Again, I wish I was kidding. We ran into an older family member I didn’t know well. I was 7 or 8 and very confused about why her eyebrows looked like the kind I’d seen on the cartoon stars of my favorite tv shows.
Look I’m not against eyebrow waxing. To each her own. I remember how great it felt to see my eyebrows made into that nice thin curve that somehow made my face look softer and more womanly. I get it, kind of. I’m not even above the occasional tweezing of an unruly brow hair. I’m just wondering where we draw the line (no pun intended… really). Why is it such a thing? Are women afraid to stop? Does everybody just need a reminder that not all the eyebrows are terrible and need to be changed? With all the other things we do to make ourselves look prettier, all the other hair we pluck and shave and wax and bleach can we just cut some slack on the little guys resting on our brow bones? Maybe let them get their Brooke Shields on from time to time. For god’s sake, that’s got to look better than actually drawing a line across your face.
Elizabeth LaFleur 