Brow-sing through History

The first things you notice about artist Frida Kahlo, aside from her colorful fashion aesthetic, are her eye-brows – thick, dark lines that almost collide at the bridge of her nose. Rather than attack her monobrow, Kahlo kept it caterpillar-like, defying the then norm of the Thirties’ anorexic eyebrow, and proudly depicting it in the grotesque self-portraits she was also known for. Actress Theda Bara during the 1900s also had notable brows, heavy angry slashes that sharply arched above her iris and swooped down to meet at the center of her forehead, giving her an expression worthy of a virago. When people began singing about Bette Davis’ eyes, they were also exalting her brows – elegant arches that enhanced her limpid, penetrating gaze. All throughout history, women have achieved legendary status from one of the face’s most versatile, and sometimes most neglected, features. All throughout history, women have plucked off and then grown back their eyebrows, according to the dictates of the trend. Women have relied on their brows, not so much to prevent sweat and small objects from falling onto their eyes (as science claims), but to express an ideal or achieve a certain status quo.

The eyebrow is a woman’s secret weapon. Altering its shape, size or color can automatically transform a woman’s average features into an expression that carries more appeal. Altering one’s eyebrows can give a woman a completely new look as it did for screen diva Joan Crawford who went from having thin blond arches during the 1920s to heavier black brows that became her signature look during the 1950s. A woman can metamorphose from Plain Jane to bitch and a half-bombshell with some expert brow reshaping.

Aesthetician Jude Hipolito – educated at the International Dermal Institute in LA, and owner of Kaizen Salon which has branches in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California, as well as in Alabang, Muntinlupa – has done wonders on the brows of some of LA’s catwalk mainstays. He maintains that women can achieve a certain degree of beauty by just using a Tweezerman. "A well-shaped, well-groomed eyebrow enhances one’s facial features especially around the eye area and has considerable impact on a woman’s face," he says.

Often, eyebrows are groomed out of vanity. History is laden with moments that pay tribute to the eyebrows’ versatility.

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptians were the first people to experiment with cosmetics on their eyes and eyebrows. Women would pluck out all the hair on their eyebrows and would paint on dark arches using antimony powder and kohl.

Arch icons: Queen Nefertiti, who put on thick dark eyebrows all the way to the nose area, and Cleopatra

Ancient Greece

What we shudderingly consider the unibrow was a sign of status and class to the Ancient Greek. Women whose eyebrows would start at the edge of the right eye, extending over the nose into the left outer corner of the left eye, were considered intelligent. Those who weren’t fortunate enough to have one thick straight line running across their foreheads would fill in the gap with black powder.

16th century

Women during the medieval ages plucked out all the hair from their eyebrows and thinned out the hair on their forehead. This was practiced, along with maintaining very pale, almost chalk-white skin.

Arch icon: Queen Elizabeth

Late 1700s

Both men and women would pluck off all the hair from their forehead and substitute them with artificial press-on eyebrows made of mouse-skin.

1920s

The Roaring Twenties featured brows that were painstakingly plucked and pencilled in as very thin black lines that turned down at the ends. Much creativity would go into eyebrow maintenance during this decade. Some famous movie icons would even shave or pluck out all eyebrow hair and just draw a line above their eyes. Onscreen, in black and white, these pencilled brows would look exaggerated, unnatural, and a tad bit freaky.

Arch icons: Silent film stars Clara Bow, Louise Brooks and comedian Groucho Marx who completely shaved off their eyebrows drew in arches of rather unusual shapes using a black grease pencil

1930s

Eyebrows remained stylized and waif-like thin although they took on the shape of a semi-circle.

Arch icons: Entertainer Marlene Dietrich who is credited with having glamorized the entire tweezed-eyebrow trend when she plucked her own brows into very thin, high bows that lent a permanently surprised expression to her face. Other icons include screen greats Greta Garbo, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow.

1940s

World War II greatly influenced women’s approach to looking pretty. Beauty care was still considered essential although it took on a less frivolous, more adult edge. Eyebrows were not as meticulously pampered and took on a more natural arch. Shaving and drawing on thick black lines were derided as being too extreme and were thus avoided.

There was a shortage of beauty products and the quality of makeup was poor during this time. British women made maximum use of their resources and used black shoe polish to fill in their eyebrows.

