What are eyebrows for?
Demonstrating disbelief, disdain or disappointment.
Charlie Bamforth, Davis, California, US
• To find out, simply watch any clip of Groucho Marx for a few seconds.
Cassandra Bahr, Wellington, New Zealand
• So one can raise, not raze, them.
Edward P Wolfers, Austinmer, NSW, Australia
• For trimming by hairdressers per haircut to justify charging full price for those of us who are afflicted with male pattern baldness.
Lawrence Fotheringham, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
• Showing off, as my one party trick is being able to raise each one independently.
Gai Wright, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
• So that we are more readily able to separate the highbrow from the lowbrow.
Anthony Walter, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• They are for protecting the eyes, but also for sending messages such as surprise. When I lived in Kiribati, different eyebrow movements could signify yes or no. As I never totally mastered these movements, I sometimes had awkward situations when gentlemen callers appeared quite unexpectedly, confident of success.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• They are how we get straight-cut bangs ... the hairstylist guideline. Funny how evolution thought of that.
Don Wright, Barrie, Ontario, Canada
• Accent marks.
James Carroll, Geneva, Switzerland
• The same as cat and dog whiskers, whatever they’re for.
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• Thank you for raising the question of eyebrows. You need them to give us the wonderful word supercilious.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Plucking.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
You can leave your hat on
Why do so many men and boys wear their hats indoors these days?
Because gentlemen are fast becoming extinct.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• Women have been doing it for centuries so it’s clearly a matter of today’s men and boys seeking gender equality.
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
• To deliberately defy Emily Post.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• For the same reason that women and girls wear their boots in the summer.
Caroline Pybus, Lewes, UK
• Lack of couth.
Art Campbell, Ottawa, Canada
• Taking them off would reveal that indented ring around the head that looks so much like a descended halo.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• They are having a bad hair day.
Lillian Henning, Nantucket, Massachusetts, US
Getting ahead of ourselves
What will the next stage of human evolution look like?
We had better wait to see how the first stage turns out before worrying about the second stage.
Andre Carrel, Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
• Have your robo-receiver Skype mine.
Mac Bradden, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
• A very short appendix.
John Londesborough, Helsinki, Finland
• The Theatre of the Absurd.
Doug Porteous, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
When is choice not a luxury?
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
Who decided women should wear skirts when most of us clearly prefer to wear the pants?
Jenefer Warwick James, Paddington, NSW, Australia
Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
