Eyebrows

8 March was Women's Day. Speaking of women, it is impossible not to notice the change in women's fashion — change between regions, eras, different cultures; change in dress, in hairstyle, in make-up, and many other things.

Isabella Segalovich speaks of women's eyebrows beginning with Egypt, and says that in the time of the Pharaohs women painted their eyes and eyebrows to protect themselves from infection and insects. It seems that even today in certain countries of Africa there are women who continue to paint themselves as before, because they believe this paint protects them spiritually.

In ancient Greece, having thick eyebrows symbolized wisdom in women. In Victoria Sherrow's 'Encyclopedia of Hair' it is written that they used lead powder and sometimes pieces of goat hair glued to the forehead to give themselves this look.

In China, eyebrows were painted in many ways — long, short, thin, thick — depending on the fashion of the year. In the book '5000 Years of Chinese Costume', Xun Zhou writes that they placed feathers of gold, silver or emerald between the eyebrows.

In medieval Europe women shaved their eyebrows or made them so thin that they seemed not to exist. John Block Friedman writes that in those times the hair of a woman's body formed a danger to the soul and body of the man. Sometimes they used chemical products that caused sores in place of eyebrows.

In 19th-century France, for women to have long, dark eyebrows was a symbol of Jewishness, and they were called 'the beautiful Jewess' as an antisemitic allusion. In Ingres's paintings of 'the Baroness de Rothschild' and 'the Jewish Head' this form of eyebrows is noted.

In the same period in England the fashion was to have eyebrows like those of a small, innocent girl. The eyebrows must never be touched. Dr Thomas Sozinskey said that 'the more separated the eyebrows, the bigger the brain'.

The painter Frida Kahlo, famous for her eyebrows, is said to have symbolized the authentic Mexican woman.

The proverb says 'No kites ojo, areglando la seja' — 'Don't take out the eye while fixing the eyebrow': in straightening one thing, don't ruin another. 8 March, Women's Day, reminds us of many things like these. Let us hope never to have before us a woman with questioning eyebrows!!!!

Source: Isabella Segalovich