How important are your eyebrows REALLY?

The look that was once sported by both Mona Lisa and Elizabeth I is now being sold as the last word in modernity.
The
thinking seems to be that if you've exhausted every other manner of
facial alteration in the book, why not try losing your eyebrows?

After
all, we've inflated our lips, pierced our noses, smoothed our foreheads
with Botox, chiselled our cheekbones and tattooed our eyelids with
liner.

Indeed, in the midst of a recession,
waxing your brows can shake up your look for the price of a pack of
peroxide or pair of tweezers.

It's
a severe style that does little to flatter most female faces, instead
creating an otherworldly lack of expression, and an air of sexless
roboticism to a woman's appearance.

Of
course, in these harsh economic times, it's certainly a way of making a
dramatic style statement without splashing out on an avant-garde
designer outfit.

When
times are tough, fashion frequently turns to more non-conformist looks
in an attempt to plug into the edgy, unnerving tenor of the times.
(There is a reason that the punk look took off in the Seventies, amid
the strikes and doom and gloom of the decade.)

Some
of those who have already followed this trend have suggested it is, one
described it, 'an optimistic, idealistic statement' which is somehow
unifying because it renders men and women more asexual.