# Women who pluck their eyebrows out, then paint them back on **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310 "2005-02-04T03:16:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/1 "2005-02-04T03:16:16Z")
It does not make you look glamourous, or beautiful, it just makes you look really weird. I am somewhat excusing those with compulsive mental conditions which cause this (get help). WHAT THE HELL? No, really. What’s up with that? This is as bad if not worse than the extreme male combover, and even more puzzling to me. These women would be better off if they simply lived without eyebrows. I have no issues with minor tweaking. I do it myself. If I did not, I would have one huge Don Imus style eyebrow going from one side of my head to another, but it would still look better than an ink drawing above my eyes. I ask this because I have a good friend who does this. I find myself looking at it when I talk to her, but say nothing to her about it. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/2 "2005-02-04T03:29:31Z")
Painted on lines don’t stick out. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/3 "2005-02-04T03:31:21Z")
Ugh, my mother does this. I haven’t had the guts to tell her to let her own grow out, because I’m sure she’d be deeply hurt. So now I’m just going to have to put up with looking at her orange eyebrows. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/4 "2005-02-04T03:32:50Z")
[Didn’t we just do this?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=294282) ---
**Author:** ![sweetfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@sweetfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetfreak)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/5 "2005-02-04T03:33:13Z")
> [@Road Rash](#): > > It does not make you look glamourous, or beautiful, it just makes you look really weird. I am somewhat excusing those with compulsive mental conditions which cause this (get help). > > WHAT THE HELL? No, really. What’s up with that? Yeah, and eyebrows are useful. They are the only place on your face where the zits are apparent. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![wheelie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b4bc9f/32.png) [@wheelie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheelie)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/6 "2005-02-04T03:42:24Z")
When I was in college I delivered auto parts for a car dealership which bought a lot of parts from a Motorcraft distributor, and one of the ladies that worked the wholesale counter had absolutely no eyebrows left. The really freaky thing was that the painted in replica eyebrows were, on average, an **inch and a half** from where they shoud be! :eek: After the first few times I went there, it was no big deal, she actually was really a nice old lady, but _DAMN_! ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/7 "2005-02-04T03:45:06Z")
Deja vu… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/8 "2005-02-04T04:01:45Z")
I read somewhere that when you see little old ladies with drawn-in eyebrows, it may be because they plucked their eyebrows so long that they stopped growing in altogether. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/9 "2005-02-04T04:04:54Z")
And why do so many of them draw in eyebrows that look like Mr. Spock’s hairdresser did them? I got on the bus once and sat down by an elderly woman who, and I’m not exaggerating in the least, had drawn in the arch of her eyebrow a good three inches over her eye. It almost met her hairline! I had to fight the urge to turn to **supervenusfreak** and say, “Divine at 80”… ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/10 "2005-02-04T04:46:13Z")
I thought little old ladies drew in their eyebrows because Lucile Ball and other ladies of that time period did the same? There was a very old woman that used to come to my church who would draw on her eyebrows… with lip liner. Pink lip liner. I never had the heart to tell her. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/11 "2005-02-04T05:02:49Z")
> [@sweetfreak](#): > > Yeah, and eyebrows are useful. They are the only place on your face where the zits are apparent. 😛 Actually, eyebrows serve the very utilitarian purpose of directing water falling down your forehead out of the path of your eyes. If you want to see some _really_ freaky painted-on eyebrows, check out Mieko Harada in Kurosawa’s [Ran](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/). If that doesn’t scare you off of the concept, nothing will. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/12 "2005-02-04T05:23:00Z")
I have a friend who plucks all but one hair width of her eyebrows so she just has a single hair at any point on her brows. You can’t see them and she looks like a guinea pig. It totally robs her face of any expression. I asked her once why she did it (we were on the subject) and she said it was because she didn’t like thick eyebrows. Well, come on… there’s a a whole array of choices between Groucho brows and none. She doesn’t paint fake eyebrows on, she just looks like she doesn’t have any. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/13 "2005-02-04T05:24:34Z")
