Published on 09:40 PM, April 19, 2023

The thin eyebrow trend is back from the 90s

Remember the over-shaved and thinly pencilled eyebrows of the 90s? Not many have fond memories of that trend, but what if we told you that that scary style is coming back in the best possible way?

Photo: LS

The infamous fashion faux pas of over plucking eyebrows and redrawing them reed thin in the late 90s and early 2000s has most of us traumatised even now. If some of us were guilty of jumping on the bandwagon then, the regret is even more real.

However, #SkinnyBrows is back as the most divisive trend on TikTok, with the Gen Zs bringing back the abhorred trend, much to the horror and dismay of the older generations. The app has also created a thin eyebrow filter that you can use to check out how it would look on you before taking the plunge.

To the credit of the Gen Z-ers however, the current skinny brows are not as bad as the ones that have previously given us nightmares. Instead, there is one fundamental difference. The old trend involved shaving off thick brows and then pencilling in thin ones, which looked unnatural and out of place. The ones that have been popularised now are all about embracing naturally thin brows and sleeking them down to give them a fuller shape.

The trend is minimal, playful, fun, and inclusive as it doesn't restrict the face to one sort of brow only. Brow technicians are ditching the thinning technique and opting for better shaping techniques and brow products. Samantha Tonkin, Benefit's National Brow Artist and Beauty Expert says that brow shaping has come a long way since the 1990s, and brow mapping can be thanked for it. This technique can help measure brows to facial features and make a positive impact. It can tell you where the brow should start, where the arches should sit and the length of the brow. The result is a well-sculpted brow that frames the eyes in the best possible way.

The look can also be achieved at home, using a few vital products such as a brow gel and an eyebrow liner or pencil. Use a strong brow gel, fluff the front part of the brow upwards and sleek the ends of the brow down. For a thinner look, draw a thin line inside the brow and then use the gel to create the illusion of thinner brows.