Pencil Thin Unibrow

Today, while I was running errands I saw a woman. Not just any woman.She lacked eyebrows. I’m pretty certain that there wasn’t a medical reason for her having a naked brow. No, this was self-inflicted.

As we walked toward each other, I crossed to the other side of the street. My car being on that side of the road was there was only part of the reason I crossed. Mostly, it was because she terrified me.

I jumped in my car and buckled up; when I looked up, she was about to cross the street. This was a difficult situation which forced me to look at her again. The fact that she’d shaved off her eyebrows and drew them back on made her, well, a challenging sight to describe.

“Drew Them Back On” Is Deceiving

Not the eyebrow in question. (image public domain)

Now, you’ve probably seen folks who’ve shaved their eyebrows, then drawn them back in. And, unless you’re one of those folks, you’ve also probably wondered why they’d do that. I usually try to figure out why they’d commit to a permanent facial expression – surprise, for example.

When I said that this woman had drawn her eyebrows back on, it was somewhat misleading. Factual, but misleading. She did replace her eyebrows by drawing them, but she didn’t draw eyebrows, just one eyebrow. One long eyebrow, from the left edge of her brow, across her forehead to the right edge.

Was She Mad? Was She Happy?

She looked at me, I smiled and waved to let her know it was safe to cross in front of my car. The woman walked across the street, turning to look at me. Maybe she knew why I was laughing. Perhaps she didn’t. It was hard for me to tell from her expression. Her pencil thin uni-brow made her countenance hard to read.

Was it angry confusion she was trying to express? Perhaps it was bemused frustration. I’ll never know if her look was meant to show appreciation or intimidation. I hit the gas as soon as she was safely on the sidewalk. My sides hurt too much to linger a moment more.

---