I want thick eyebrows. But my “parlor didi” won’t give me one!
As a teen, I was Frida Kahlo for an eyebrow. Yeah, a ‘unibrow’ that is. But it was the late 90s and on the verge of 2000s, when pencil-thin eyebrows were catching up pop culture and seeping into the desi-trend wagon too.
“Get Your Legs Shaved!”
I didn’t get my eyebrows done until I was 16. It was not exactly peer pressure but a force of reckoning from my parents, mostly my dad – who was the first one to point out that I gotta shave my legs. Like what… really?!!
Oh, Hello Satan…
The thought of shaving my legs was like giving in to the myth that “they’ll grow into thick stubbles” led me to get my first session of waxing. And man oh man, it was a ride to hell!
Medieval Hair Removal Soap?
So, my grandma “Maa” (may her soul rest in peace. I love you MAA forever!) got a eureka moment and found an insanely, abomination of a hair-removing soap that smelled like a cat’s poop, mixed with rotten egg and drilled through a garbage can!
Odor Of 6-Feet-Under
Well, it just got rid of a single spot of leg hair, but not without leaving my natural walking thing to emit odor to die for…. literally, if you came close to my legs, you’d be six feet under!
Unibrow Virginity GONE!
Anyways, so where was I … yes, eyebrows. It was my standard tenth’s farewell, and my mom took me to this salon, where they gave me a good facial, steam and took away my unibrow virginity. And it was painful, to say the least.
I lost my unibrow but the rest was like a thin line. Like someone drew an arch on my forehead.
But I went with the flow, had a good time at the farewell. And no one noticed my brows. Because … eh! Never mind.
Desi Eyebrows ROCK!
Back to 2019. And Indian Eyebrows rock. However, my parlor didi… aunty, ma’am, whatever you call her, fails to leave my eyebrow in her natural state. A single visit drives to revisit the salon after a month. Because I struggle to get a big bushy forehead for an eyebrow, with the simple wish that my so-called Eyebrow Expert will only shape it and not whack it off again.
So, here I am beginning of another period of brow growing and browsing through Salon Experts who will stick to my broad brows and not ruin my forehead for good!