A form of protection and expression
Have you ever wondered why we have an immensity of hair growth right above our eyes and only there? While this may seem like a strange concept at first, the design of the eyebrow does a lot more for the human being than one may realize.
To start, the eyebrows are one of the most expressive features on the human body. In the absence of words, we are still able to express with our eyebrows feelings of anger, curiosity, realization, and much more. Furthermore, eyebrows were initially designed to protect the eyes from sweat, rain, and other particles that can drop into our eyes. The roundness of the eyebrows takes these particles around our temples and away from our eyes. This is a necessary form of protection and without them we would need to have some other feature to do its job. Thus, we could look a whole lot weirder than we think we may look now.
To start, the eyebrows are one of the most expressive features on the human body. In the absence of words, we are still able to express with our eyebrows feelings of anger, curiosity, realization, and much more. Furthermore, eyebrows were initially designed to protect the eyes from sweat, rain, and other particles that can drop into our eyes. The roundness of the eyebrows takes these particles around our temples and away from our eyes. This is a necessary form of protection and without them we would need to have some other feature to do its job. Thus, we could look a whole lot weirder than we think we may look now.
A means of human identification
Eyebrows are also a way for people to connect with each other. They show emotion and expression, and according to a study at MIT, they play an essential role in communication and facial recognition, too. Strangely enough, subjects were able to identify celebrities with their eyes digitally edited out, leaving just the eyebrows in place, 60 percent of the time. When the celebrities' eyebrows were removed instead, subjects only recognized them 46 percent of the time.
Eyebrows are crucial to ones identity. If you wore colored contacts, sunglasses, lipstick, and cut your hair, people would actually be able to identify you easily. Think about it. Think about shaving off eyebrows. There's a good chance you would not recognize someone at first glance if they didn't have the distinctive eyebrows you were used to seeing.
In addition to expression, there are many ways to identify someone by the characteristics of their brows--
Bushy, gnarly, salt-and-pepper brows: older alpha males
Thin, graceful arcs: young, stylish women
Sparse, light brows: youths
Waxed and tweezed: the brow can advertise good grooming
In addition to expression, there are many ways to identify someone by the characteristics of their brows--
Bushy, gnarly, salt-and-pepper brows: older alpha males
Thin, graceful arcs: young, stylish women
Sparse, light brows: youths
Waxed and tweezed: the brow can advertise good grooming