Touch

A Struggle For Me

Sofia Irigoyen

"Despite efforts to remove hair from our bodies, quite a lot remains on the arms, faces, and heads of women, and the chest, arms, and legs of men, to do what it was intended to do."

As I looked at this image taken only a couple weeks ago, I remember thinking how disgusting it was that the hair in between my eyebrows had the audacity to grow so lusciously. Why couldn't my eyelashes grow with such stamina? Since the age of nine, I began waxing my eyebrows with an at home waxing kit my big sisters loved to use. I wanted to be like them. I was watching them one Saturday night pulling and blowing on the hot wax, when they looked at me and told me you should wax that unibrow! Wax my what I thought? So I let them, hold me down to the bed, and strip the bridge between the reunion of my two brows right off my face. Since then I have been waxed, threaded, sugar waxed, plucked, and prodded to get rid of this...this thing that no one else had. I am 20 years old right now, and I have been removing something built to protect me for over a decade. It was after reading this section on hair specifically when I realized, what the hell have I been so ashamed of for so many years. At this point, It was past my sisters giggling as they removed my unibrow when I was nine, it was the fact that having this thing no one else seemingly had was a struggle for me. But hair, my beautiful latin hair that grows so luxuriously and shows my culture is only allowed in SOME areas? Diane Ackerman helped me rediscover that hair is such an important part of the way we feel and touch. The way we are shaped and built. I like the audacity my eyebrows have now. And presently, when I look at that picture, I don't even see much of anything to be honest. So now, with every ounce of courage I have in me, I shall wear my single brow with strength in knowing that I look damn good. And thats all.

"A little pressure produces a flurry of excitement, then fades, and a stronger pressure just extends the burst of activity."

Although Diane is speaking about the sensation of someone else touching you, I tend to reside best with the statement above when it comes to makeup, and the feeling you get the closer and closer your makeup brush brings you to your desired outcome. Activity she speaks of, the accentuation of lines and facial features is truly exciting to me as an artist and creator. To mold shape and require your own hand, your own sensation of bristles to determine the pigment on your own face. It's beautiful and unique and constantly shifting and adding or subtracting. The pressure your artistic tool could produce has the ability to produce, for me personally that flurry of excitement.