"The eyes have it." "The eyes are the window to the soul." "You draw light into your body through your eyes, and light shines out to the world through your eyes." It's not just the pupils or irises that provide a gateway to our souls, minds, hearts--take your pick. The eyelids, eyelashes, and eyebrows also communicate a lot about how we are feeling. We blink our eyes in certain ways when we feel certain ways: we might be nervous, or we might feel playful and use the lashes to express this. We raise our eyelids and brows for a variety of reasons, too: we might be surprised, shocked, or elated. We lower our brows when we are sad, mad, or contemplating something.
People have people been writing about eyes forever, and they have written about specific features of the entire eye area. One of my favorite writers, Willy Shakes, has this to say about brows in Sonnet 2:
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery, so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed, of small worth held.
Ha. Forty winters have besieged my brow, especially this winter--my forty-first. Thanks to half a year of chemo I have been tattered, and I sure have seen the trenches become deep. I have lost my eyelashes and eyebrows--two features that really define my face and speak volumes about how I am feeling.
I am a facial emoter. I have a poker face when I need it, but often I use my eyebrows to say what I'm thinking. Students have told me that my face told them what I was thinking, even though I wasn't talking. This usually happens when a student is talking at length, and I patiently wait for them to finish, or it occurs when someone blurts out something funny or disconcerting to me, and my brows immediately go up or down.
While some of my lashes and brows have grown back in, in odd ways I'd like to add, they are not all there. Usually I go out and about with my day and just deal with it. No mascara (which I dearly miss) adorns my lashes. My light, scant brows just sit there barely noticeable.
I have elected not to put on falsies. No fake lashes for me. I've never worn any, and it sounds like too much work. Correct me if I am wrong. I have from time to time filled in the brow area with eyebrow powder, though.
My mom, who has been constructing her brows with pencils and powder for most of her life helped me learn how to powder my brows. She bought me this product:
As you might remember, I have always had dark, full eyebrows. This ultra brow product helps me get closer to that image. It's easy to apply--so much easier than putting on eyeshadow, blush, or anything else. There are actually a lot of other brow products that I'm not using. There are eyebrow brushes with wands like those you find in the mascara bottle. There are eyebrow pencils, some as big as giant crayons made for toddlers. This Maybelline site shows you all of the products. There's even a "virtual makeover try on" page.
OK, by now, you have probably thought that this post is just about me--poor eyebrowless me. Alas, this post is about you too. You might feel like you would like more eyebrows, or better defined brows. And this post is not just for women. Guys can powder their brows, too.
So, take a look in the mirror, and if you think you might want to do a little more with those brows--you know, those tools you use to nonverbally speak to the world--consider eyebrow makeup. I wear mine about once a week, and I notice that I feel better about myself on the days I do. People even say to me, oh, you look like you're feeling better today. I'm like, yeah, it's the brows!
Just look at those dark, raised brows! :D They are almost as cool as The Rock's.
