I used to date someone who habitually and brutally plucked out their eyebrows for aesthetic effect – weirdly, it proved to be far more of a head-turner than even the most dramatic piercings I’ve hung out with. And the interesting thing was, people often weren’t quite sure why they’d felt compelled to do a double-take…the effect registers in your subconscious immediately, but it can be kind of hard to put your finger on if you’re not used to it!

I wonder if there’s an actual documented phobia of eyebrows/lack of them out there? It’s a sufficiently unusual-looking affectation to merit one, I’d guess. Margaret Thatcher was famously afraid of beards, and wouldn’t allow them in her cabinet. Pogonophobia, I believe it’s called. It’s a weird one for sure – almost as if, in the words of one Mr Bill Bailey, she saw the chin as somehow being the window to the soul…

Oh, and ps, I’m posting this from snowy Gothenburg, by the way. This being Coilhouse, I couldn’t really not mention that, could I? :P