Wayne Rooney is sporting a rather surprised new look. If he's plucked himself a guybrow, the tide of male grooming has well and truly turned.
Wayne Rooney is sporting a rather surprised new look. If he's plucked himself a guybrow, the tide of male grooming has well and truly turned
Is there no end to Wayne Rooney’s forays into forehead follicles? Barely a year after posting pictures of his hair transplant on Twitter and he’s been seen with dramatically different eyebrows. One thing is for sure: Rooney is no Renaissance man, so if he’s getting into brow shaping, there must be some kind of shift afoot for male grooming.
“Men are definitely a lot braver about grooming brows now,” says Vanita of Blink. “They are beginning to realise that some grooming makes you more youthful and lifts the whole eye area and cheekbones. However, men do have to be careful about taking it a step too far.”
We think that Rooney’s new surprised expression, with brows that are higher at the edges, does a certain something for him. But a slight darkening also calls to mind the fact that the Manchester United player began his career at Everton – is this a case of Scouse Brow?
In the strictest definition, experts say no – the look popularised by Desperate Scousewives star Jodie Lundstram is about plucking your eyebrows off, then painting them back on. If Rooney were wearing make-up while tearing up and down the pitch, he would surely have sweated it off. But he is approaching the zone. “A high arch is a no-no and I think that Wayne might have crossed that step, although he’s not as extreme as Shane Warne,” says Vanita.
Ah, yes. The cricketer whose signature look was once bad blonde hair and a neon sunblocked nose has gone through a certain metamorphosis since hooking up with Liz Hurley. And not necessarily a good one.
So how do men who want to follow Wayne avoid doing a Shane? “My advice to men is to have a simple tidy up, keeping a masculine shape but removing the blanket of hair underneath the brow to give them a little more definition,” says Vanita. Monobrows are also a no no. Gentlemen’s brows should begin at the bridge of the nose and not creep across this point.”
Blink eyebrow shaping is £17; www.blink.com
Was it Coleen? Read Ahmed Zambarakji's guide to grooming interventions here .