Whoever predicted that those thin (or thick, if you’re blessed) patches of hair on our face could make or break looks should be given an award for their public service. What a duty this person has fulfilled: Imagine all the people she saved for letting generations learn the importance of keeping brows neat, trimmed, and shaped!
It makes me curious just when we started paying attention to them. History, at least what we consider as the written past, suggests that Cleopatra was among the patron saints of beautiful eyebrows.
But if we learned a thing or two about beauty so far, it’s that today’s trend can be the next era’s bygone fad. Meaning, Cleopatra’s thick tufts may be popular in the Old Testament, but girls ditched them in the New Age.
The uni-brow may be ugly now, but the Greeks of 800 B.C. to 146 B.C. and the Romans of 753 B.C. to 476 A.D. thought they were great. And then the Middle Age came, where plucking eyebrows became the standard among women. Fast-forward to the 1920s, and we saw flapper girls sport penciled, thin, and straight brows.
Decades after, heavier, curvier brows made a comeback—and so did the more voluptuous actresses in Tinseltown. The ’60s defied this with painterly brows, just before the ’70s advocated natural, let-alone ones. Then again, Brooke Shields and Madonna led the way in the ’80s, where thicker brows upped the game, just before Drew Barrymore brought the thin brows back in the ’90s.
Now in the 2000s, we’ve seen more brow looks trend than a hashtag. Just years ago, Cara Delevingne’s brows projected better than her cheekbones. Everyone just wanted them thicker and fuller, often employing dark pencils much to our horror.
Thankfully, the trend has gone down and we’re seeing more varied types: the slight arch, the properly filled-in brows, and—one of South Korea’s best export, yet—the teenager’s straight brows.
Whatever fad’s coming up next, make sure you equip yourselves with a foolproof brow kit—at least that’s not going anywhere soon.
