Wednesday 20 May 2009

Aye [Eye Brow] Captain

In true high school essay style (cos who doesnt love high school essays!), let me start of with a definition. The Eyebrow: "The eyebrow is an area of thick, delicate hairs above the eye that follows the shape of the lower margin of the brow ridges. Their main function is to protect the eye, but they are also important to human communication and facial expression. It is not uncommon for people to modify their eyebrows by means of hair addition or removal, make up, or piercings. - Simple enough concept no?

Surprisingly you need to look no further than a Disney film to see the role of eyebrows.

Baddies like Snow White's Wicked Queen or Ursula the Sea Witch are drawn with thin, highly arched brows because they look harsh and unnatural in comparison to the comparatively thicker and straighter browed heroines.
Pixar also realise that even where there are no eyebrows, for filmic needs, they had to add them.

Adam Summer, the fish expert on Finding Nemo says "The biggest issue I dealt with was balancing anthropomorphism with anatomy, like the day the animators called and asked, "Where are the eyebrows on fish?". Well, fish don't have eyebrows but eyebrows are good for facial expressions, so we started to look for fish that had ocular ridges."
I realised at a very early age that as a pale person with very dark hair, there was no hiding when it came to my eyebrows. At the tender age of 12 i went for my first eyebrow wax and the difference was incredible! I felt like my face had suddenly bloomed. My eyes looked bigger, my face more balanced and i instantly felt 10 times more beautiful than i ever had before. I remember going out to buy bindi's (Gwen Stefani you have a LOT to answer for!) just to draw attention to them.

Seeing the difference and knowing her daughters penchant for taking things to extremes, my mum decided to spare me a lifetime of over plucked brows and offered to pay for electrolysis (where a needle sends a electric pulse to the root of the hair, which after a few treatments kills the follicle resulting in permanent hair removal)for my 13th birthday. It may sound a bit drastic for a 13 year old but a whole decade later i truly believe it was a great thing. I pluck a few random stray hairs once every couple of months and never have to worry about scary Groucho Marx caterpillars taking over my face.
But with all this said, why do some people get it sooooo wrong? Cough Madonna Cough.

Eeek! These ones are actually TATTOOED on!!!





There are no words...!

7 comments:

  1. How did you manage to find all these photos?! This is just... beyond understanding! I could actually add a photo of my aunt to the pile, ekhm ekhm... Hopefully I haven't inherited my brows from my father's family :) Great post! xxx

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  2. Those photos were shocking! Every one of their eyebrows were really ugly, especially the first two. It's interesting how you mentioned Pixar/Disney, I didn't realise how much of a difference eyebrows make to a character, I'm quite intrigued about that now...

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  3. @Rocaille, i literally just typed 'bad eyebrows' into google and thousands of pictures came up. Most of these were also featured in Heat (which is a UK magazine that focuses on celebs and all things frivilous)which completely inspired me to post! And dont worry lovely, youre eyebrows are gorgeous!

    @LamiatS, Arent they shocking!! They are completely horrific! I have known 2 girls who actively shave their eyebrows off. The Disey thing is definitely an interesting source! Im going to look out for it a bit more now.
    x

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  4. I have this weeks Heat, some shocking photos of bad eyebrows lol!! Nice post x

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  5. love these pics! made me laugh so badly lol

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  6. im speechless! some absolute disasters! like the bit about disney and how the eyebrows show if they are the hero or villain xx

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  7. oh my word some of those pics are horrendous, what are they thinking?????????
    I was lucky enough to have been born with well shaped brows but they just happen to look near invisible on my skin so i need to colour them in as such.. its amazing the difference they make to your face xx

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