Saturday, December 06, 2008

Of Genetics and Pain


Of all the things that I could have inherited from my dad, I inherited his eyebrows. Now because there is a policy of these pages here being under strict rules of semi-anonymity, I cannot provide any pictorial evidence, nevertheless, suffice to say that they look almost similar to Bert's eyebrows. You know, Bert, the yellow dude from Sesame Street (Fine, it's not uni-browed like Bert's but still) It would have been much nicer if I did inherit some of the tall genes. I could do well with at least two extra inches, mostly for getting stuff off the higher places without looking for a stool each time.

If I had been born a boy, this will be a non-issue. In fact, I wouldn't even be mentioning it here (or even have a blog in the first place for that matter. I don't know why, but I always think that if I were a guy, I'd be a very different person from what I am now) Being a girl though, it is a big issue, because eyebrows (on a girl) should be neat, and thin and shaped well. Like my mom's. In fact, because of this I find myself reluctantly dragging myself to this place called Bobby's where they put you on a chair that very closely resembles that of a dentist, get you to stretch the skin between your forehead and your eyelid, and they loop this thread with their fingers and create a crazy work of magic.

While seeing them do this procedure we call threading on other people is something very nice to look at (almost artistic, if I may say so myself), the person under the knife (or thread) suffers from a million little pricks as the eyebrow hair is firmly tugged out at high speed leaving the skin a little tender and red, and painful for at least the next few hours. Thankfully the whole process usually ends within ten minutes.

What's strange is that my sister and I were discussing about how each time we undergo the procedure, we say to ourselves how not worth it it is, but when you look in the mirror about a month or two later and you see all the mess genetics has bestowed upon us (and how the pain is as quickly forgotten), we end up going through the process again, only to think of never doing it again, and yet about a month later, there we are grimacing under the pain. It's a neverending cycle!

11 comments:

  1. It could be worse, you could have no eyebrows like Ernie. Mona Lisa and Whoopi Goldberg don't have eyebrows, interesting enough.

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  2. I've only been through the process once in my life, and I don't remember how much it hurts. I tweeze on a daily basis and it perhaps isn't as painful as threading, but more time consuming.

    I think once you've got your eyebrows shaped once, all you need to do is to maintain it by tweezing the stray hairs.

    BTW, bushy eyebrows seem to be back in fashion...or "was" recently back in fashion.

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  3. I think shaving regularly is a pain, so i guess this would be in a different league altogether!

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  4. Orhan: They gave Bert everything (in terms of eyebrow) that there was nothing left for Ernie, which is the reason why Ernie's sole purpose in life is to annoy Bert. Mona Lisa and Whoopi Goldberg, I agree... interesting :)

    anita: that's the same thing my mom says about trying to maintain on a daily basis. My problem is I don't really have the energy to find the time to do daily preening. Looks like I really need to set some priorities straight :)

    Kartik: Well, daily pain is definitely more painful that once every month :)

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  5. I let mine got crazy periodically because I'm too lazy to do the upkeep and then, probably about 3 or 4 times a year, and spend some time with a mirror and tweezers and make them look more like eyebrows instead of large, furry caterpillars. I too feel like I got the wrong genes. My mother warned me as a teenager to be careful when plucking eyebrows because they don't grow back?! She has plucked her eyebrows once her whole life! I, unfortunately, got the hairy genes from my father, just like you. I feel cheated!

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  6. Well that's interesting. I actually went to youtube to see this, because I've heard about it but can't understand how it works.

    I still don't know how it actually pulls the hair out, but I guess it does really work.

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  7. Aunty: I wonder if our mom's were ever friends... my mom said the exact same thing! She's never had to pluck her eyebrows.... they're perfectly shaped!

    travis: Honestly I don't know how it works as well, but seeing the way they do it is really cool.

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  8. You know what? I'm very glad I gave up threading. Even though I have a wide but sparse, short unibrow. Admittedly not a very prominent unibrow but a unibrow nonetheless.
    It was NOT worth the pain, the blood, sweat and tears!

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  9. There should be an easier way that doesn't involve pain, blood, sweat and tears!

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  10. That does sound painful! I'm done touching mine - tried plucking them once, couldn't stand the pain.

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  11. I wish I could do the same, but I have to look into the mirror at least once a day and the reflection scares me! :)

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