New York — You might say that for men, grooming is getting more highbrow.
The online New York Times reports that an increasing number of men who don’t want their eyebrows to look like Andy Rooney’s are making appointments with Ramy Gafni, a Manhattan “eyebrow stylist” whose celebrity clients include Britney Spears and Naomi Campbell.
Mr. Gafni charges $75 for a service he calls “eyebrow sculpting.” After trimming his clients’ brows, he uses tweezers to strategically pluck hair, primarily from the bottom of the brow and a bit from the top.
Men’s eyebrow hair tends to grow longer with age, but many choose to ignore it. Apparently, fewer are ignoring it these days: Mr. Gafni told the Times that while only 10 percent of his clientele are male, that number has tripled over the last few years.
“I call it ‘guybrows,’” the Times quotes Mr. Gafni as saying. “When men have excessive and crazy eyebrows, like Gene Shalit and Andy Rooney, it becomes like their thing, and they think it’s cute and funny. ... I tell people like that, ‘Nobody thinks it’s cute, nobody thinks it’s funny.’”
Mr. Gafni’s approach is to make the eyebrow less bushy — but not exceedingly so.
“You want to take the weight out of it and groom the brow, but you don’t want it to look ‘done,’” he told the Times. “Sometimes I even leave a couple stray hairs so it looks less done.”
The Times also notes that eyebrow grooming devices are increasingly marketed for men, and some men are now opting for professional or at-home eyebrow waxing.
