The Art of Eyebrows

6 months here now, and there are many things I've gotten used to. One of them is people's physical appearances. I'm usually shocked to see myself in the mirror and realize I`m not Asian. If I see any non-Asian walking around my neighborhood I am apt to tail them suspiciously for several blocks, trying to figure out what they are doing there. I myself get looked at cross-ways by many neighborhood folk. Sometimes small children just stop whatever they're doing and stare at me open-mouthed when I walk into my apartment building. A foreigner on the streets is one thing, but a foreigner in your own neighborhood throws kids for a loop. Good Evening, i say to them in Japanese. Stare stare stare no answer. Ah, except for the one little 3 year old girl who lives upstairs from me. The first time she saw me getting out of my car (she was on the third floor dangling her feet through the balcony rails) her face lit up with joy, and she began waving frantically and peeping, `Hello! hello! hello! hello!` Clearly someone is getting an early start on English lessons! Now every time i see her its like this:
Child: hello!
Joyce: Hello!!
Child: hello!!!
Joyce: Hello!!!!
...until I am out of sight or her parents have shoved her into the car and locked the doors. She`s my best friend in the neighborhood, and I don't even know her name.

You're wondering what this has to do with eyebrows. Nothing, I just got off track. As I was saying, I have grown accustomed to people's appearances here. So much so that I have utterly failed to mention Japanese eyebrows on this blog.

Similar to the habits of mayoraa, the information I am about to divulge to you may blow your mind. Though it will not turn your stomach.

Let's start with some background. Japanese people really don't like body hair. They find dark arm hair, for instance, quite unattractive, and sometimes shave their arms. It is popular for females here to shave their entire faces. The hair removal/dying/shaving aisle at the store is the size of Tajikistan. Eyebrow hair has not escaped the fashion frenzy or the product rush:

MINI EYEBROW RAZORS!
Product Features

* Mini razors from Japan, made especially for eyebrow grooming for men and women

* Each long-lasting high quality stainless steel blade is a half-inch long, making it easy to reach even the smallest areas. Blade guards protect tender skin.
* Eliminate painful tweezing forever
* Shape eyebrows with greater precision on top and bottom
* Comes in a package of 3, each with a different handle color - share, take them with you, or keep one color for eyebrows and another for hairline and neck area

99% of people here clip their eyebrow hair to one half or one fourth its natural length. I used to think that Japanese people's eyebrow hair just didn't grow much compared to ours, but no, there is clippage occurring. Many take it further and shave off the hair entirely! Or, more popularly, they leave it a short razored stubble. Lots of girls paint in thin little fake brows over the stubble.

One of my students sporting the Stubble Brow

One of my students sporting the No Brow

Then there are the guys that shape their brows. The shaping of brows into thin lines and delicate arches doesn't really cross gender lines in America, and this is why Japanese males put foreigners off their gender-balance upon first sight. And the fact that most of them style their longish hair and some of them wear eyeliner might add to the effect. Gender-shmender! It's the word in Japan. Dudes are just as into hair styling, fashion, and eyebrow shaving/plucking/bleaching/arching/shaping as females in this here country. It's just COOL. Take a look at a Japanese fashion magazine. Besides the female models, every male model will have Brow Power happening. How about some more real life documentation?

One of my students sporting the ultimate thin arches, as well as some eyebrow paintage (this kid is really cool)

This kid is a very popular bad-ass. He has chosen a tougher thickness, but still shows signs of some serious brow design and shaving. Ah, note the white hand towel wrapped around his head. Guys like to wear those here.
Now this kid moves in brainier/less cool circles than the previous two, but he gets big points for being on the soccer team. He's got the start-big-go-little...aaaarch! thang goin' on.

I had a Q+A session with one of my third year classes, and somehow eyebrow fashion came up. I told them that people don't shave their eyebrows in America, and that only girls had shaped stuff going on. Furthermore, Americans would go so far as to think that Japanese people were "weird" if they saw, say, the kid in the above picture's brow walking down the street. They all just stared at me agog. They asked again and again.... really? people don't shave their eyebrows off???? Honto ni????? They couldn't believe it, I mean these kids looked like they'd just found out they were adopted. Don't they watch American movies all the time? Aren't they obsessed with MTV? Did they never see that Brad Pitt and Puff Daddy don't sport the Mt. Fugi-Arch???

Yes, I shook them to the core that day, and some of them may never recover.

My good friend Yvonne-sensei has reported an intriguing brow pattern from her own school, which does not seem to be present at Ginowan High. A small clique of boys are plucking their brows into a short, straight line. She's still trying to figure out the social significance of it all. I myself am trying to determine the meaning of eyebrows altogether. While I do that, take a look at this short newspaper article:

Shaved eyebrows banned
By Kjeld Duits, Monday May 16, 2005

The Mainichi Shinbun reports today that four new junior high school students were banned from attending an opening day ceremony at a school in Kagoshima in April because they had shaved their eyebrows.

Officials from the Hishikari Junior High School said the four girls were excluded from the ceremony because “We wanted to show them how important it is to stick to the rules.”

The officials decided that shaved or short eyebrows were unacceptable.

“In a pre-enrollment meeting, I explained the school’s requirements regarding appearance and uniforms, but they did not abide by these instructions, so I decided that it would be difficult for the four to take part,” principal Toshinori Hoka was quoted in the article.

The girls were made to wait outside during the ceremony. They were allowed to take part in all other events that day to mark their entrance into junior high school.

Well, I hadn't realized it was controversial. Imagine them trying to pull that at my school. All the teachers would have to go home too. Who would be left?

Joy-su:
the Lone Gaijin Warrior!