Golden Arches
When I was young I used, on occasion, to watch my mother as she leaned in close to the bathroom mirror, tweezers in hand, and pull out individual eyebrow hairs, her skin tugging away from her skull, and I would wince. It looked disgusting, barbaric, painful. She didn't do it often, though, and would have only a few "strays" (as she called them) to handle at any given plucking. My own brows are the same. Every few months, I might notice a tiny hair out of line. Often it is enough to run my finger over it and it will spring back to join the others in their neat row. A few times a year I pull one or two. Maybe twice or three times a year, I brush them upwards and trim the ends. Otherwise, I mostly leave them alone. My sister is fair, and her eyebrows are barely noticeable, let alone pluckworthy. So much so that I've seen them seriously filled in and darkened for some of her portfolio shots.
With this being my experience of eyebrows, I always figured it was only the very hairy who really needed eyebrow maintenance in the form of serious plucking or even the (seemingly) wild extreme of waxing, sugaring or threading. I have a couple of friends who I know get theirs done on occasion, friends with bushier brows who I will suddenly notice look a little more... tidy? Obviously groomed in the eyebrow region? But I figured it was mostly the kind of people that you expect to have more plentiful and darker hair who would be using these services. People of, perhaps, Mediterranean or South Asian or Middle Eastern descent, the Irish known as "Black Irish," certain Slavic peoples. I didn't realize that so many others were being depilated by various methods!
Until (once again, during that notorious road trip - oh, it was interesting!) the MBT girls let me in on the secret that pretty much every one of them gets their brows done in some fashion or another, be it threading or tweezing or waxing. Um, wow. I worry that if I started going at mine, they would just disappear altogether. Truly, I'm still, a month later, amazed at this. So now I wanna know - how many of you have brow groomers? And how many do their own? To what extent? By what method? This is a totally unscientific poll, but I am way curious, so share your maintance log with us, so I can see what's going on out there.
posted by kittenpie @ 10:26 PM
16 Comments:
This is the second post I've read today about this topic. I flatter myself that I have Brooke Shields eyebrows. Luckily, I'm cool with that, so I really only do the kind of tweezing you mention. Not often enough, probably, and some might argue I should take more off. I do think it looks just a tiny bit more...um...polished(?) when I get around to it.
I did question my stance on this subject when one of those celebrity look-alike applications pulled up only men. :)
Without plucking, my eyebrows would look like Bert's from Sesame Street. It's true. Discovering tweezers at 14 gave me two eyebrows for the first time in my life.
I've never had them done by someone else, though - too cheap. And I've read that a thicker, less styled brow is in style for this fall, so yay.
I've had mine waxed a few times ... but I'm not entirely convinced I like that look better. Mine get a bit messy in their natural state, but it's not like I've got a monobrow or anything. I do pluck, though - maybe about seven or eight hairs on each side every two weeks or so?
I am what you would call the "Black Irish" type. Not overtly hairy, but I require maintenance or things could get out of hand.
My eyebrows aren't a unibrow but they are fairly thick. I had them waxed for the first time when I was 21 and was very pleased to see the effect on my face. A subtle arch really does draw more attention to eyes, make them look bigger and gives a touch of length to your face!
Over the years, I have tweezed myself, been waxed, threaded and, most recently, get "sugared". I prefer sugaring above all else; it's like $12 and it doesn't hurt half as much as other methods and I'm good to go for four weeks.
I tweeze a bit. I'm thinking about getting them waxed, just for shaping purposes, but haven't taken the plunge yet. I have super sensitive skin and I don't know that it would agree with wax.
I've had mine waxed before on occasion, and honestly, they do look better. I have a smaller face, and deeper set eyes, so my eyebrows tend to overwhelm them, as they don't really have nice "arches". Having them "done" (five years ago for my wedding, at the behest of my friend who did my makeup) made my eyes look larger, and in my opinion prettier, for the first time in my life.
That said, while I don't harbour any illusions that I'm not vain enough to have them done periodically, the actual getting around to making an appointment always seems to elude me. Thus, I sigh when I look in the mirror, think about how I really should take the time for me and then continue about my day.
My brows used to meet in the middle. I went to an American Middle School with precocious military brats. We were tweezing our brows and shaving our legs in grade six but when I came back to Canada no one was doing this.
I've had my brows waxed twice. The second time my husband made me promise never to do it again. They were like pencil lines. I'm still hoping one day to outsource this grooming if I can find the right person but the girl who did the pencil lines was rated Toronto's best eybrow girl so I am wary.
I said this on the infamous roadtrip and I'll say it again: "Threading is the only way to go for pale girls AND damn you have nice brows - are you sure you don't go to a pro?"
I'm addicted to my threading lady and I'd marry her and my massage therapist if I hadn't met SB.
Tweezing myself - probably a few hairs/brow about twice a week. Never used to, but a friend who is much more into make-up once told me I should get them done. I like how they look tidier, but I've never gone to anybody professional because a) What? Time for me? b)intimidated by salon people, c)don't want to end up looking too 'done' and pencil-line-y.
Then, too, my arms are practically man-hairy, so I'm just glad I'm not fighting a unibrow!
I pluck the strays (and they definitely crop up) but am too cheap to wax/thread.
a bit of tweezing. thats all.
I am the world's hairiest blonde woman. Seriously. However, after assiduously plucking my way (sometimes ... sometimes ... yes, overplucking) through my 20s, I find I really only have to do a wee bit of tweezer-aided maintenance every couple of months. The stragglers are blondish. Oh, and sometimes I trim them a little for length, when I start to look a bit too ... errr, hairy.
My mom overplucked in her 20s, and is almost eyebrow-bald now!
I wish.
I'm like you. I pluck one or two here and there.
But for the most part I actually "accentuate" my brows with a bit of Bobby Brown light brown eyebrow shadow.
I actually recently learned exactly how to do my brows properly by a pro a few weeks ago.
Apparently I had been doing it all wrong.
gasp!
can you imagine? the horror.
You never have to wax or thread??
You barely have to pluck???
You're lucky I love you because I could really hate a person like you.
Oh, and I'm a tweezer/waxer. I'd like to be threaded but I'm too lazy to find someone to do that.
Consider yourself a lucky woman. Unfortunately time can be nasty in this department. As we get older, strange little hairs in odd places start making an appearance. Thank the heavens for tweezers.
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