Laminated brow trend has got nothing on eyebrow styles of ancient China – drawn to look like feathers, tadpoles, daggers or silkworm cocoons
- Eyebrows have long been a way for people to express themselves, from today’s bushy laminated brows to ones drawn with the burnt end of a twig in ancient China
- 2,000 years ago, a governor’s career was killed when he helped draw his wife’s eyebrows. The intimate act was branded a scandal for subverting social order
Someone I know just can’t stop doing things to their eyebrows. When I first met them, they were sporting thread-thin perfect arches that looked like they had been inscribed with a pair of mathematical compasses.
Then, it was a pair of severe, straight lines pointed at the ends. I saw a different pair of eyebrows each time we met. The latest iteration was the “laminated brow”.
It was explained to me that the hairs of their eyebrows had been treated with a perming lotion (“laminated”), before they were teased apart, straightened and combed upwards.
I don’t know if it is the intended effect, but they look like a permanently surprised cartoon character with arched, bushy eyebrows. It is supposed to last only a few weeks, and for their sake, I hope that is indeed the case.
The Chinese have a unique word, dai, that specifically refers to cosmetics for the eyebrows.
The most ancient form of dai was the burnt end of a twig. These rudimentary eyebrow pencils were later replaced by powdered minerals like lazurite, mica or talcum, with dyes and scents added. The greenish black powder was applied with a moistened brush.
The most precious and sought after brow enhancer was the luozi dai, imported from Persia (modern-day Iran), which was made from a kind of seashell milled into a fine dust.
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Depending on the fashions of the period, some of the brows that ancient and medieval Chinese women drew on their own faces would be considered bizarre and even comical today.
There were brows that resemble feathers, tadpoles, or daggers. Some looked like short, fat silkworm cocoons that rested near the top of a shaved forehead. Some were deliberately tilted downwards at the ends to effect a look of perpetual sadness, or the other way around as if their owners were in a state of permanent irritation.
At one time, even the unibrow was fashionable.
Chinese period movies or television dramas always show women with hair and make-up that have been modernised and “audience-proofed”. From written records and paintings, we know that women in premodern China did not look anything like what we see on screen.
He was a good administrator who ran a safe, orderly city. However, word soon got out that he did something scandalous in the privacy of his bedroom: he drew his wife’s eyebrows on for her!
Zhang’s enemies in the government took a chaste, intimate act between husband and wife and blew it out of proportion, impeaching him with the serious charge of subverting the social order by debasing himself, a man and an official, before a mere woman.
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The emperor had to launch an investigation into the scandal. While Zhang admitted that he did help his wife with her make-up, he protested that it was a private affair that was nobody’s business.
Besides, “in the privacy between man and wife,” he said, “there are things more excessive than the drawing of eyebrows.”
Zhang survived the impeachment and remained in his job, but his involvement in “Eyebrow-gate” meant that he was never promoted to a more senior position for the rest of his career in government.
Looking in the mirror, I see that my eyebrows are looking a little unruly, with stray hairs protruding, cockroach feeler-like. I’ve made a mental note to avail myself of the eyebrow trimming service on my next visit to my barber.
