Eyebrows, arguably our most expressive facial features, frame our faces and convey a multitude of emotions. Their shapes and sizes have been subject to the ever-shifting sands of fashion, reflecting the socio-political vibes and emotive connotations of different eras. From the dramatic arches of the Roaring Twenties to the bold, bushy brows of the 1980s, eyebrows have continuously evolved, transcending mere beauty trends to hold significant cultural and symbolic meanings. The recent resurgence of skinny brows, popularized in the 1990s and early 2000s, invites us to explore the fascinating history and cultural influences behind this iconic look.
We saw celebrities like Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Paris Hilton, and Pamela Anderson sport thin eyebrows in the ’90s and 2000s. However, that began to change in 2010 following a rise in celebrities and fashion icons like Cara Delevigne, Rachel Weisz, and Keira Knightley. But don’t relegate the thin eyebrows trend back to the nostalgic yesteryears just yet. If Google searches and social media engagements are any indications, pencil-thin eyebrows are going mainstream these days. In fact, everything Y2K fashion is making a comeback. However, not everyone is delighted with the rising popularity of Y2K brows. After all, if you are from the nineties, there’s a good chance that you have your own over-plucked eyebrow disaster story.
Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed the ebb and flow of eyebrow styles, from the boy brow to soap brows to the dramatic Instagram ombré. In recent years, skinny brows, reminiscent of the 1990s and early 2000s, have resurfaced on models and celebrities like Bella Hadid, Gabbriette, and Doja Cat.
Thin, arched eyebrows are often associated with the Golden Age of Hollywood. Stars from the 1920s and 1930s, like Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Anna Mae Wong, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow, epitomized glamour with their sharply plucked, pencil-thin brows.
“The 1920s was the era of silent films, and as a result, thin brows grew in popularity,” explains Autumn Estelle Reid, the US National Global Brow and Beauty Authority for Benefit Cosmetics. “The brows were often removed and then heavily re-penciled in as thin, dark, downturned lines as they played a big role in portraying the emotions and expressions on the big screen, assisting in depicting deep thinking or heavy feeling.” This look became synonymous with femininity and sophistication, influencing beauty trends then.
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Silent films relied on facial expressions for effect, and the brow played a dramatic part. Thin, elongated, and sloping, with the tail drooping down, these brows created a melancholic and graphic effect in the absence of color and sound, elevating 1920s movie stars to muses and icons.
German-born actor and singer Marlene Dietrich is arguably the best-known 1920s and undisputed 30s skinny brow icon. One of the very first flappers of the era, Chinese-American film star Anna May Wong with her perfectly penciled-in eyebrows and velvety complexion, kicked off her career in Hollywood’s silent films, The Toll Of The Sea (1922) - one of the first films made in colour, and The Thief Of Bagdad (Douglas Fairbank, 1924).
The trend of thin eyebrows extends beyond Hollywood's Golden Age. Soare explains, “Thin brows have popped up as fashionable throughout time, including in the Middle Ages when some European women plucked their brows almost out of existence to emphasize their foreheads.”
In Ancient Egypt both men and women darkened, arched and elongated their brows to balance their heavily-lined eyes, believing make-up had supernatural power. The Ancient Romans, believed the uni-brow to be a tangible sign of intelligence. We know that in the Middle Ages, barely-there brows were having a moment, and it was the forehead that was considered the beauty-defining focal point of a woman’s face. So as not to distract from it, eyebrows and even eyelashes were done away with. Those who left a few straggly eyebrow hairs in place often dyed these a shade of red as a nod to Queen Elizabeth I.
Skinny brows aren’t simply a '90s artifact. They hold a powerful history, with strong ties to Chicana culture and the Mexican-American community of Southern California. Chicana beauty standards, specifically originating from Chola culture, have played a key role in shaping and influencing the trajectory of the skinny brow, which has since been resurrected in the modern-day trend cycle.
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After Hollywood’s Golden Age, fuller brows came into vogue for the most part (aside from a brief resurgence in the 1970s, thanks to the ‘20s and ‘30s-inspired London fashion label Biba). Cut to the 1960s and 1970s, when young Chicana women in Southern California began developing a style of dress that would eventually become known as modern-day “chola style,” marked by dark lip liner, gold hoop earrings, nameplate necklaces, and thin, sharply arched eyebrows. Paired with Dickies work pants and cropped tank tops, chola style was a blend of traditional femininity with edgy and defiant street style.
This was not simply an aesthetic, nor was it always emblematic of gang association. Chola culture draws significant inspiration from the Pachuca movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Like the pachucas before them, cholas carved out a space for themselves in a society that often dismissed or vilified them. Skinny brows are bold and unmistakable, which, in a way, helped these women push back against the same beauty standards that marginalized them. (Little did they know they’d later help shape mainstream beauty trends.)
