While this is not, perhaps, a topic of utmost importance, it is one that I feel simply must be addressed. Let me explain: when I say eyebrows, I don’t just mean the actual hair that grows above your eyes. What I’m talking about is the fad that seized hold of the beauty industry with both hands and doesn’t show signs of letting go anytime soon.
Like Beyoncé, eyebrows just seemed to happen—one day, Beyoncé was some (admittedly very talented) pop singer who used to be in Destiny’s Child; the next day, she was the sexy/badass/most-talented-singer-in-the-entire-universe Queen B, our Lord (ess?) and Savior.
The eyebrow phenomenon, too, seems to have no definite beginning—I personally couldn’t tell you when eyebrows went from being a simple fact of life to the most important feature on a girl’s face. And yet, without fail, each morning I stand in front of the mirror and fill in my brows with Maybelline’s Define-A-Brow Eyebrow Pencil until the scarce patches are no more and my arches arch satisfactorily.
The sentence “I’m having a bad eyebrow day” can be heard fairly regularly in everyday conversations between my sister and me. “Eyebrows on fleek” is a widely known and understand phrase. The eyebrow tutorial videos that show up on my Instagram newsfeed are innumerable.
Eyebrows are suddenly a huge factor in judging another woman’s beauty (“Is she pretty?” “I don’t know. Her eyebrows suck”). I’m pretty certain that most guys have yet to consider eyebrows a crucial factor in how hot a female is, but most of the girls I know place a greater importance on eyebrows than just about anything makeup-wise. (“A bold brow highlights your bone structure!”)
In an attempt to understand this evolution of eyebrows, let’s look at a quick timeline: The 1950s featured full and dramatic brows thanks to beauty icons like Audrey Hepburn.
Photo credit: Edward Quinn
The 1960s: although obviously not everyone followed suit, legend has it that widely admired Sophia Loren completely shaved her brows and meticulously penciled them in.
Photo credit: Agyness Deyn
Both the 70s and the 80s featured more natural brows, tending to be thicker in the ‘80s.
Laura Hutton (left)
Brooke Shields (right)
Photo credit: Gianni Penati Photo credit: Richard Avedon
As many 90s kids might remember, the eyebrows in this decade (and into the early 2000s) were mainly overplucked and borderline scary, demonstrated by an early photo of Drew Barrymore.
Photo credit: Barry King
As seen in this photo of Rachel Bilson from 2013, superthin brows were left behind for a more natural look several years ago.
Photo credit: Gregg DeGuire
Current trend: If you’re lucky enough to be blessed with naturally full brows, congratulations—every girl wants to steal them off your face. If not, it’s ok. You can draw them on with the rest of us.
Photo credit (left): Anthony Harvey
Photo Credit (right): “Makeup” Instagram page
While waxing and tweezing have been around for decades, the beauty market today hosts a whole slew of eyebrow products that range from commonplace to downright ridiculous—pencils, powders, fibers that resemble real brow hair… Even eyebrow extensions are far from unheard of.
Whatever the cause may be, it’s undeniable that we are witnessing history: The War on Thin Eyebrows is in full swing, and if you overplucked yours to extinction in the 90s, you’re SOL.
