Bleached Brows, the coolest anti-beauty trend of the moment

In these days Kim Kardashian surprised her fans by showing one of her most daring looks ever: very blonde hair, bold lip contour and, above all, completely bleached eyebrows. The new beauty experiment, told step by step in a story on Instagram, it only lasted the time of a photoshoot, but it is only the confirmation of a trend that is emerging more and more: bleached brows.

Pinterest had already predicted it and, after it had seen over the past year an increase of 160% in searches on this topic, has included it in the list of beauty trends of 2021, crowning the coming months as what someone has called the era of "rebel eyebrows". This part of our face has played a very important role to the point of ruling a large part of the cosmetics market (according to BoF, in the USA alone it has reached 1.96 billion dollars!), with dedicated products that continuously hit the stores. Terms such as microblading, nonablading, micro-feathering, micro-shading or lamination have entered the common lexicon, testifying that the true Holy Grail of beauty in the 2000s is the perfect eyebrow arch. 

History

Even when we talk about eyebrows, the idea of perfection is constantly changing. The ancient Romans liked dark eyebrows that almost touched in the center, forming a sort of unibrow; while in the Elizabethan period the must was to have very thin ones, a true sign of aristocracy, which became popular again in the '20s among silent movie stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. In the Middle Ages they shaved them, in the second half of the 1500s women began to dye them. Then came the world of cinema and Hollywood stars began to shape the general aesthetic taste: from Audrey Hepburn and Brooke Shields with their full and groomed eyebrows to Drew Barrymore, Kate Moss and Madonna (remember her in the period of the book Sex and the Girlie Tour with her bleached eyebrows?) who in the ninities gave a grunge touch to the theatrical thin arches. 

In recent years, since Cara Delevingne aka "the woman whose eyebrows have made the history of fashion covers" (as someone ironically nicknamed her) we have started to grow them again, going on a pilgrimage to brown bars to get a wild effect that looks natural, but, actually, is highly sophisticated. In 2021 that detail that has the power to completely change a woman's look gains an unprecedented artistic side, becoming a sort of statement that tells our personality, with which to dare, to play and that has its maximum self-expression in the bleached eyebrows, so blond as to almost disappear.

On the catwalk

Haider Ackermann FW20

Valentino FW19

Valentino FW19

Prada FW19

Prada FW19

Prada FW19

Prada SS19

Alexander Wang FW14

Givenchy FW14

Givenchy FW14

Givenchy FW14

Alexander Wang SS19

Marc Jacobs FW16

Marc Jacobs FW16

Gucci FW12

Givenchy FW14

Bottega Veneta SS10

Bold, unusual, experimental and even grotesque beauty has always found its way onto the catwalks, as have bleached brows. It's almost impossible not to remember Bella Hadid in an alien chic version for Haider Ackermann, with a black egg wig, very white skin and invisible arches, or her sister Gigi in the FW19 Prada show. During the SS19 show Alexander Wang wanted them on all 42 models, including Irina Shayk and Kendall Jenner who had already experimented with them for Marc Jacobs' Fall 2016 and Givenchy FW14 season. Among the latest to opt for this particular beauty trend was Valentino. For the FW19 collection Pat McGrath wanted invisible brows, and left as highlights large spots of purple, pink and teal eyeshadow.

On movies

Chloë Sevigny in Gummo

Rooney Mara For in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Tilda Swinton in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Saoirse Ronan in Hanna

Elizabeth Banks in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element

Benedict Cumberbatch in Zoolander 2

Jared Leto in Fight Club

Javier Bardem in Skyfall

Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner

On screen, bleached eyebrows are usually saved for three types of characters: freaks, outsiders and protagonists of fairy tales and sci-fi movies. On the level of aesthetics, which are both replicable and cool even today, there's Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element, Rooney Mara as cyberpunk Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Chloë Sevigny in the underground cult written and directed by Harmony Korine, Gummo. 

Celebrities 

Givenchy FW14

A trend is not established if there is not a legion of celebrities and influencers who wear it. In addition to Kim Kardashian, one of the latest American stars to dare with bleached brows was Katy Perry who showed off her new look in the episode of American Idol dedicated to the Disney universe in which she dressed up as Tinkerbell. This, however, is not the first experiment of the singer with the invisible eyebrows, often chosen also by Lady Gaga, Kristen Stewart and FKA twigs. Complicit in the lockdown that has forced many of us to try the DIY shade or set and catwalk needs, the ranks of fans of the most daring beauty trend of 2021 have recently been joined by Hailey Baldwin, Victoria Pedretti and by the London make-up Isamaya Ffrench.

Bleached brows DIY

Bleached brows are not for everyone and it would be best not to try these at home, but to seek professional help, because the ingredients used to bleach the hair usually include high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide that can cause serious burns. However, whether you want to try it for real or test a fake version by recreating the same effect using only make-up, there are myriad tutorials available that clearly explain every step of the process.