Thursday, November 15, 2007

Caution: Proactive Provides Damaging Solutions


This is the stuff I use to wash my face. As you can very well see, Jessica Simpson uses it, too. At least she says she does. At least she makes bazookoos of money saying she does. But, I'm wondering...does it bleach Jessica's eyebrows, too?

A curious phenomenom is occurring on my face. The very top of my eyebrows (usually brown, naturally to match my hair) are turning bleach blond. But it's just the top of my eyebrows. So right now my eyebrows are somewhat two-toned.

I first noticed this about two months ago when talking to Seth. As he pretended to listen to me ramble on about whatever, his focus kept shifting from my eyes to my eyebrows. I finally stopped to ask.

"What are you looking at?"

Seth furrowed his own brow, ultimately perplexed. "Your eyebrows are changing colors."

"My eyebrows are changing colors?"

He studied my eyebrows intensely. "Yeah, just the top."

"What?" I reached for the mirror in my bag. "Oh, weird. Yeah, they're changing colors. Maybe's its the way the sun hits them in New York when I have my sunglasses on." (Hey, it was the best I could come up with.)

I resumed telling my story, but not without intermittent pauses as I waited while Seth sat distracted by my eyebrows.

Then, as I talked to my mom on a recent visit to Oklahoma, she stopped me mid-sentence and moved closer to examine my face.

"Amber, did you know your eyebrows are changing colors?" she asked, quite concerned. Then she laughed.

"OK. This is ridiculous. Yes, I know my eyebrows are changing colors. Is it that bad?"

Later my mom called. She had an idea. What if my facewash that I've been using for the past...oh...6 years or so has been accidentally getting into my eyebrows all this time, and now the effects are showing. And sure enough, as I washed my face that night, I saw that my facewash has been dripping into the top of my eyebrows...for 6 years!

So I'm wondering if Jessica has this problem, too, and what she's doing to remedy it. I don't want to change my facewash. I like it. It works. But I can't go walking around with two-toned eyebrows. Jessica, you're the only one who can help. Save me. What do I do?

13 comments:

Chaotic Hammer said...

The label should warn you about bleaching effects from the peroxide in products like this. I imagine it would bleach clothes, hair, or whatever it touches.

So the only answer would be to figure out a way to avoid it touching your eyebrows. Maybe you could put some sort of wax in your eyebrows before washing with the solution? Okay, that's probably a dumb idea. I don't really have any good suggestions, sorry. I guess you'll just have to dye them darker from time to time.

But I will say that my wife and daughter both used Proactiv until they discovered something called AcneFree. Same basic type of product, half the price, and both my wife and daughter say it's gentler and more effective. You can get it at many stores or order it online.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me? Two-toned eyebrows are one of the coolest things I can think of. You need to cultivate it as a look. I'm all for two-toned eyebrows.

Shelley said...

Haha, this happened to Matt, too! I bet it looks cuter on you, though.

FancyPants said...

C-Ham, I'll check it out. Thanks! (The wax idea might leave me with no eyebrows rather than bleached ones) =-)

Cach, would you like some of my face wash?

Shelley, not so sure about that. My dad made sure to tell me I might need to look for an alternative facewashing solution. Ha ha! I said, oh Dad, it's not that bad really. He said, very seriously, mind you, "well in case it keeps getting worse and your eyebrows go completely blonde." He was very concerned.

Chaotic Hammer said...

Fancy - Yes, the wax idea was pretty dumb. I was trying to think of some way to create a temporary barrier against the wash touching your eyebrows.

I suppose you could just do what I've seen other women doing -- shave your eyebrows off completely (or have them permanently removed somehow) and have eyebrows tattooed on, or draw them on each day yourself. Or maybe that was just a California thing?

Douglas said...

I'm so glad I'm not a woman.

Douglas said...

that last comment should be read in the context of Narci's comment from the last post,

"Men are wierd."

Stomping mice/cutting wasps in half
vs.
bleaching eyebrows in pursuit of Jessica Simpson skin (whoever she is)

Each sex has its own weirdness attributes.

kddub said...

well, you could put blond highlights in your hair, and just call them your "brow lights," tp match your hair!

Have you been near opened flame? Singed eyebrows look similar to that too!

Super Churchlady said...

Cool!! I'm thinking you're like David Bowie and his two-different colored eyes. Seriously - why give up a good face wash when you can just use a $1.99 eyebrow pencil from Walgreens and make them brown again. I want a photo of the two-tone eye-brows, by the way.

Narci D said...

I do have to admit that I question the overall long-term health effects of a face wash that can bleach your eyebrows. But, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do for clear skin.

FancyPants said...

MB, I would just like to say that stomping mice and cutting wasps in half with scissors were choices, but bleaching the eyebrows was an accident. That is to say: Men make weird choices. Women do not make weird choices. Weird things happen to women. Two very different things here. =-)

KD, only my candles but I don't remember my face catching on fire any time recently.

SC, only here that would be a $4.99 eyebrow pencil. Dirty sons-of-guns.

Narci, hear hear!

cool mum said...

I don't know how I ended up here, but I officially love your blog. Hope that isn't too weird. Anyways, watch out for the bleaching effects. I recently had a talk with one of my friends and realized we both had house guests who we suspect bleached our guest towels with their faces. I'm thinking it's a time-release bleaching effect, so, sadly the guests had no idea. Another bad side effect of that stuff...

FancyPants said...

Cool Mum,

Welcome! I've noticed that with our hand towels, too. It's definitely the face wash. I might try some other face washing options. We'll see how it goes!