> [@SP2263](#): > > I have a friend who plucks all but one hair width of her eyebrows so she just has a single hair at any point on her brows. You can’t see them and she looks like a guinea pig. It totally robs her face of any expression. I asked her once why she did it (we were on the subject) and she said it was because she didn’t like thick eyebrows. Well, come on… there’s a a whole array of choices between Groucho brows and none. > > She doesn’t paint fake eyebrows on, she just looks like she doesn’t have any. Heh. I went without eyebrows for a while one time. Of course, my “look” came of an ill-advised attempt to light my cigarette on the stove’s gas burner… ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/14 "2005-02-04T05:29:49Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > If you want to see some _really_ freaky painted-on eyebrows, check out Mieko Harada in Kurosawa’s [Ran](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/) The eyebrows don’t bother me too much. It’s the tooth-blackening that freaks me out with traditional Japanese makeup. From this [page](http://www.clotheslinejournal.com/heian.html) > [@](#): > > Women’s make-up [during the Heian era of Japan (792-1192 CE)] was also quite involved. Faces were whitened with heavy rice powder. They 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…Women also blackened their teeth, top and bottom. It was thought that the whiteness of the teeth was too reminiscent of the little white tiles used to venerate ancestors. It was not until the 20th century that a Japanese woman of rank appeared with her natural face and tooth color in public. ---
**Author:** ![LissyLou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5daacb/32.png) [@LissyLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LissyLou)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/15 "2005-02-04T06:21:11Z")
I have to diagree slightly. I’ve come across women who have naturally dark hair and naturally barely discernable eyebrows. It looks creepy, and they’d look better if they painted some on. Not thin line ones, though. My friend’s sister-in-law is the worst example. Natural jet black hair, pasty white skin, and eyebrows(unplucked) that disappear from 3 feet away. Also, did anyone see Blade-Trinity? Parker Posey had the same problem. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/16 "2005-02-04T06:50:59Z")
It is true that eyebrows will quit growing back in after a while. No one told me this in the early 1970’s when thin eyebrows were in! And of course when gray hairs started appearing, I plucked them out too. So I have gone from having heavy eyebrows as college student to having only thin brows left as an older woman. I do my best to sketch them in naturally with short strokes and then I use a brow mascara. (I swear, I’m about ready to have eyebrows tattooed on.) Girls, don’t follow thin fads!!! Don’t tweeze over your brows – only under. And even then, just keep them neat. ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/17 "2005-02-04T07:17:32Z")
Oh, I’ve seen something worse than this. Much worse. I’ve only witnessed a handful - thank Og - of girls that have done this, and it’s horrible, horrible, horrible. The worst one was this girl with naturally dark eyebrows. She had attempted to completely cover them up with thick pancake makeup that didn’t quite match her skin tone. You could also still see a bit of the colour and the shape of her real eyebrows under the makeup. She had then drawn big eyebrow lines about 2 inches above her covered-up eyebrows. It was extremely creepy - at a quick glance it looked like some kind of deformity. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/18 "2005-02-04T07:40:23Z")
> [@chukhung](#): > > The eyebrows don’t bother me too much. It’s the tooth-blackening that freaks me out with traditional Japanese makeup. From this [page](http://www.clotheslinejournal.com/heian.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > Women’s make-up [during the Heian era of Japan (792-1192 CE)] was also quite involved. Faces were whitened with heavy rice powder. They 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…Women also blackened their teeth, top and bottom. It was thought that the whiteness of the teeth was too reminiscent of the little white tiles used to venerate ancestors. It was not until the 20th century that a Japanese woman of rank appeared with her natural face and tooth color in public. "People offer me roles in films, and I say, 'No!.. I don’t want to write down all my memoirs about being a geisha! “Okay, today I got up out my bed, first thing you do girl, you put ya make-ups on, you make up your entire head WHITE. Your entire head WHITE like a ghost. Then what you do, girl, you put your wig on… this wig is heav-Y! Gonna make your back go OUT! and it HURTS and there are three parts to this wig: one onna top and two upside yo head. When you are done with your wig, you look like you a SHAMROCK.” ’ " - Margaret Cho ---
**Author:** ![sweetfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@sweetfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetfreak)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/19 "2005-02-04T12:54:43Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Actually, eyebrows serve the very utilitarian purpose of directing water falling down your forehead out of the path of your eyes. > > If you want to see some _really_ freaky painted-on eyebrows, check out Mieko Harada in Kurosawa’s [Ran](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/). > > If that doesn’t scare you off of the concept, nothing will. > > Stranger Actually, I hope I didn’t confuse anyone with my stoooooopid typo. I meant to say "They are the only place on your face where zits _aren’t_ apparent. In other words, I meant I love my real eyebrows, and I would only feel a need to pluck them at all if they met each other in the middle. Honestly, painted on eyebrows do seem freaky to me. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310/20 "2005-02-04T14:05:23Z")
_reads thread with expression of open-mouthed horror_ _strokes own eyebrows comfortingly while murmuring_ It’s gonna be okay babies… Mama’s not gonna let nothing happen to you… I promise… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-who-pluck-their-eyebrows-out-then-paint-them-back-on/288310.md?page=2)