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The Awkwardness of Threading My Eyebrows
Entering a Women’s Safe Space to Remove my Unibrow
About every three weeks, I visit a store that causes severe social anxiety. I endure about a half-hour of awkwardness and cannot wait to leave. I pay 15 dollars for the experience.
I’m talking about getting my eyebrows threaded.
I began threading my eyebrows 11 years ago. They look pretty terrible if unkempt. I have a unibrow if unattended. A former girlfriend told me that I should tidy up my eyebrows when we dated. I took her advice and joined her at a threading salon one afternoon. I was hooked.
Actually, that’s not true. I appreciated the result. They definitely looked cleaner, but the whole social situation distressed me.
Some say that threading one’s eyebrows are more hygienic than waxing. I have nothing to add, as I’ve not tried waxing. This post is not about threading advocacy. I want to explain how awkward the situation is for me, as a man, particularly an Indian one
For the last seven years, I’ve had my eyebrows done at ‘Unique Threads’ in Union Station, Washington D.C. It used to be an open-air kiosk on the second floor. Pre-pandemic they moved into one of the storefronts. Whereas before I was in the middle of foot traffic, now one can see me through big…