A Man’s Eyes : Even Macho Types Are Enhancing Lashes, Plucking Brows, Concealing Bags

WHEN ERNEST Hemingway first met Scott Fitzgerald in a Paris bar in 1925, he was struck by his rival’s boyish good looks. Fitzgerald, he later wrote, had a delicate mouth and “excited and friendly eyes.”

In fact, throughout Fitzgerald’s life, people remarked on his eyes. When he was a boy, they were described variously as green, blue or gray. And a Princeton friend remembered him as “the handsomest boy I’ve ever seen. He had yellow hair and lavender eyes.”

Unfortunately, not all men are blessed with such mesmerizing features--especially since many women say that a man’s eyes are what they notice first. But eye-care specialists and grooming professionals say there are many things a man can do to enhance his eyes.

Makeup artist Mark Richard, whose clients have included Kirk Douglas and Robert Stack, thinks that if a man is being photographed for a wedding or a corporate brochure, he shouldn’t hesitate to apply a little concealer to camouflage dark circles under his eyes.

But even a man who would never wear cosmetics, Richard says, should make sure that his eyes are well-groomed. “I’d start with what I call elephant-hair eyebrows,” he says of the coarse hairs that sprout as a man gets older. “They’re not only unflattering but aging.” To get rid of them, he suggests, stroke each brow inward, toward the bridge of the nose, and then clip any stray hairs left standing.

And, he says, “it’s true what your mother told you: Eyes that look too close together make a man look as if he can’t be trusted.” So a man whose brows run together may want to consider plucking them with tweezers, asking his haircutter to do it or having them waxed.

Eyebrow waxing is available at numerous hair and skin-care salons. Catherine Wood is an independent facialist who works at the Cristophe salon in Beverly Hills and charges $12 to wax a man’s brows.

Wood also dyes eyelashes ($18) and uses a collagen pack to alleviate dryness around the eyes. “It’s a sponge saturated with collagen liquid that I lay around the eyes at the end of a massage,” she says. “It’s $15 extra on top of a facial, which costs $60.” While Wood acknowledges that “crow’s-feet can look good on men,” such lines can disturb some people’s self-esteem. Hence, more and more cosmetics manufacturers are offering eye creams formulated to minimize wrinkles. Kiehl’s Since 1851 is a venerable New York company whose products are available at selected retailers (Neiman Marcus and Fred Segal) and by mail. Among its products is Ultra Protection Moisturizing Eye Gel, with a sun protection factor of 18 (about $30).

Klaus Heidegger, spokesman for men’s division of Kiehl’s, says that any man who engages in an outdoor sport should use at least a moisturizer, especially around the eyes, if he wants to forestall wrinkling. “Runners sweat,” he says, “so they need to apply it more.” Kiehl’s also makes a water-resistant Mt. Everest ’88 Expedition Sunscreen with an SPF of 18 (around $14), which Heidegger says is particularly good for skiing and sailing.

Other activities can also take their toll on a man’s eyes. As he got older, the alcoholic Fitzgerald’s eyes appeared bloodshot and bleary. But Dr. Peter McDonnell, an ophthalmologist at the Doheny Eye Institute at USC, says that “as part of the aging process, your eyes are a little less clear. You get little broken blood vessels in other parts of your body as well, but the conjunctiva (the mucous membrane that covers the front of the eyeball) being so thin, they show up in your eyes more.”

McDonnell says that “some conjunctival changes--raised spots, yellowish maybe--are caused by ultraviolet-light exposure. So there seems to be a good rationale for wearing UV-absorbing sunglasses. And the effect seems to be cumulative, so the earlier you start using them, the better--driving, skiing, on the beach, sailing.”

But if a man’s eyes are merely betraying fatigue or overindulgence, McDonnell says, eye drops and other simple measures can help. “Some people find comfort with a cool washcloth,” he says. “Coolness constricts blood vessels and can be soothing. It decreases swelling.”

Meanwhile, Richard insists that more men than one would ever suspect are using makeup to give Mother Nature a hand. At many beauty supply stores, he says, a man can buy black hair pomade and use a smear of it to darken and add luster to his lashes.