When did we all become obsessed with our eyebrows? I thought about this the other day while looking at myself in the mirror and becoming seriously depressed over the brow situation. And the situation wasn't good. They looked absolutely terrible. No shape, hairs where they shouldn't be, no hair where there should be hair, no color, no gloss and lacking any sense of definition. Which, if you've been paying attention to how eyebrows affect your entire face, resulted in my face looking bleak, blank, drab and dull. I'm sure many of you can relate and understand my pain. Now I'm pretty good at filling in my brows with my handy dandy eyebrow wiz and I pretty much fill in my eyebrows daily, even if I'm not going anywhere. But with it being months since my last eyebrow appointment there comes a time when even the most skillfully practiced hands can no longer hide what lies beneath. Drastic measures had to be made to rescue the brow situation I had before me. So I decided something has to be done because I can't take it anymore and I'm almost at the point of covering the mirrors with black cloth.
But before we get into my brow rescue let's talk about the history of eyebrows. For myself I can't actually remember when I began noticing how important eyebrows are and how eyebrows can change my entire face. When I look at pictures of myself in my early twenties I had full thick dark eyebrows with no alterations, no arching, no dye or tint and no filling in with an eyebrow pencil. Matter of fact I've always loved the look of a full natural looking eyebrow and didn't understand the trend of over-plucked eyebrows. Not to mention when people completely shaved off their eyebrows and then spent, what I can only describe as being painstaking, minutes to pencil in natural-looking brows. To this, I have to shrug my shoulders and ask "why?"
The history of eyebrows goes way back to Ancient Egypt. People have been customizing their eyebrows since the time of Cleopatra. A time when sporting a unibrow was a sign of prestige and if they weren't lucky enough to have a natural unibrow guess what?? Yep, they used black paint to create the unibrow. Imagine that! Since the middle ages women have been plucking and shaving their brows but during that period of time they wanted a unibrow. To each era it's own I guess. During the middle ages women removed their eyebrows altogether to place focus on their foreheads. Oh, and they also removed their eyelashes. Yikes! Then eyebrows came back full circle from the Victorian era where they were kept bushy and in their natural state, then plucked again in the 1920s and then onto the 1980s where the brow was everything. Remember Brooke Shields? The 1990s is the decade where eyebrows were once again over plucked and overarched and we all know someone that is still suffering today due to their over plucking ways. So now moving into 2020 we have moved towards maintaining a full brow, but with a bit of assistance. Scratch that...a LOT of assistance. We use pencils, highlighters, powders, clear gels, tinted gels, dyes, tints and even eyebrow extensions in our pursuit of the perfect bold eyebrow that perfectly frames our faces. I'm not even sure if we are that bothered if it looks natural anymore. We just want glammed out bold fantastic brows!!! We want eyebrows that say "Yes, I have arrived!"
Now, eyebrows are the business! Yes! Entire businesses built and focused on eyebrows. We now go to the salon to have artists create for us perfect eyebrows. They carefully measure from the mid eye and up to the arch, end of eye slant to end of the nose, the edge of the nose up to the eyebrow to create the line where eyebrows should begin and etc.....I'm not sure if I'm exact on what they are measuring I just know they do a lot of measuring. Then with skill and precision begin to create and couture the perfect eyebrow for our faces. Because remember, just like eyebrows aren't twins they are also specific to your face. Then, after all that work to create perfect eyebrows we must not let the artists' work go unchecked. These eyebrows have to be maintained and cared for to remain on point. Eyebrows have definitely become big business.
So back to the eyebrow situation I had going on. Yes, the word is had because I could no longer allow the natural state of my eyebrows to wreak havoc. It was time for me to be proactive in helping them become gorgeous again! Besides, it's my birthday tomorrow and no way was I going to add another year with jacked up eyebrows. So who did I call?? Inga Bailey Brows in Atlanta. When I say she has kept me with perfect brows for many years it is not an exaggeration. Before Inga I'd had my eyebrows done before and tried threading and waxing. Sometimes it worked out and sometimes it was a hot mess that would take months to recover. Then one day someone referred me to Inga. They said she was the best and she is the best. After a visit with Inga I feel like my entire face is transformed. Today's visit I even did a tint and the results are amazing. I really didn't even need a fill. But I still got them filled in because we need the eyebrows to be outstanding. My eyebrows now have life and light making my entire face glow and I feel gorgeous!! I can't stop looking at them. Now I have to admit my eyebrow fill skills haven't quite reached professional level so I love days like today because it's the best they will look until the next visit. But even with my mid-level skills I know tomorrow my eyebrows will still look gorgeous and I won't need those black covers for the mirrors after all.
Go forth and BEAT THOSE BROWS!!!
Take care
Tracy