Years ago, before Brooke Shields made full eyebrows popular, women would tweeze their brows into trim arches and check the mirror regularly for any sign of overgrowth. A fundamental guideline was “tweeze from below the brow.” Plucking from the top of the eyebrow was cautioned against, though I don’t remember anyone explaining why.
I had plucked successfully for a few years, braving my way through the “ouch” as the stray hairs were removed. The result was two neat arches, the left one a mirror image of the right. I was quite good at it.
Then one day for some reason (maybe I’d seen a classic movie where the femme fatale had pencil-thin brows), I decided to tweeze a bit more aggressively. I yanked away the hairs under my neat arches, and then proceeded to remove a few from the top of my left brow. Okay, over to the right. No, that’s not quite right, a little more off the left. I couldn’t get the darn things symmetrical, and the more I tried, the skinnier they got.
At one point, I stood back for a good look and realized that I had two pencil-thin brows just like the old movie starlets, only one was higher than the other. They made me look like I was surprised. Or confused.
In a fit of frustration, I pulled out all the remaining hairs and drew on a pair of reasonable eyebrows. I expected my old brows to grow back. They never did. Oh, I get a few strays here and there, but not enough to form eyebrows, skinny or otherwise. After plucking those few wayward hairs, I look in the mirror at my browless face and think, “Me and Whoopi Goldberg.” Whoopi looks fine with naked brows, though, and I definitely do not. Maybe it’s the skin color.
So I have learned to apply lovely arches with eyebrow brush and powder, not pencil-thin, not Brooke Shields. About what mine used to be, before they went away.
There have been some interesting moments. Sometimes I’ll go out and then catch myself in a store window and realize that I forgot to draw on eyebrows that day. People I know will look at me like something is different about me, but they can’t figure out what. Or I’ll have a hot flash and, patting my face dry, I’ll wipe one brow clean away. I’ve learned to carry eye makeup in my purse for such occasions, and my husband has gotten used to the question, “Do I still have my eyebrows?”
Is removing my eyebrows the stupidest thing I’ve ever done? Maybe not, but certainly it’s a mistake that’s “in my face” every single day.

JoAnne can be reached at JoAnne@hazelst.com