What's in a Dame

Is thin in? Eyebrows are raised

Wearing thin: Rihanna models skinny eyebrows on the cover of Sep- tember’s British Vogue.
Wearing thin: Rihanna models skinny eyebrows on the cover of Sep- tember’s British Vogue.

We have a breaking fall fashion update: British Vogue has spoken, and thin is in.

Not body type -- that would hardly be news. That kind of thin is always in, much to my thighs' chagrin.

The skinny here is that skinny eyebrows are back.

After several years of fuller brows being in fashion, it could be time to pick up the tweezers, the wax and razor once again.

It's the conclusion one comes to when taking a "brows" through BV's big September fashion issue. There's the usually radiant Rihanna, but for once -- to borrow a song chorus -- her look doesn't "work-work-work-work-work."

Although her skin is flawless, her eyes are fierce and she's wearing a flower garden on her head, cantaloupe-colored gloves on her hands, ox-blood-red gloss on her pucker and a hot pink bow around her neck, one's eyes go immediately to the pencil-thin brows. And, not even a No. 2 pencil -- the fine-tip mechanical kind.

At least with a pencil, one can erase mistakes. Not so with brows. As those who have ever overdone it with plucking, shaving or weed-whacking can attest, they don't always grow back.

Like me. Born with one naturally bushy brow, which I eventually tamed and shaped into two, I went a bit crazy with the tweezers back in the day (when I didn't understand that skinny brows only work on a skinny face). My arches are still moderately full, but the ends are sparse to non-existent, so when I remember, I get creative with brow powder.

Hmm, now that's a plus of the Rihanna look: No brow powder. No brow shaping gel. No brow fiber gel. No brow palettes. No brow brushes. No brow enhancer. No brow primer. No brow builder. No brow stencils. No brow shaping scissors. Thinning one's brows could be a pennywise decision. Even if you look like Pennywise from It.

Not that I use most of that stuff. I believe in basic grooming -- yanking the occasional wonky stray or gray when one notices (usually at a stoplight -- yikes, sunlight reveals all!) and combing and filling in as desired. If we want to be trendy, we can change up cosmetic colors; makeup is temporary and can be removed. Eyebrows, which frame our faces and convey expression, are forever. At least at the rate they grow back -- or don't! -- they might as well be. Proceed with any semi-permanent changes with extreme caution.

For RiRi's sake, we hope these scrawny clown brows -- which by comparison make early silver-screen star Marlene Dietrich look like Brooke Shields -- are the work of a Photoshop shtick and not the work of an actual Schick.

A story on Vogue.co.uk asks,"Would you try the skinny brow trend? Seen on Rihanna with the first look of British Vogue's September issue cover, they have been causing quite a stir. Love them or hate them, they have been a perennial beauty statement throughout the ages," referencing "the screen sirens of Hollywood's Golden Era," and "the supermodels of the Nineties."

The headline of that story: "Are Razor-Thin Brows Making A Comeback?"

Pluck no, said most people on social media without raising so much as an eyebrow and while making use of the Flushed Face emoji. Even Flushed Face emoji guy has fuller brows than Rihanna in British Vogue.

"No, no one is that dumb again," responded one reader on Facebook.

Said another, "It can come back all it wants. My brows are staying.

Said another, "Meth Brows? Umm, pass."

But one person was down with the retro skinny brow -- or at least done with the microbladed, tinted and tattooed brows of now: "Anything is better than those awful drawn on caterpillar eyebrows everybody has now. Yall running around looking like you have commas and apostrophes on your faces."

Speaking of punctuation, we can't help but notice that she left the apostrophe out of "y'all." Quick, someone put your eyebrow there!

Browbeaten? Email:

jchristman@arkansasonline.com

What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood.

Style on 08/07/2018

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