Friday, June 15, 2012

This is clever, right?


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2012


The year was 1999 and I was practically on my knees begging my mother to let me get my eyebrows waxed with my good friend Sarah. Sarah was a year or so older and allowed to do, what seemed like it at the time, everything that I wasn't. And that included, and filled my jealousy bucket to the max, getting her eyebrows waxed. My reluctant mother finally gave in. You've got to pick your battles, right?

We went after school and I had the $20 clutched in my hand. I had a plan to wax my upper lip as well - something I would never reveal to my mother. Sarah and I went to a nail salon in La Jolla. That is where all the mothers went to get their gel nails filled and french manicured. Sarah went first and when she came out of the room her face was bright red - especially so around her eyebrows and, of course, the dreaded upper lip. I began to sweat; rethinking my idea of getting hair ripped out of my face by hot wax and strips of cloth. I manned up and went into the room. Beauty is pain, right?

I emerged 20 minutes later a new woman. My olive skin tone did not allow for redness, my skin was resilient to the loss of several hair follicles. I had come out on top and I felt fabulous. My Asian esthetician with the incredibly soft skin had shaped my eyebrows all on her own - without any help from tools, Anastasia or the English language. I had no clue about shaping or which form best fit my face. I left happy and proud. 13 years later I have the exact same eyebrow shape. And I receive a surprisingly good amount of compliments on my shape and color. Completely unheard of, right?

I have been waxing my eyebrows once a month for 13 years. The estheticians and cities and countries have changed, but my shape has remained the same. I go into every new salon, demanding "JUST a clean up. I want the same shape" from every new "waxing lady" as I call 'em. Each time they comply willingly. Is this uncommon? Am I behind on the waxing or threading times? I think I am. I always hear girls out and about saying "Ugh my eyebrows are driving me crazy. I'm getting them reshaped next week. I'm getting them threaded. It is supposed to be AH-mazing, right?" 

Wrong. 
Threading is awful. Been there done that, right?

Look how eyebrows have changed through the times - from Kahlo's caterpillar-esque look to Stefani's barely-there-with-diamond look. What seems to be unchanged is the fashion world and great beauties of the world's love for thick and bushy brows. From Hepburn in the 50s to Shields and Fox in the 80s and 00s. Thick has always been in!

The twenty-teens are fast approaching and what will the eyebrow heavy weights blow our minds with. Bedazzled eyebrows of course. Thick, colored and bedazzled is the way to go. Just when you donated your bedazzler to the goodwill. Typical, right?

Right.



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