I am posting this on behalf of my sister who has this question which is just eating away at her curiosity. Now I already know my answer but this is a poll for guys to see where the general male population stands.
How noticeable are eyebrows to you regarding the fairer sex? How important is it to you that they are well kept? Now, I’m not talking about the middle unibrow portion because admittedly I’d probably notice that, but rather the distinctness of the hairline above and below.
Personally I cannot recall a single time in my life that either I or someone I know has remarked on a particular lady’s eyebrows, either in the positive or the negative, but my sister claims that more people (guys) than I realize are actually conscious of this and may even, in her words, find it “yucky” to see a girl with unevenly grown and/or trimmed eyebrows.
So she gets eyebrows waxed on occasion. Guys, your opinions?
and BTW, how common is this for women to do? Is this part of standard feminine hygiene? Because it sounds pretty wierd to me.
I pluck every couple days, but not obsessively. I think it’s creepy for girls to have over-plucked or under-plucked, but the only other times I notice is when I am comparing them to mine. It’s a delicate science, it should look clean and kept but not overly fake. Kind of like putting on makeup: it should be flawless but natural.
Eh, we try too hard to look beautiful.
I pluck mine every couple of days, and I’ve been complimented on my eyebrows, which must mean that somebody somewhere thought they looked nice. I sure hope they look okay.
Well, speaking as a guy, I’d only really notice if they really brought attention to themselves. Like if the color dramatically clashed with that of the hair directly above.
When the entire brow is shaven, and a single perfect half-circle is drawn above each eye with a thin pencil, I have to snicker. Maybe that’s just me, and I don’t see it much anymore.
When a lady’s eyebrows are seriously remodeled, I wonder where she got the idea to hate the natural ones. I also wonder what other parts of herself she hates. It’s tough to compliment a woman who won’t believe she looks good.
No natural eyebrows, but pencil line “eyebrows” = freakish. There’s a girl at work like this.
No natural eyebrows, but TATTOOED “eyebrows” = even worse! Saw a girl at a store like this once.
I’ve also known a girl who quite obviously didn’t do anything with her eyebrows. And guess what, she STILL looked good! So I’d have to say it doesn’t matter to me at all. Grow 'em, ladies.
Last girl I went out with had a little upcurl at the outside end of her left eyebrow. Kind of distracting, yet exotically attractive at the same time. Didn’t appear she groomed it that way, just a natural design.
But yeah, I notice eyebrows, but they wouldn’t keep me from being attracted to a woman (unless they were like Abe Vigoda eybrows…that’d throw me.)
The only time I notice any eyebrows but my own is when they’re gone, or they’re shaggier than my sideburns.
I don’t think any woman in the world is capable of growing eyebrows that shaggy, so you all have the official Barbarian stamp of approval to leave them alone. Natural is good!
Eyebrows should never be “noticeable.” If they are, you’ve done something wrong. They should just be neat, natural-looking. I remember an elderly cashier at a deli in Baltimore: she shaved her brows and penciled in Jean Harlow ones halfway up her forehead. Then she forgot to keep shaving, so she had four eyebrows. Really freaky-looking.
I’m old enough to have been in on the pencil-thin brow fad of the mid-1970s, but fortunately mine grew back in time for the Groucho-brow look of the early '80s. Now, I just keep 'em “in line,” plucking strays and trimming the really longer hairs. I am very lucky to have well-shaped, dark eyebrows, so I pretty much leave 'em alone.
I hardly ever pluck my eyebrows. Occasionally I’ll pluck some of the suckers at that are trying to create a unibrow and some of the ones that decide to point straight up. I have really dark, really thick hair and my eyebrows are no exception. Most people don’t comment on them at all.
I can recall only two people ever commenting on them.
One was a guy who said : “You have beautiful eyebrows!” He said it so enthusiastically. I was taken by surprise as I had never been complimented on my eyebrows before. The 2nd was a nun (!) who also said I had beautiful eyebrows. I was really taken by surprise with that one. I hardly ever run in to nuns (I don’t go to church) and when I do I certainly never expect them to comment on my eyebrows.
I’ve noticed that if I wear a blond wig (Halloween or whatever) then my eyebrows become my most noticeable facial feature.
Hmmm . . . trim the long hairs. Eve, you are a treasure. I have some kind of odd long ones at the inner border, and if I just pluck them all out, it looks kind of sparse. It never occurred to me to cut them.
Podkayne dashes off to find her husband’s moustache scissors
Pod, dahling—use an eyelash brush (you HAVE an eyelash brush, don’t you?) to brush your brows upward. Holding the brows in place with the brush, trim the ends of the too-long hairs. Brush them downwards and do the same. Better to undertrim than overtrim—you can always go back and touch them up, but growing 'em back takes time!
I usually don’t pay that much attention, but I hate plucked eyebrows! I suppose that a little plucking to clean up the line might be ok, but I can’t stand thinned out and arched eyebrows.
I still remember this woman I saw once in passing long ago who had these beautiful, thick, fat and absolutely straight eyebrows, eyebrows that could have been stolen from an Egyptian frieze (“drawn by Garry Trudeau” might be a more accurate but much less flattering description.) They softened her face and made her eyes even bigger than they were. I know this sounds wierd, but my first thought on seeing her was “God, I hope she never plucks those.”
My mom was known for her beautiful eyebrows. She never plucked them, or used a brow pencil, and they were not even. One arched and the other curved. Mine are real sparse so I rarely pluck, but they’re dark, so I sometimes fill them in with pencil.
Yes yes yes! You said it better than I ever could. When I see obviously overhauled eyebrow, it makes a negative impression on me. I rarely notice eyebrows anyway unless they are over-plucked anyway.
I don’t pluck at all. I got lucky in the eyebrow department. But if I had dark and unruly eyebrows, I’d just pluck the obviously wayward hairs.
I just tried to find an online picture of Brooke Shields to link to, but was hit with a massive barrage of pop-ups, so I gave up…But the point would have been, “Check out these eyebrows!”
Anyhoo, here’s another vote for keep 'em natural. And ladies, as far as I’m concerned, you needn’t shave your legs or your pits either. I like women’s bodies just the way Og made them.
The only time I’ve ever noticed eyebrows are when they are actually pencilled in. Those are strangely disturbing. Otherwise, I would probably never really notice. I’m just not that observant.
I’ve never plucked and doubt that I ever will. My eyebrows are asymmetric, thanks to a childhood scar, but it just adds character - that’s my story! As I’ve said before, I don’t wear makeup, and apart from occasionally using a light auburn dye on my hair, I don’t do much of anything to my person. What you see is all me, for better, for worse, for whatever.