Plucked
Comments: 5
Unprecedented numbers of Japanese men are plucking or shaving their eyebrows. What started off as a surreptitious cosmetic manoeuvre limited to the more facially hirsute of the population has become an all-out trend, its evidence apparent on the denuded brows of everyone from high-school students to computer programmers.
I’m not talking about complete deforestation by any means, but it’s gone far beyond a simple clearing of the dell at the bridge of the nose or a gentle parting of the mono-brow. There is now shaping involved, careful contouring, the botching of which ensures a look of permanent surprise or irritation, depending on the resulting angles.
I’m beginning to identify patterns (whose origins can probably be found in the helpful tips and how-tos of mens’ fashion magazines): the lateral inclined half-snip; the medial declined half-snip; the superior cupola pluck; the caudate laterals (rampant and supine); the Kabuki; the katana; the coronal truncation; the nesting badgers.
It’s not the sort of thing that’s easy to photograph, otherwise I’d provide some examples. I’ll swing by a newsstand this afternoon and see if my fashion magazine theory is true.
Concurrent with this trend is the depilation of forearms, backs of hands, and fingers. Women have been doing this for some time, but it’s now not uncommon for a man to roll up his sleeves revealing a bald expanse of limb faintly dotted with abused follicles and not a hair in sight. I’m curious about how the trajectory of this particular trend will arc, and what the inevitable return to earth will look like. Anticipate a beard and moustache backlash sometime in the new year.
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Posted to Little-known Facts • 2002.12.06 (Fri) • 14:54
Comments
Posted by mike g 2002.12.06, 22:13
I love that you’ve written about this. I’ve been noticing the same thing lately. I have a friend who is a gentleman in, I’d guess, his mid-fifties (and who, coincidentally, owns a macrobiotic French restaurant in Togakushi, about 10 minutes drive from the soba restaurant you wrote about in another post today). This friend recently, uh, “redesigned” his eyebrows with spectacular results. Rather than going for the drag queen look that seems frighteningly popular, he went for contrast. He shaved portions of his salt-and-pepper brows, but left bushy bases which soar up into well-groomed points. The results must be seen to be appreciated.
Posted by mike g 2002.12.06, 22:23
Oops. I glanced at that other post too quickly, and saw what looked like a famous soba restaurant in Togakushi. Takahashi/Togakushi — I really should slow down when reading.
If you’re ever up in the Nagano area, Togakushi is famous for its soba, and the macrobiotic French restaurant is highly recommended.
Posted by Jeff 2002.12.06, 22:56
And, uh, Jeremy, is this trend going to find itself infiltrating the gaijin world? If so, a “before” and “after” would be interesting to share! -grin
Posted by jh 2002.12.07, 00:25
Jeff —As suspected, the fashion magazines are full of this now. I bought one today which provided the greatest amount of variety, although there were half a dozen I could as easily have chosen. I will be showing a before-and-after tomorrow, but it sure as hell won’t be of me (I’m a au natural Nesting Badger type).
I’m whipping up a little article called (ahem) “Towards a Taxonomy of Eyebrow Morphology in Adolescent Japanese Males” which I’ll post tomorrow. As it turns out, my guesses about the various patterns are basically correct. Lots of pictures tomorrow (including instructions for how to dye those brows safely)!
Mike — I’m dying for a photo (as well as some of that soba).
Posted by Anonymous 2003.03.19, 09:49
all men should do it
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