Do you remember when you first got your eyebrows done?
I had mine done while prepping for junior prom. My sister used an eyebrow razor to add some shape to the straight caterpillars atop my face. During my early college years, I tried waxing. Soon after, I gave threading a chance for a few years. They were all pretty good options, albeit quite uncomfortable.
Getting my eyebrows done has never been an enjoyable or stress-relieving experience, as hair removal for women rarely is. However, it’s become necessary for the sake of looking well-kept.
But is it a necessity for a child?
A friend of mine was telling me about her sister’s decision to take her 9-year-old to get her eyebrows waxed.
“I stopped by the house to see everyone, and when she came into the room, I could tell something was different,” she said. “I thought she had on a little makeup or something.”
When she asked her niece what exactly was different about her look, the young girl revealed that “Momma took me to get my eyebrows waxed.” While the child’s eyebrows were growing in pretty thick, my friend said that she didn’t think waxing was necessary. When she talked to her sister about it, she claimed that the child was on the verge of a unibrow. In the hopes of keeping her from dealing with any flack from her classmates, a waxing appointment was set up and completed.
“I mean, that’s her child. She has the right to do what she wants for her child,” my friend said. “But I don’t know if it’s healthy to start getting her eyebrows waxed at 9.”
So just how young is too young to start getting your eyebrows waxed?
I could understand my friend’s reservations. You see, my niece’s mother took her to have her eyebrows waxed a month ago and I really didn’t know how to feel about it. I have a strong bond with my niece and believe she’s just the cutest thing. To get her eyebrows done worries me in a sense because I wonder what impact that may have on not just her self-esteem, but her innocence. If the hair around her brows grows back fast, will she start to question her beauty? Will she start spending less time enjoying her books and games with her friends and more time worried about achieving certain beauty standards?
As grown women, we get so much flack about maintaining certain beauty standards. We get flack if our hair grows too long anywhere but on our heads. We get flack if we have bad acne past 18. We get flack if we don’t take chipped nail polish off fast enough. If we have stretch marks. If we aren’t small enough. If we don’t wear makeup or we wear too much. If we wear our hair a certain way. It’s endless. To me, the minute you open the door to worrying about being as refined as possible, it’s one that you struggle to close. You worry about whether or not you look good enough even when no one is saying you don’t. Does a 9 or 10-year-old really need to start fussing over such things so soon?
But I get it. I have no right to question the decisions of a mother. Plus, I know that a unibrow is a much different thing to handle in comparison to the usual furry lines we don’t think too much about as teens. The decision to do something about wild brows is meant to be a harmless one. Still, I would love if little girls could stay little girls as long as possible. At a certain point, they will have the rest of their lives to worry about such hairy situations.
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