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I've started watching Enterprise and noted that T'Pol's eyebrows aren't those of a typical Vulcan. Here's an image of her in season 1:

T'Pol

Note how here eyebrows don't point upwards like a typical Vulcan's would, but are more like human eyebrows. I thought that this perhaps might be something to do with the fact that she is a female Vulcan, but then I thought of T'Pring - compare the two:

T'Pring

You will note how T'Pring's eyebrows are pointed upward much more than T'Pol's do, more like a typical Vulcan.

I also note that when I do an image search for T'Pol, there are images of her with the more typical Vulcan eyebrows, for example:

enter image description here

My question is why aren't T'Pol's eyebrows like the typical upward-pointing Vulcan eyebrows in season 1? I'm looking for an in-universe or out-of-universe answer.

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    Out-of-universe, obviously she was supposed to be the eye-candy on the show so they didn't want to do anything to her unattractive.
    – ThePopMachine
    Sep 3, 2015 at 16:41
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    This is like asking, In-universe, why do she and 7of9 wear tight clothes?
    – ThePopMachine
    Sep 3, 2015 at 16:42
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    @ThePopMachine not really an accurate analogy; it would be like asking why the TOS Klingons don't have cranial ridges; this is a distinctive part of Vulcan physiology!
    – Often Right
    Sep 3, 2015 at 22:36
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    I know a distinctive part of 7of9's physiology too.
    – ThePopMachine
    Sep 3, 2015 at 22:59
  • Perhaps she purposely styled her eyebrows to be more human-like to better fit in with the human crew who still were not quite used to being around aliens.
    – Johnny
    Sep 4, 2015 at 1:02

4 Answers 4

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Quoting from here

Michael Westmore was the makeup designer and supervisor and said, "Jolene was a Trek fan and she hated that they didn't give her usual Vulcan ears and eyebrows. So in season three, she and her makeup artist just went ahead and made the change. When she appeared on the set with her new look, no objections were raised."

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    Any in universe will be pure speculation. No mention was made of it
    – user001
    Sep 3, 2015 at 10:32
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    @N_Soong she just got back from the salon, wanting to try out the popular "human eyebrows" look.
    – User1000547
    Sep 3, 2015 at 13:13
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    @N_Soong the funny thing about 'in universe' answers is that, unlike answers in 'real life', they may just not exist. Often because the fiction has not been written.
    – Gusdor
    Sep 3, 2015 at 13:42
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    @Heslacher: You don't need to provide the same quote twice!
    – ThePopMachine
    Sep 3, 2015 at 14:21
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    @Gusdor: In which case, especially with such minor visual inconsistencies, the lack of an explicit in-universe explanation means the default in-universe explanation is that there has been no change and we should accept the more recent retconned version as the permanent truth, with the earlier depiction just being a visual inaccuracy of what really happened.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Sep 3, 2015 at 18:50
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Let's look at the facts:

  1. First, T'Pol had thicker, less slanted eyebrows.
  2. Then, T'Pol had thin, slanted eyebrows.

I think there are two possibilities:

  1. She naturally has less slanted eyebrows, and later styled them differently.
  2. She naturally has slanted eyebrows, and started out by styling them differently.

Unfortunately, I can't find much supported for which of these is more likely.

FYI, the shape of eyebrows can vary quite a bit in shape in the human population -- naturally and artificially. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/968283/images/o-MICHELLE-OBAMA-VOGUE-facebook.jpg

I see no reason why they couldn't vary significantly among Vulcans.

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2

If I had to come up with an in universe plausible reason off the top of my heads, I'd imagine she is participating voluntarily in some vulcan government sociological experiments regarding human / vulcan relations since they are still adjusting to us. At which point it'd make sense that the experiment either finished its duration, or was considered a failure.

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    The problem with this answer is it is complete conjecture and not backed up by any in-universe information.
    – IQAndreas
    Sep 4, 2015 at 0:05
  • I think this is reasonable - also, if it was an experiment, she wouldn't have been able to mention it, now would she? Perhaps someone asked...
    – user1833028
    Sep 4, 2015 at 7:13
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Vulcans have eyebrows like humans. They shave/tweezers their brows for religious/cultural/fashionable beliefs.

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    Interesting, but where is this information from?
    – Möoz
    Sep 7, 2016 at 22:40

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