The Eyes Have It

For the men who read my blog, this one is for the girls.

Well, it happened. I lost almost all of my eyebrows. I only have a few stragglers hanging around. I actually went and bought fake eyebrows – a friend of mine found them on the internet. I haven’t tried them on, not since the fiasco with the fake eyelashes. My eyelashes disappeared first, and one afternoon while getting ready for a party, I made an attempt to get them on. Of course we were bucking up against the clock and Thierry was pacing. I got extremely nervous and made a mess of it. (Thierry’s fault obviously!). Okay, not Thierry’s fault, I should have practiced. I don’t know why I thought this would be easy. Finally I pulled them off and suffered through the afternoon with goo sticking my eyelids together.

It took me a while to realize what was wrong. When I would put on my new wigs and look in the mirror I looked washed out. I put on eyeliner, and it helped a little. Then I started to use a darker eye shadow, and that helped a little more, but still something was missing. Then one day it dawned on me – no eyebrows! I went to the store and searched high and low for brow pencil. You’d be surprised to learn how difficult it is to find – most drug stores had shades of brown. Finally I found black.

Did you ever try to paint on eyebrows where there are none? Lots of women darken the brows they already have. I’m starting virtually from scratch. Trying to get my painted brows on evenly is quite a challenge. To make matters worse, I am a Libra whose symbol is the scales – everything needs to be in balance. Invariably one eyebrow is higher, darker, or thicker than the other. In reality, no one has perfectly even eyebrows, and that thought is the one that I keep in the forefront.

All of this reminds me of an old friend who has no natural eyebrows and has painted them on for years. She has a definite idea of how her make-up should look – and she has been wearing the same make-up as long as I have known her, about 25 years. I used to tease her and tell her that she put her make-up on by the numbers – paint by the numbers: medium brown where the 1’s are, turquoise (eye shadow) where the 2’s are and so on. She wore her make-up to bed, and wouldn’t come out of the bathroom in the morning until it was all replaced.

I wonder if there is an eyebrow template that you can place on your forehead and just color in the brow. Do the ladies who do other people’s eyebrows for a living use a template? The brows are always so perfect – so even. Maybe I could invent one!

I never was much into make-up. When I was a teenager, my philosophy, and that of the times was, the least amount of make-up the better. I only wore eyeliner and mascara. As I got older dark circles started to appear, so that meant concealer needed to be added to the area around the eyes. I had pretty heavy eyebrows, and feel like I’ve been plucking my whole life. And I plucked everyday! Although I don’t miss the plucking, the drawing-in takes a lot of concentration and time. Later on I added foundation to my make-up routine – oh, and blush – yes, that was important. Lipstick only became important in my 30’s.

I used to laugh when I heard or read a comment that you should never go out without your make-up. Saturdays were freedom days. Wake-up, pop the contacts in, tie the hair back, put on the sweats and go to the supermarket first thing. That happened until I ran into one of our board members! I was mortified. From that day forward, I never left the house without my eyeliner and something other than sweats.

Like I said in a previous blog, I do not want to look like a cancer patient. Wigs hide the baldness – which actually doesn’t bother me – it just presents an image to the public. Eyebrows make your face. Give it depth, color, shape even. I feel much better now that I am painting them on – I feel like I look like myself.

Mom got out of the rehab facility today. She should be fine. Jean’s good friend, Teresa, is coming in on Friday from the Canary Islands and Friday is Thierry’s birthday – we are celebrating with friends. Treatment went well today. My friend Ann paid me a visit at the infusion center today.  It was good to see her and it really helped the time go by. All-in-all, it was a very good day.