Why did Japanese women shave their eyebrows in the old days? The eyebrows are said to represent “mother’s wisdom” and is also used to represent forehead lines.
In the old days, eyebrows are painted with thick black lines which were originally the result of a surgical procedure called “shinging”. Shinging happened to many women in Korea, Japan, China and other Asian countries, but in the Japanese culture, it is said that “when the sun shines brightly, so does wisdom” and as a result, many eyebrows were shaved off.
Today, eyebrows are not mandatory. A woman can choose to shave them off at will, like a man. Some women prefer to use tweezers to pull the hair out, while others go for the traditional plucking method. Some women just go for an easy clean-up. If one does this on a daily basis, then her face would look smooth and even.
Did women in the old days go for make-up then? No, there was no lipstick back then. Women back then only wore dark eye shadow and had their eyebrows done when they feel like it.
When we go back in the old days to the time when cosmetics were still an unknown to many women around the world, we can appreciate that women chose to beautify themselves by carefully selecting the right facial makeup, without depending too much on make-up.
The History of Shaving Your Eyebrows
Why did geishas shave their eyebrows? I have read a lot of articles and books on Geisha and their old-time practices but I’ve never really understood the reason behind their facial hair. A famous Japanese football play was asked: what is your favorite female facial expression?
Like how a man pulls back his hair and shows his face and neck, he said “eyebrows”. In the old days, black eyebrows and shaved eyebrows were associated with beauty and Japanese men considered the nape of their neck and ankles of a girl to be sexy.
As time went by, Geisha began to get eyebrows tattooed on their faces and these tattoos became very popular. Tattoos became popular in the Western world when Queen Victoria introduced the “iping” system which meant a needle was stuck underneath the skin of the recipient’s face to get a temporary tattoo.
This temporary tattoo was often removed after a while and the wearer would then get a regular tattoo that was a bit more permanent. In time the permanent eyebrows became known as “iping” or “moisturizing” and began to be used by both male and female Geisha.
Throughout Japan, as well as China and Korea, facial hair on the chin and forehead was not only seen as attractive, but it signified the maturity of a person. In China and Korea, Geisha would shave their eyebrows so that they would have long hair.
Westerners rarely shave their eyebrows, but they do get fake eyebrows tattooed onto their faces. When Westerners started coming to Japan, especially during the Edo Period, it became common for Japanese women to get eyebrows tattooed.
Why Did Japanese Women Have Thick Eyebrows?
The reason that many men ask the question of “Why did Japanese women have thick eyebrows?” is because in the old days, eyebrows were very thin, and it took a lot of time to carefully shape them, and even more time to keep them plucked and shaped properly.
It was an art form and a very difficult one to learn, if you wanted to have eyebrows of any sort that were real, and that really looked natural. This of course lead to all types of women in Japan having very thin eyebrows, and this was a major factor in why Japan was such a beautiful country to live in at the time.
In addition, the fact that Japanese women were so beautiful just seemed to go with the fact that their eyebrows were so thin.
It might seem like old days Japan had everything going for them, and that they were the most beautiful people on earth, but the truth was that they had very thin eyebrows.
This of course was not a big concern for them because they could not do anything about it, and they also could not do anything to prevent their eyebrows from becoming less than perfect. So, they lived with what they had, and that worked just great for them.
Of course, the Japanese people never lost all of their love of beauty in their culture, and they still did their eyebrows in the old days with great pride and skill. That is how the eyebrows became so thick in the first place.
Of course, today we can look back and see that the eyebrows on Japanese women were just as thin as our own eyebrows, if not thinner.
That is to say, they were not as thick, and their eyebrows were not plucked or shaped as they were in the old days, which of course led to them having more thin eyebrows than the men that lived during the time period.
Why did Japanese women have thick eyebrows? They had the knowledge to know how to make their eyebrows thinner without using anything unnatural, and that is why they were able to do it.
Why Did Japanese Women Shape Their Eyebrows?
Why did Japanese women shape their eyebrows? This is one of the many questions that have haunted men all over the world for decades.
On top of everything else, they have to shave their eyebrows every day, which seems like a never-ending task. A lot of men ask the question: “Why did Japanese women do it?”
The real truth is that women in ancient Japan had thin, curly hair. Because it wasn’t easy to grow and maintain their curly locks, they often had their eyebrows shaved.
This was especially necessary in the time before electricity, when most of the houses in Japan were still without running water or even a toilet. Shaving eyebrows was a way to keep the hair short and neat. Since women of Japan were always busy, if they didn’t shave their eyebrows, they would look very crooked.
It might be fun to imagine that the women of Japan learned how to shave their eyebrows in some far off, ancient culture, but the truth is that this is not the case. Shaving eyebrows is something that every single person in Japan has to do.
In fact, in order to get a job in a business, you have to shave your eyebrows. In order to protect their own hair, women in Japan shave their eyebrows everyday. Today, Japanese women shape their eyebrows as a matter of personal hygiene, just as we do ours, but in a more special way.
Did Japanese Women Shave Their Eyebrows As a Sign of Respect?
One of the more interesting questions about the shave, or eyebrows, in Japanese culture is whether it was done as a sign of respect or a ritualized removal of excess hair.
The eyebrows are said to be the most important feature of the face, and are also said to reflect a person’s individual personality, and even the emotions of the person.
In old days, old men shaved their eyebrows and then painted the image of a woman on their eyebrows so that other people would see who they really were.
While there is no way to verify whether this was done in old Japan, one can speculate that perhaps old women were likewise stripped of their facial hair and then shaved off their eyebrows as a symbolic gesture of their loss of facial hair.
Shaving the eyebrows is a practice that is still commonly carried out today by men and women alike in Japan, and is often times referred to as “eyebrows kaikaku.” “eyebrows kaikaku” means “shaving eyebrows” in English.
This is a practice that has been carried out for centuries and has yet to become outdated in any way. The reason that women were sometimes shaven in old days, as well, has as much to do with the beauty of the Japanese eyes as it does with any other part of their face.
It was said that if you had beautiful eyes, then you were able to show them off to the maximum effect, and thus a woman would shave her eyebrows in order to make her eyes stand out.
Conclusion
No matter what the reason for the tradition of shave eyebrows in old days, or for keeping your eyebrows trimmed, it is a very beautiful and important part of Japanese culture.
Although eyebrows may seem like an insignificant part of a person’s face, they are actually quite significant. Women all over the world shave their eyebrows in order to maintain a certain look that all members of society are used to.
