Beauticians and women have long recognised that professionally shaped eyebrows can have as astounding an effect on one's appearance as a facelift.
Men only become aware of their eyebrows when the isthmus of skin above their nose slowly, diabolically fills with follicles until they've become one of the genetically unfortunate: victims of merging eyebrows, aka unibrow or monobrow.
But we quickly learn that a clear-cut swath, not coincidentally the width of a razor blade, is not the most inconspicuous solution. And now we learn that plucking is not just for the hirsute; it is for the trendy, the fashion-conscious, the Japanese.
Young Japanese men began jumping on the brow bandwagon after Kazuyoshi Funaki won a gold medal in ski jumping in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano. Funaki, who sported a unibrow during his winning ski jumps, later emerged publicly with a professionally plucked brow and fans followed suit.
Japan's largest cosmetics maker, Shiseido, quickly saw an opportunity and introduced a men's eyebrow design kit. Last year, Shiseido sold about one million kits and blokes of androgynous appearance now fill the streets, looking like out-of-work drag queens.
'The Japanese style is a little more feminine - thinner, quite arched and more structured,' says Lisa B, a make-up artist at Signal 8 Model Management. For many of the younger Japanese, the plucking is intended to be a noticeable statement, a la the Vulcan Mr Spock of Star Trek. But despite Shiseido not carrying the men's kit in Hong Kong, it is surprising local fashion cognescenti have yet to mimic this Japanese fashion phenomenon. Local stylists say the men they treat are mostly interested in managing the middle.