Arch icons: Hollywood divas Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth and Lauren Bacall

1950s

Bouncing back from a beauty drought, the women during the post-war years went all out in terms of beauty and fashion. Christian Dior’s New Look encouraged the return to glamour and women were spending extra hours primping and prettifying. It was during this decade that the eyebrow enjoyed its heyday. Never was it given more attention. It was manicured and designed to the supposed standards of perfection of that time, which makeup artist Robyn Cosio dubbed as the Diva Arch ("an eyebrow so totally designed that it could carry the graphic eye that sat beneath it") in her book The Eyebrow. She also writes that the eyebrow was "cultivated, pampered, and manicured into a soaring arch that peaked over the exact center of the iris. It was an amused arch, an ironic arch, but mostly, it was full, generous, and considered a statement of feminine perfection."

Arch icons: Sultry star Marilyn Monroe who epitomized the quintessential Fifties look (dark, symmetrically-arched brows, the doe eye, red lips and a conspicuous beauty mark), as well as Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn who both sported thick, winged eyebrows.

1960s

The eyes took centerstage during this era, and the eyebrow along with them. In this decade of psychedelia and extravagance, eyes were painted with color and heavily lined. False eyebrows were not scoffed at, while natural arches were highlighted with glitter, lace, and feathers. Sans the costume makeup, brows remained dark and curved.

Arch icons: Jane Fonda, Maria Callas and Joan Baez

1970s

The brow went through a phase of schizophrenia during the "anti-fashion" years. The Seventies advocated the "natural look." Makeup took on an earthy palette, hair was grown long and loose, and the brow was stripped of accessories and heavy pencil enhancement. Women avoided making their brows too arched or over-plucked.

Later in the decade, however, disco began to take over the party scene. Studio 54 regulars began attacking their brows once again, tweezing them "into cramped little tadpoles or flighty commas."

Arch icons: Style icon Bianca Jagger, model Margaux Hemingway, and a pubescent Brooke Shields in her first film Pretty Baby. They all had thick, natural-looking brows.

1980s

The Eighties is often considered the laughing stock of the contemporary world’s eyebrow fascination. Brows were big, bad and bushy, complementing the overly-teased hair and football player shoulders that dominated the decade’s (disastrous) fashion aesthetic.

This was the decade that also popularized permanent makeup. Women were given an option to tattoo in their eyebrows, eyeliner and lip liner.

Arch icons: Still Brooke Shields

1990s

The eyebrow cleaned up its act in the wake of the Nineties minimalist movement. Arches followed the graceful curve of the eye and were rid of all delinquent strands that weren’t part of the main brow.

Arch icons: The supermodel posse

Into the 20th century, women’s facial curves were clean, contoured and cosmeticized. Today’s ideal eyebrow shape, according to Cosmopolitan beauty editor and makeup artist Ianne Sison, starts at the inner corner of the eye, has its arch three-fourths of the way out right above the outer edge of the pupil, and ends just where the eyes’ outer corner ends. She adds that a woman’s brows are naturally suited to her facial shape (i.e., an oval-shaped face can have a higher arch) and would just require cleaning up. It is only now that women are beginning to realize the merits behind this disclaimer, avoiding unnecessary over-plucking. Winona Ryder, Cameron Diaz and Halle Berry are some of today’s brow idols, women whose arches, claims Jude, are well-balanced for the shapes of their faces.

Golden arches have now taken on a new meaning, one that has nothing to do with fast-food joints or Quarter Pounders. Eyebrow grooming is as much a necessity among women as much as daily flossing. It takes a while to fully appreciate but once you really get into it, you’re hooked. Women are beginning to understand the appeal of the one-minute face-lift, grinning and bearing the pinprick pain of plucking just to have well-shaped brows.

One of cosmetic brand Prescriptives’ bestsellers is their brow kit, a handy compact containing two brow-filling shades, a miniature brow brush and tweezers. Even high schoolers are familiar with the pencil test and carry around a handy nipper to clean up their brows in between classes.

There’s an understated phenomena to the entire tweezing business. It takes its roots from history and finds its future in women’s – and men’s – vanity. It is admittedly frivolous, a superficial trick of the beauty trade. But tweezing, in some perverse way, is also one of life’s simplest pleasures, a no—fail beauty secret. And if it ends up botched, you can always grow it back.