# eyebrows **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287 "2004-08-04T14:13:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msmojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@msmojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmojo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/1 "2004-08-04T14:13:43Z")
When did women start to shape their eyebrows? I always notice peoples’ eyebrows, so when I’m watching a movie set back any amount of time I am always irked by a flawless face and perfectly shaped eyebrows (by today’s standards). So now I wonder, should I be irked? Or did they actually pluck, shave, draw or whatever way back when? So yes, praytell, around what era were eyebrows considered an integral part of facial fashion? ---
**Author:** ![Achilles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dc4da7/32.png) [@Achilles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achilles)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/2 "2004-08-04T14:24:56Z")
IIRC, the Egyptians were at it c. 2500 BCE. Maybe the Mesopotamians too - judging from the art. So, in short, they’ve been doing it a loooooog time… ---
**Author:** ![msmojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@msmojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmojo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/3 "2004-08-04T14:36:16Z")
> [@Achilles](#): > > IIRC, the Egyptians were at it c. 2500 BCE. Maybe the Mesopotamians too - judging from the art. > > So, in short, they’ve been doing it a loooooog time… Well I guess I’m referring more towards American/European then. I had forgotten about that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Achilles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dc4da7/32.png) [@Achilles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achilles)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/4 "2004-08-04T14:47:29Z")
> [@msmojo](#): > > Well I guess I’m referring more towards American/European then. I had forgotten about that, though. Me too. The Egyptians were conquered by the Greeks, the Greeks by the Romans, the Romans by sundry groups of hairy nomads from parts distant (and not too distant), and so on and so forth… My point is that most of the “modern” make-up shenanigans that ladies carry on with, started with the Egyptians. The bits that didn’t came from the Greeks and the Romans. I assume that the Americans just brought the habits with them from this side of the pond when they went. In short - the Egyptians (at latest) were the “inventors”, of this habit, but we can’t be sure, since the you need evidence in the form of painting, sculpting and such to be sure. Various middle and near eastern civilizations had these art forms - I’m just not familiar with them and what they portray, that is why I’m going with Egyptians. Going out on a (pretty big) limb, I guess that the Egyptians were one of the first European / Mid Eastern civilizations to place women high (priestess /pharaoh) enough to warrant sculpting & painting. In other places, we may only know about it if the men were doing it, since they were the only ones portrayed. But this paragraph is only a guess. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/5 "2004-08-04T15:00:38Z")
Well, I’ll only go back 100 years or so . . . Brows were left pretty natural (unless you had a huge unibrow) before WWI. See the stars of the 1910s—[Theda Bara](http://silentladies.com/PBara1.html) and [Lillian Gish](http://silentladies.com/PGish1.html), for instance. In the 1920s, plucking and lining became very popular: [Clara Bow](http://silentladies.com/PBow5.html), [Pola Negri](http://silentladies.com/PNegri2.html). It reached its height (!) in the '30s, as seen on [Jean Harlow](http://silent-movies.com/Ladies/PHarlow.html) and [Marlene Dietrich](http://silent-movies.com/Ladies/PDietrich1.html). In the '40s and '50s brows were still heavily reshaped, but in a thicker line; then by the 1960s the “natural look” came in again—and I am old enough to remember the pencil-thin look of the 1970s! One of the mistakes they made on _Upstairs Downstairs_ was having actresses in the Edwardian period wearing thin little 1973 eyebrows. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/6 "2004-08-04T15:06:04Z")
I don’t have a cite, but I recall that the wife of one of Massachusetts’ first governors was punished for plucking her eyebrows, as this was a sign of vanity. I’m guessing a brazillian wax job was pretty much completely out of the question. ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eyebrows/258287/7 "2004-08-04T16:20:54Z")
For some information about eyebrow shaping that probably doesn’t owe its origin to the Egyptians, this page [http://www.clotheslinejournal.com/heian.html](http://www.clotheslinejournal.com/heian.html) about Japan’s Heian era (792-1192 CE) says > [@](#): > > [Women] often shaved their eyebrows and either redrew them in a perfect arch high above the natural brow line or gave themselves “thumbprints.” To make “thumbprints,” a woman would dip her thumbs into black make-up, cross them, then press them into the forehead. This left two symmetrical smudges towards the center of the forehead.