My eyebrows are my pride and joy, but it wasn’t always this way. There was once a time where I had horrendous eyebrows.
Before I discovered tweezers, they were like curly brown caterpillars eating away at the top half of my face. Post-tweezer discover they were way too thin and long and perfectly complimented my braces.
I finally put away the tweezers, discovered eyebrow waxing and invested some time and money into my eyebrows because they deserve it, damnit.
It’s my choice to have thick and even brows. Am I conforming to beauty standards? Maybe. But I like it that way (at least when it comes to the hair on my face).
Like I said, my brows are my choice, and the same goes for a lot of women around the world. Some even use their brows to make a statement – a social statement that is, not a fashion statement.
Model Sophia Hadjipanteli is a prime example of this. A self professed “social reject”, Sophia’s entire look and what she stands for gives a massive middle finger to beauty expectations.
Sophia has deliberately let her monobrow grow. She’s founded a social media campaign #UnibrowMovement that encourages people to ditch the tweezers and challenge traditional beauty conventions.
Sophia believes “it’s important to show that preferences and differences are not polarising, but rather unifying and ultimately meant to inspire. To be honest, I’m just out here like everyone else manifesting my own lane and riding my own wave.”
The best part is that her look hasn’t stopped her from finding success – Sophia is a model, designer, and has a huge social following.
In other words: how she looks hasn’t hindered her in any way (nor should it).
Talking to Dazed Digital Sophia explained, “I choose to wear my eyebrows this way for the same reasons I styled myself in school – because the only preference that matters is my own.”
But Sophia isn’t the only millennial to use her brows to make a statement.
Actor Jani Lucid and Singer Mia Carucci both bleach their eyebrows on the regular and even dye them bright colours from time to time.
Why? It’s fun. And it gives them an added level of control – only they get to decide what colour their brows are. Society has no say in it.
“I realised I could do any colour, so I tried everything,” Jani told Vogue. “Sometimes I get it wrong, it’s all trial and error!”
But using eyebrows to make a point is not a new thing. Brooke Shields was the first to pave the path for eyebrow rebels. Back in the 90s when over plucked and over thin was all the craze, Brooke let her eyebrows grow natural and thick. She chose to embrace her beauty for what it is, even as a model in an industry that tried to tell her it should be another way.
“At the time, they were such a contrast from the looks of the ’60s and early ’70s. The famous Time cover that declared me “The ’80s Look” came about after I walked in a Valentino show.… My face was so white, and the brows were really strong, and I thought it was ridiculous,” Brooke told InStyle.
Ridiculous and yet it worked.
Here’s to making our brows our own, from perfectly groomed through to growing freely. Do whatever makes you happy, not whatever society tells you to do.