Does anyone remember Jimmy Gilchrist
Jimmy was the French charge d'affaires for Zimbabwe after World War 2 and was a contemporary of my dear Mother. Jimmy and his wife lived at Fortunes Gate estate in Matsheumhlope and they had a glorious, vast house with a red roof overlooking the then verdant Hillside Dams.
With a sparkling pool craftily built among the granite rocks in the garden, some rather raunchy swimming parties were held there (according to Mother) with French Champagne and Frogs Leg canapes served....
As small children Brother Gavin and I were invited to the more respectable afternoon soirees and we were always transfixed by Mr Gilchrist's eyebrows.
They were gargantuan, a curly black and grey morass of tangled, impenetrable thick hairs, salt and pepper in colour. They stood out on his forehead like a parapet, almost covering his jet black eyes and giving him the look of a benevolent gargoyle.
Because of this childhood memory, eyebrows have always been paramount in my life. I was born with Margaux Hemingway thick black supercilium,(a fancy word for eyebrows) but we Baby Boomers were not into beauty preparations. Money was tight after the war and we accepted what we were born with thankfully!!
Poor HeeHoo was perpetually tormented by me and my tweezers as I endeavoured to prevent him from emulating dear Jimmy!! To my horror, in my dotage, my own brows began to take on strange behavioural characteristics. They began to take on a contorted, convoluted appearance, reminding me, to my absolute horror, of dear Jimmy.
It was only when my Millennial Daughters got stuck into me recently that I started to take care of my brows. They had lost their way obviously and needed to be sternly manicured....
Dinner table talk revolved around words like 'microblading, semi-permanent, even tattooing!!' The men in the family would generally disappear as they all had prominent eyebrows, and we all know that me are not very brave near tweezers!!
This led me to investigate a beauty site that the girls recommended on Snapchat ! Yes you may well ask, what exactly is Snapchat
Well its a site that anyone over fifty should never visit, it does harm to one's very psyche!!
It all took a turn for the worse when a new treatment was introduced by Snapchat Beauty - that of 'eyebrow laminating!!' Poor Jimmy would be writing in his grave, that would have been the perfect beauty treatment for him.
Ladies beware, don't let your daughters near your eyebrows!!