Anyone who been to a mall has seen the eyebrow threaders.  They work in a small kiosk, and are typically staffed  by young women from India.  Since I am a cold-weather mall walker, I’ve watched them at work for the past several years.  And I’m always amazed at the number of women who use this service.  How about those eyebrows?  Why would you go through such a painful process to remove a few stray hairs? 

When the Covid-19  pandemic began, these places were shut down in some states.  But that didn’t last long. When you’re wearing a mask,  the eyes are all anyone sees of your face.   Wearing makeup doesn’t help;   no one sees foundation, rouge, or lipstick, but you must have beautiful eyebrows

 Eyebrow threading has become more than just a “want.” The need  has become intense.  Churches,  bars , banks and libraries  may  close, but not the threaders.

I look at old pictures taken in college and later years.  My eyebrows looked just fine, as most young women’s do.  We did a bit of plucking with tweezers just to even things out, but the idea of going to a public place  and having someone use a piece of thread to shape my brows  would have seemed bizarre.

Up until last year, the clients at the kiosks were not what you would expect.  Mostly, they were middle aged women who didn’t seem overly stylish in the way they dressed or wore makeup.  But when they left the kiosk, they had a glow about them.  The threading made them feel better about their looks.  Lately, the clientele appears  younger.   And the business is booming.  Teens and twenty-somethings  stand in lines or wait in chairs to get threaded every few weeks.

You have to wonder if it’s risky during the pandemic.  The technician can’t thread your eyebrows from a distance.  She has to get very close to your face.  Yes, you’re both wearing masks.  But masks aren’t keeping doctors and nurses from getting sick.  Besides that, threading can  cause herpes and spread staph infections.

They say the pandemic has  lots of people  in bad financial straits, fearing eviction and hunger.  But that doesn’t seem to  affect  the eye threading business.    How bad can the economy be when hordes of women are incurring this needless expense?   How about those eyebrows?