In the 1990s, skinny brows and other Chicana beauty signifiers, like dark lip liner, acrylic nails, and winged eyeliner, made their way into the mainstream. After legendary makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin began furiously plucking out the brows of every model who sat in his chair, he turned skinny brows into high fashion. Kate Moss recalled Aucoin “pinning her down” and plucking out all of her eyebrows in the documentary “Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story.” The trend continued through the early 2000s, with stars like Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Paris Hilton devoted to the tweeze.
“Both flapper makeup and ‘90s Latina makeup deserve credit for the trend,” says Regina Merson, founder of the makeup brand Reina Rebelde. “In the ‘90s, the ‘chola brow’ was almost always paired with a heavy lip liner look and very tight hairstyles, both of which certainly complemented the definition of the lips in this way. It is not the eyebrow for the no-makeup makeup look.”
When a beauty trend like skinny brows becomes woven into a certain time period or even associated with a famous icon, the culture from which it came can go uncredited. For instance, when Hailey Bieber wore lip liner and lip gloss in 2022, it was quickly dubbed the “brownie glazed lips trend,” although the look originated with Brown and Black women. (Even the black rubber bracelets that Madonna was known for in the 1980s were born out of chola style.)
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If you were around in the ‘90s and early 2000s and had access to a pair of tweezers, chances are you endured the skinny brow phenomenon. “I lived through the height of their popularity,” says founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills and renowned “Eyebrow Queen,” Anastasia Soare. “My brows were so thin, and I had rounded arches. I look back on photos of myself, and it’s no wonder why I seem perpetually surprised.”
Skin irritation is also another potential risk you’ll encounter when you thin out your eyebrows. Waxing, threading, and plucking can cause itching and bumps on the delicate skin surrounding your eyebrows.
“My eyebrows have never recovered from their over-plucking in the 90s,” revealed Jenni Parks, 42, from London. “They grew back oddly shaped and uneven. I tried microblading (similar to a semi-permanent eyebrow tattoo) which was expensive and by the far the most painful cosmetic treatment I have ever had, only for the pigmentation to turn pink. I finally found a solution with permanent make up brows and for the first time ever I’m happy with them.
The Y2K eyebrows may be a blast from the past, but even this trend is going through a subtle evolution. It’s not a complete rehash of the nineties craze. In the past, shaping the eyebrow was like a quest for formulaic perfection. Today, it’s not about tweezing the eyebrows to oblivion. People shape their eyebrows by accentuating the arches and sculpting the tail to give them a perfect, tapered look. Modern brows are no longer about one standard of perfection. They’re more about individuality-playing up the eyebrows’ natural shape that’s proportionate to the person’s facial features. This modern take on Y2K eyebrows gives them a more natural look. If you’ve had your share of thin eyebrow nightmares back in the day, you’re probably keeping a wary eye on this latest craze.
Reid says that today’s skinny brow is more of a modern approach to the one we remember from the ‘90s in that it’s denser throughout the brow instead of completely sparse.
“I’ve definitely noticed the return of the skinny brow, but today’s version focuses on sculpting and accentuating your features rather than tweezing them pencil thin,” says British brow artist Hollie Parkes.
With the “golden ratio” in mind, it reflects symmetrical lines to determine where the eyebrow should start, arch, and end. You can then mark these points with an eyebrow pencil and, using your eyebrow shape as a reference, connect these points to form the shape of your eyebrows. Instead of plucking your eyebrows, you might want to use an eyebrow gel to tame wayward hair. Brush down upper hairs and brush up lower hairs to create a thinner and more defined eyebrow line. If you must remove hair from your brows to achieve your ideal thin eyebrow look, try trimming your brow hairs using precision scissors instead of plucking them.
Using hair removal cream to shape the eyebrows are seldom-used method. However, some social media influencers have been using this method.
This thin eyebrows trend has evolved to make it more fitting into our modern times-with a “you do you” attitude. Eyebrows are a fascinating feature - they can impact everything from the shape of your face to the demeanor you convey.
Eyebrows are, she said, completely individual and need to be treated as such, no matter what fashion tells us to do. “I took one look at her - she had thin pale eyebrows which suited her - and I knew so many women were going to copy her and look completely ludicrous,” she said in a phone interview. “I don’t believe in eyebrow trends at all.
As to whether or not the skinny brow will become the beauty status quo, Merson believes it can only happen if everyone goes all in. “When you see Zendaya and Bella Hadid, their arch is paired with very strong makeup or defined ‘90s hair and big jewelry,” she says. Whether or not it goes mainstream again, she says, will depend on whether people want to put in the work for the whole look since it’s not for everybody. A dramatic skinny brow can be a commitment, after all. (A lesson that was learned by those of us whose brows still never fully recovered.)
Even if skinny brows are generally considered part of ‘90s and Y2K beauty trends, they will always be deeply connected to Chicana women, representing their identity, resilience, and strength.
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