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Maggie Alderson: ‘The day my daughter’s eyebrows made me cry.’

 

I’ve had a trauma. My daughter arrived in the kitchen with elaborate penciled-in eyebrows. They looked awful, like Elvis era Priscilla Presley.

Priscilla Presley and her eyebrows. Image: Pinterest.

I sent her up to the bathroom to wash it off and she came down with a scarf tied round her head, hippy style. I wrestled it off her to find that where there had been two eyebrows of utter perfection – there were two terrible little commas.

She’d shaved them.

I cried.

If they grow back at all they’ll never be the same. I’ve get several friends who mullered their eyebrows in their youths and they didn’t grow back, so I’m just praying hers will.

Maggie Alderson. Image:

I can’t imagine what was going through her head, as I’ve talked to her about eyebrow plucking and leg shaving since she was really young, hoping I would stop her making either of those mistakes.

If you ever feel self conscious about anything like that, I told her – tell me and I will help you get it sorted professionally. Her legs are fine at the moment, but if they ever do go hairy I’m going to get it lasered off for her.

She claims the eye brow catastrophe was the result of peer pressure. ‘ALL’ the girls at school have plucked, threaded and in some cases, hideously drawn on, eyebrows apparently and they’ve been ‘bullying’ her about hers (which I’m sure just means a few jibes, really).

Oh the hell of peer pressure.

If she’d had a mono brow, or even Cara Delevingne’s I’d understand it, but she had really perfect eyebrows. Just strong and full enough to frame the face.

Cara Delevigne’s eyebrows have made her a runway favourite. Image:

There was much gnashing of teeth.

If anyone has any tried and tested tips for growing eyebrows back, I would be very grateful.

Click through the gallery below for some more eyebrow disasters.

For more from Maggie Alderson, why not try …

Maggie Alderson: How to pick the right book when you’re in a reading rut.

Maggie Alderson: ‘The day I dreaded for 25 years has finally come.’

What happens when there’s cheese between two shoppers.

 

Here are the comments
  • Quality Blonde

    There is a product that was originally marketed for glaucoma that actually had the side effect of lash growth. Trade name – Latisse. Might be successful for eye brows if things don’t improve in a few months. Actually this post made me feel old. I remember one of your earlier columns joking that by the time Peggy needed hair removal, laser for legs would be $50 and that would be the only way to go. Can’t believe how prescient you were!!

  • Helen

    My 12yo daughter’s friends have been plucking the life out of their eyebrows and I keep telling her they’ll never grow back – thankfully, she’s not the least bit interested yet and thinks they’re silly! Hooray (for now…)

  • Vicki Crooks

    If she shaved her eyebrows, they will grow back no problems

  • NM

    Use castor oil directly on them, it will help grow them back :)