Yes, after a slightly introspective post, we are back to the inane. (As an aside, if you want a deeper, more introspective post regarding returning to "Normal" you just need to click this link.)
So, I called you all here to talk about the exciting topic of eyebrows. Riveting, I know.
Here's the deal, up until December I had never really given any thought to my eyebrows. Other than knowing that I was not a fan of the thick, overly defined, square eyebrows that was a recent fad (I think this fad is over, I hope).
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| This version is not as extreme as some I witnessed. |
Years from now younger women everywhere will cringe at the fact that this particular fad is all over the internet for eternity. Whereas, the ridiculous fads those of us who are older dabbled in as teens will only show up on the internet if we post them. That's one perk for us Gen Xers.
At any rate, back to the eyebrows in question...mine. I have never given mine much thought. I will tweeze them to keep them from becoming quite unruly. But I've never been an over zealous tweezer.
My mother, on the other hand, used to tweeze ALL of her brows, leaving only a "starting point" from which she would then draw on her brows every single day. This practice seemed overtly tedious to me from the time I began to worry about such things. I figured I had brows so there was no reason to pluck them off and start over - besides my drawing skills aren't the best.
As a result, for the majority of my life, when applying my "face" for the day my brows were either ignored or, at most, might get "brushed," if I was feeling extra fancy. Although, in truth...why was that ever a thing? Your brows grow the way they grow. You either tweeze out the unruly ones or not. I might be wrong but it seems brushing them really does nothing for them.
Anyway, sometime back in November or December I was watching an Instagram Live after the fact and the woman doing the Live was answering questions as she waited for whoever to join and someone in the comments said something about how nice her brows looked. And I was like, "Wait...what? She does something with her brows?" Because honestly, I would have never guessed she penciled in her brows.
You should note - this Instagram Live had absolutely NOTHING to do with eyebrows.
So I paused the video and examined her brows closely...as one does. And then I compared a still shot where her brows were NOT done with the shot where they WERE done (yes, I realize after typing that out I sound completely crazy. And you aren't completely wrong.) and there was a difference - it was subtle but it was there.
Shortly after that I began to notice other people talking about eyebrows and hearing at least two people say something along the lines of you don't HAVE to do your brows but they are kinda important and make a difference (neither of these people have the exaggerated brows visualized above).
One day, as I was putting on my make-up, I took a hard look at my eyebrows (because, obsessed much?) and determined they were okay BUT I did notice a few white hairs - which couldn't/shouldn't be removed because of placement - were making my brows look "patchy." (Also, as an aside, white eyebrows and eyelashes? Really? Like dying my hair isn't enough maintenance? Not to mention the blow to my dignity?) I then ordered an eyebrow pencil immediately.
What have I learned from this experiment? Those ladies were right - you don't NEED to do your eyebrows but if you do it you WILL see a difference.
So - have you studiously ignored your brows all these years? Or has this been a thing that I have obviously been oblivious to for all of my make-up wearing life? Dish in the comments.
