The Brow-zy Chaperone

You know what really bothers me? People who don't understand the importance of eyebrows. I know it may sound weird, but eyebrows are EXTREMELY important when it comes to having a successful face. I mean, ok maybe they're not as important as eyes and lips and nose and skin and all that other nonsense, but a pair of rubbish eyebrows, in my opinion, RUIN a perfectly good face.

I am obsessed with eyebrows. Whenever I see a person with overplucked or weird-shaped brows I want to give them a good telling off and confiscate their tweezers, but I refrain from doing so for fear of being known as 'Insane Tweezer Stealing Eyebrow Girl'. I don't want that label. They might ban me from planes.

While I'm not sure what their 'official' evolutionary purpose is, aesthetically, brows serve to frame your eyes (and, you know, separate your forehead from the rest of your face). Therefore, attention should be paid to them! Sadly, for some reason, a lot of people seem to think that as long as you've plucked your eyebrows into some kind of uniform shape, and they both vaguely match, you've done a good job. If you believe that then all I can say, Grasshopper, is that you still have a lot to learn.

You can probably get better advice from some kind of eyebrow expert, but I think the main things to remember when it comes to shaping your eyebrows are;

- Only pluck stray hairs from underneath the brows, don't pluck above them.

- Some people mistakenly believe that eyebrows should begin where the eye begins, this is so MASSIVELY wrong. Sure you should pluck between your brows to avoid a monobrow, but they should start at either side of the bridge of the nose, no further out than that.

- While quite a lot of people go for the whole 'tadpole' look, ie a big bit at the beginning and then a really thin 'tail', it's actually better to keep brows at a similar thickness throughout.

- It varies from person to person, but the arch, that is, the part of the eyebrow that goes up, should start at the outer edge of your iris.

Still, if you choose to pluck your eyebrows yourself rather than get them done professionally (which can be expensive), accidents can happen. We've all done it; gotten a bit pluck-happy with the tweezers and before you know it you're caught in a permanent state of shock and/or terror, like Sweep from the Sooty Show;

Now I love Sooty and the gang, but this abusive behaviour is just unacceptable.

Fortunately, if you have overplucked, you can at least rest safe in the knowledge that eyebrows eventually grow back, so put your tweezers away, make friends with your eyebrow pencil (in a similar colour to your hair, not an insanely dark one) and just keep reciting this mantra;

thin is not always good, less is not always more.

Pammie, take note.

Anyway, over the past couple of years, countless designers have featured strong brows in their shows, so if there was ever a time to ditch your tweezers completely, it is NOW.

Balenciaga Spring 2008, Chanel Spring 2010, Cavalli Fall 2010

Prada Fall 2010, Dior Spring 2010, Valentino Spring Couture 2008

I LOVE these images! Brows brows brows! If you're still not convinced, why not browse through the brows (ahahaha!) of these beauties, who've still gone for a more natural, fuller brow, but have kept them a little more groomed;

Idina Menzel, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Connelly

However, if you really want to talk about seriously MASSIVE, unruly and downright sexy brows, we need to a take a little trip back in time to the 80s...

Madonna

Julia Roberts

Brooke Shields, perhaps the most iconic brows of all time. Wow.

Of course, huge, bushy brows like the ones above aren't for everyone. While they can look great, it's also worth bearing in mind that there is a very fine line (about as fine a line as Pammie's brows) between looking like Brooke and looking like these people;

Oscar the Grouch, Benicio Del Toro and Sam the Eagle

Right, I'm done waxing lyrical about such highbrow matters. Take my advice, motherpluckers, and thread carefully. Tweezey-peasy.