When I was 5 (or 6), I commited the biggest sin known to the beauty world: I accidentally shaved off half of my eyebrow.

The details are hazy, but I recall looking incredibly awkward and wishing for the thousandth time that my overly itchy hands did not do something so idiotic. I also remember peering real close in the mirror every single day to check if wisps of those tiny hairs would already grow and blossom into an eyebrow once again.

I was not disappointed, but my patience was stretched to the limit. It took months, and the agony was excruciating. I vowed, never again will that happen.

As I inspected my freshly shaped eyebrows this morning, the memories of the incident engulfed me. I slumped on the floor for 5 whole minutes, laughing. It was a splendid way to start the day.

My eyebrows are pitifully light in colour, that they are sometimes non-existent on my face. However, I shape them once every 2 to 3 weeks.

My friend who occasionally tags along wonders the reason for my disciplined and religious need to engage in that practice.

I then explained to her that eyebrow shaping is not an act of vanity, it is a necessity.

It is because the eyebrows shape a person's face. It is a way of expressing emotions.

For instance, you furrow your eyebrows when you are not pleased with something, you raise an eyebrow (or both) quizzically when you do not understand a question posed to you.

Which is why, unruly and unshaped eyebrows looks horrendous. (On some days, I wish I had my tweezers with me. I would grab ahold of those eyebrows, wield my tweezers and work some magic on 'em.)

I am meticulous about my eyebrows, and only my beautician (and myself) is allowed to touch them. Anyone else who inches closer and exposes my eyebrows to possible danger, I will not hesitate to break their arm (I mean it.).

With technology, there are abounding ways to make one's eyebrows look gorgeous.

An increasing choice for many, is to do the eyebrow embroidery (or what I dub as 'permanently stenciled eyebrows').

I've had several recommendations to do the procedure (of stenciling eyebrows), but I politely declined.

I usually calculate my risks before plunging into a decision, and I realised the risks for beauty mishaps or malpractice is rather high.

The person brandishing the needle could be having a rough day and to add some humour or blow off some steam, she would stencil my eyebrows too high and I would look like a perpetually suprised rabbit.

Now, I'm off to fill in my eyebrows, curl my lashes, dab on some Vaseline and I'm good to go.