NaBloPoMo 11.19 - Brows

I've been slightly obsessed with my eyebrows since I was 15 years old. That was when the girl behind the Sav-On ice cream counter told me if I tweezed my brows, people would think I was 21. THAT'S all it would take?!

My mom tweezed her eyebrows in the family room by the light of a huge lamp. She'd have her stand-up mirror set on the arm of the recliner and pluck away during family TV time. Pluck pluck wipe. Pluck pluck wipe. Mom would stop, examine her brows, then resume until she had the desired result.

One day, while home alone, I snuck Mom's tweezers, settled into the recliner, set up her stand-up mirror and started plucking. YEOW! Tears sprang to my eyes. I couldn't possibly be doing this right! Mom didn't scream when she tweezed. I did it again. YEOW!! Tears spilled over. Forget it. I put everything back.

Since then, I've done everything to keep my brows tame - tweezing, waxing, Nair. I read Seventeen and Glamour and every other magazine that had eyebrow tips to shape and maintain. I even went so far as to ask a co-worker to give a tutorial on how she kept her brows looking so fantastic. I bought all the tools - slant-tip tweezers by TweezerMan, small scissors, brow wax, brow pencils, brow powders, brow gels - all to get and keep my brows looking good. The only thing I hadn't tried? Threading.

Last weekend, I happened upon a threading studio. An alternative to waxing, threading is an East Indian method of removing hair. The day's special was eyebrow shaping and threading for $11. Done.

It was a clean, bright and sleek salon. Anita, the threader, was young and very soft-spoken. I asked her if threading hurt. I did not hear what she said, but she shook her head. OK. I leaned back and smiled as my mentee stood over me, enthralled. Anita is moving along, threading nicely. A pinch here, a pinch there. Nothing too bad; definitely less of a sting than waxing. I start to say "This isn't so..." but a YEOW! escapes instead. The salon owner comes rushing over "Are you okay? What's wrong?" I told her that pain was unexpected. "Oh, the longer the hair, the more it hurts." Well, I asked Anita if it hurt and she shook her head. "Oh, well, it doesn't hurt her." Good grief.

Anita did a great job. My brows looked fantastic when I walked out of the salon. And, they still look great - even my hair stylist noticed this morning when she was washing my hair! Now there's a compliment :)

Think I'll stick with the threading for my brows. Would love to find a place closer to me instead of trekking down to Long Beach. Any recommendations for threading places in the Valley?