Eyebrows

Last night I dragged Janey to a class on how to stay beautiful without eyebrows and whatnot. There were five of us around the table, each with our own private assistant, a box full of products, and a care-giver to cheer us on. The women next to me were mother and daughter, and the daughter kept reaching out to stroke her mother’s shoulder. The instructor said there is always a WOW moment in every session, and for us it was when that tiny, white-haired, wide-eyed 70 year-old mom put on mascara. Suddenly she had the thickest, longest eyelashes ever given to a woman. We just stared in admiration.

So here’s my dilemma: do I start wearing it now? Reminds me of when I stopped coloring my hair. I greyed early, and sensing our culture’s embarrassment about aging, I hid it with coloring for years. But one day I was teaching my older kids at school a unit on “the beauty myth,” the enormous pressure our society puts on women to be physically perfect, and the kids were finding examples on the internet of beauty gone wrong: a decked out five year old dying from anorexia; a model who looks like a Holocaust victim; the stats on botox shots and plastic surgery. I decided that day to go grey. I mean, it’s not an illness. And if I ever quit my dream job as a teacher and need to look younger to get a job, I can reconsider. But for now, if by going natural I could give courage to one kid, one girl, to see she was beautiful without enhancements, then so be it. This past school year one of my girls walked into the classroom made up for the first time. It was nicely done. No complaints. But she was twelve, and my heart dropped. I just wanted to say, “But Honey, you’re so beautiful!”

I have no problem with make-up. For my daughter it’s an art form. But when does the art stop and the hiding begin? I just don’t know. As for the pink box of products sitting on my dresser: Yes, I will probably use the pencil to make up eyebrows so I have something to arch in indignation or surprise. And Yes, I will probably makeover my bald head with that gorgeous artsy chemo scarf that just arrived in the mail. But as for the blush and lipsticks that could offset the color of illness, I still haven’t made up my mind. Fortunately making up a mind is hard to do, or else Maybelline would carry a product line for that too, and then where would we be? Anne