The one patch of hair that both male and female share are the eyebrows. With few exceptions, everyone is born with a pair of them. Their functional role in mammals is to protect the eye from water and debris from above. But humans go to great lengths to modify their natural hair pattern. Unlike the Egyptians who frequently shaved off all of their eyebrow hairs as a sign of beauty, keeping them is a more contemporary part of facial aesthetics. The desireable shape of the eyebrows has changed over the years in many subtle ways for women. Female eyebrows should have an arch which is peaked at the center of the browline and has a tail which tapers off as it descends out toward the temples. Thin and thick eyebrows have been in and out of vogue for women but the desire for an arched form has largely remained unchanged. The shape of the male eyebrow is less aesthetically important other than being more of a straight line, not having a unibrow, and keeping longer wild hairs in check. Non-surgical procedures like Botox and browlift surgery can change the shape and position of the eyebrows on the brow bone in both favorable and unfavorable ways.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana