SHINWAR, Afghanistan—Emerging amid the camouflage and crewcuts is the latest in combat chic: male soldiers with eyebrows professionally shaped into slender arches.

"I just wanted them to shape up my eyebrows," explains Private First Class Richard Guillemette, whose job is to call in artillery barrages from the front lines.

The private's first brow 'do was an accident. He had asked for a haircut and shave at the Afghan barber shop on the U.S. Cavalry base here in Shinwar. Only when it was too late did he realize the barber was tackling uncharted territory. Using a straight-edge razor, the barber sculpted his eyebrows into thin arches, tapering into points at the flanks.

That was a month ago. Pfc. Guillemette, a 20-year-old from Lyman, Maine, decided he liked the look, and he has had two touch-ups since then.

"They were getting a little bushy," he acknowledged in the chow hall recently.