Yeah. It’s only a matter of time… The clock is ticking… Rihanna recently showed up on the cover of British Vogue with a set of sparse, skinny brows, and even though I read somewhere that her makeup artist didn’t pluck them off (but instead did some makeup witchery to make it look like they were removed), I’m thinking that if you see the look on Riri, it’s already way ahead of the curve of what’s happening now.
We’ll start to see them out in the wild again sooner than later — first on “fashion” folks, but then it’ll filter on down to us regular peeps. I’d give it three years…
For the record, I’m 1,000% not ready to go back to ’90s-style brows. Even when I wore them in the ’90s and early aughts — which was when this top picture was taken! (It was for an author photo for my previous life as a freelancer.) — they were a reference to ’70s brows, and in the ’70s, they were referencing the ’30s.
What’s old is always new again!
But I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the extremely skinny brow situation… I’m probably going to keep mine the way they currently are, and if I do get the urge to pluck them, because one should never say never (especially with beauty things), I’ll probably use some concealer and creative placement to temporarily scratch the itch.
Do you think ’90s skinny brows will ever come back in style? If they do, how likely are you to rock them?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I actually love those brows on you Karen lol
Buuuut I can totally understand not wanting to pluck them all out again!
Yikes, I seriously hope not. My brows have thinned out over time and seriously look non-existent with nothing on them. Even if it came back, I really don’t think I’d wear them skinny. I like the fuller lusher look.
They’ll come back, for sure. But I won’t need to pluck because these old brows are already pretty thin from overplucking in the 90s. Plus, thin brows make us look older and I don’t need that. 🙂
I love reading your blog because I almost always find something that makes me laugh at my dodo-ness. Today’s was when I saw your pic and thought “holy cow, woman! You look so young in this…. of course, you do. It was 18 years ago”. HAHA! On a bright note, you have changed so little that I did originally mistake it for a recent photo. 🙂
I mean, the return of skinny brows is inevitable as many late 90s/early 2000s trends are back in the mainstream, but I’m not going to rock them. I overplucked when that was the trend as I was super self-conscious of my surplus of body hair. However, when bushy, thick brows became the norm, I was overjoyed to see models and celebrities like Cara Delevingne embracing it and I was like “I can do that, they’re just like me!”, plus I got so lazy with upkeep, especially when I was in grad school.
I didn’t go skinny in the 90s and won’t in the future. I like my naturally full brows, and pretty much leave them alone other than plucking a few strays.
How strange that eyebrows can make a person look so different! I had to do a double take. Is that Karen or someone else? After I plucked mine way too much back in college, they have never really grown back!
Of course they’ll make a comeback sooner or later at some time.
After a while you get tired of seeing the same look over and over on everyone and someone (Rihanna or someone else) will make a change and then someone else thinks it looks fresh and new so they pick it up and pretty soon it’s fashionable again.
Would I ever do it? I don’t know that I’ll say “never” but I surely hope I don’t ever, ever do that again!
As the expression goes : NO WAY JOSÉ!
Even in the 90’s my brows were full and now that I have ten microbladed they are staying Full Stong !
This photo is giving me life, Karen! Of course, I began to come of age at that time, so the nostalgia for everything in this picture is real. That being said, I agree wholeheartedly that skinny brows are back on their way to us, but I definitely won’t be partaking 😉
Skinny brows have been in and out of fashion over the decades so there is no reason to think that after years of over-blown, ridiculous (my opinion) “Instagram brows” or ungroomed unibrows, they wouldn’t resurface as a counterpoint to those previous trends. Being a septuagenarian who has seen skinny brows come and go, come and go, my only advice would be to not over-pluck. Many of the plucked brow hairs will never grow back. I maintained full brows because early on my mother wouldn’t let me tweeze my brows. She only let me clean up the hairs between them. She had plucked like crazy during the 30’s and into the 40’s and had very little brow left. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for me, she was an excellent example of why the skinny brows craze should be skipped. Thanks Mom!
This cracks me up. Every couple of decades skinny brows are in and girls rush out to pluck and then when lush brows are back in style they realize that their brows won’t grow back. My mom grew up in the thirties and didn’t fall for the thin brow craze. When I was in high school in the 70s she warned me not to pluck my brows thin, because they wouldn’t grow back. It’s the one time I actually listened to her and I’m glad I did. No thin brows for me ever. It’s why i’m afraid to have my brows threaded or waxed someplace. I’m afraid some over zealous person will make them thinner than I want and they’ll never come back. Particularly now that I’m older and my hair doesn’t grow as fast.
As my father-in-law used to say, “If everyone else jumped off the Golden Gate bridge, would you jump too?” So no, even if skinny brows come back, I will NOT do it.
I think it’ll come back, wont be on that bandwagon
I think that they might, or almost 20s skinny brows. But I’m not doing it, I’ve prided myself on not ever really changing my brow shape, I clean it up, but it’s still pretty natural and full, because I was too much of a wimp to pluck until they were back to a thicker style.
Oh btw, I’ve been using my real name lately, but I”m not new to the blog, i’m breyerchic04 and have commented for years.
Everything makes a comeback at some point. I didn’t wear skinny brows in the ’90s, and I won’t ever. I don’t think they’d look good on me. Plus, I know too many people who did it in the ’90s, and their eyebrows never recovered.
I’m counting down the months, days, hours, minutes, etc. until skinny brows come back!! I’m so sick of the thick eyebrow trend, mainly because I look horrible with Sasquatch brows. I pluck mine thin because that’s what works the best for me. (And I’m lazy, so when they’re oh so thin, I don’t have to bother with them for a few days. Crazy, right?)
Everything comes back! I never did thin brows, because they were still the thing in my rural town through a lot of the 2000s. I always kept my brows not too far from natural, so I’ll probably stick to that. They’re not overly thick or overly thin.
I’d love Instagram brows to be less ubiquitous but whatever, people can do what makes them happy.
They will, but hopefully in a more wearable version. Just like shoulder pads and oversized coming back in fashion, but with a more modern look to them.
I don’t think I will rock them though, too much maintenance.
I like your brows, they “opens”, bring brightness to your eyes! Fashion recycles trends. I will say: Métron áriston – μέτρον ἄριστον in greek – that means to use a measure of what you do (you count) is the best. Also, three are the “ingredients” to beauty: symmetry, proportion, and harmony. So it depends on the proportions of each face.
I don’t care if they do come back, I’m not doing it. I may keep things more neat than I am right now, but I have almost no arch and thin brows would make my face look even more round than it is.
I can see going a *little* skinnier again… but I still know so many people who have super-wacky brows after overplucking in the 90s/early 2000s. I don’t feel the need to stay super bushy forever, but I definitely want to be cautious going forward!
I knew that they would come back but I was hoping not this soon. I saw a picture of Brooke Shields in her younger days the other day and I thought man, her eyebrows are soooo beautiful. I had thin brows when they were in style before but I’ve let them grow out over the years, and luckily for me they did! Although, I do have a spot similar to Raul’s like you, Karen. With some trickery, it goes unnoticed, however. So, its a no for me, I’m keeping my brows even if thin brows become the new norm again.
Hi Renee,
Brooke Shields eyebrows during her younger days were legendary. I am in awe of them! How long did it take you to grow yours out? It took me about a year, and it was awful. Absolutely terrible. I tried to hide the rough spots with concealer, and even then they weren’t completely masked, but it was the best I could do.