Eye Brows and New Shoes

Has anyone ever had their eyebrows dyed?

I recently had it done. I was having my hair colored to cover the nasty gray and asked to have it done. After seeing myself in a photo, I realized that while I actually did have eyebrows, they were so gray they had become virtually invisible.

Thirty years ago I never would have imagined myself doing such a thing. I was a tom-boy growing up and those girls who abstained from building forts and sailing boats in the creek because they didn’t want to break a nail or dirty their clothes were scorned by me. I never wanted to become one of those prissy girls.

The other day my husband was working on his truck and asked me to hold something. My first thought as I looked at this greasy, rusty piece of a wheel was, I’m going to ruin my nails. I’d just done them in preparation for a book signing event. The same event I’d gotten my hair and eyebrows done for.

My husband doesn’t understand this new me. I had horses my whole life. The extent of my wardrobe was jeans and a T-shirt. I was always in the horse barn and always covered in horse hair. When we got married I was in the barn twice a day milking cows and feeding calves. I breast fed all my kids sitting on a hay bale a corner of the barn.

Back then my make up routine consisted of mascara and lip gloss with maybe some clear coat nail polish.

Now that I am an author heading off to present myself to the masses, I suddenly worry about my clothes, my nails, my hair and my eye brows. Lately I’ve even considered teeth whitening.

When did I become so vain? Or is it fear that my worth as an author will be judged by my appearance? Will people still by my book if my hair is gray? Can’t my writing stand on its own, or will new shoes for my new outfit really inspire people to buy form me?

And where do I stop? I’m starting to understand the Hollywood set and their need for Botox and plastic surgery.
How far will you go perfecting your appearance before an author event? Does the public judge us by how we look? How much does appearance play in the sale of our books? What do you think?