Woman's eye.

Is it a good idea to take a razor to your brows before your wedding?

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The invitations have been sent. Your dress is ready. Honeymoon reservations are made. And after all that planning, one of the only things you have left to do before the big day is figure out what to do about those stray eyebrow hairs. The devil is in the details, after all: You've waxed and plucked and even tried threading the past, but have you considered shaving your eyebrows before your wedding? Let's look at the pros and cons.

The pros:

  • Shaving your eyebrows is just like shaving the hair on any other part of your body. You can do it fairly easily yourself.
  • It's cheap. A razor (you can buy special eyebrowrazors) a little shaving cream and a steady hand are the only tools you'll need.
  • You can choose to shave the whole brow, shape uneven or irregular brows or shave a slash or other pattern into your brows.
  • No pain. Your other options, like waxing, plucking or threading, hurt as the hairs are yanked from your sensitive skin. Shaving doesn't hurt a bit.

The cons:

  • Eyebrows protect your eyes by trapping sweat, dust and oil from your head before it can get into your eyes, so try not to shave them completely off.
  • Your eyebrow area is very sensitive. You could develop a rash, infection or razor burn after shaving. Or worse, you could cut yourself in a place that's not easy to hide. Not what you want to show up in your wedding pictures.
  • Eyebrows are stubbornly stubble-prone. Shaving removes hair right at skin level. You'd need to shave your eyebrows the night before or day of your wedding to be sure you don't have stubble. You don't want that in your pictures either.

If you decide to shave off your brows for your wedding, you can always claim it's a tradition. Historically, brides in the Orient shaved their intensely alluring eyebrows for their weddings, rendering them unattractive to other men.

For more on removing unwanted hair, see the links on the next page.