Fashion goes high-brow



From having full brows to shaving them off, or even matching their colour to the mane, fashionistas are playing around with their eyebrows this year
Not since Brooke Shields and Farah Fawcett in the 80s has there been so much focus on the hairy archs of a face. Call it the power of two, but supermodel Cara Delevinge's bushy brows and the social media have amped up the eyebrow game. So, be it in shape, colour, accessories or maintenance, eyebrows is where the action is this year. Given the fact that the eyebrows lend an expression that can easily make or mar your face, here's looking at its trends...

ANTI-BROW BRIGADE

If trends were not bizarre enough, it has also spawned a series of anti-brow trends. This is done in varying degrees of eyebrow rebellion -either by playing it down or bleaching it to oblivion à la Kim Kardashian, who flaunted a half brow or even doing away with it completely .

PAINT AND MATCH

Painted eyebrows are not an attempt at surrealism through a book or art, but for real. Girls are either matching their archs with their hair colour or painting it in the seven colours of a rainbow. You can also choose to replace the rainbow hued brows with blingy crystal for a glitter brow (See pictures that have gone viral on photo-sharing sites). But what's really considered to be a power statement is the floating brow. Also referred to as the double brow or under eyebrow, this style requires creating a second brow (either with make-up colours or glitters) under the existing one.

GETTING SQUARE

Stylists swear by the arched look, which they believe is timeless. Women today are more inclined to have ample eyebrows -one that is natural and fuss-free. What is in demand is the flat brow -it entails having a square shape near the inner eye and a sharp diagonal angle at the arch. However, this look is not recommended for those with round faces.

RETRO RECALL

While Marlene Dietrich's skinny sets may not find favour in today's times, Liz Taylor's dramatic archs do. Many fashionistas still choose to sport the heavily pencilled look of the 60s -the brows are filled in with a dark shade pencil. As for people who like to grunge, they are opting to use eyebrow rings that were popular in the 90s.

COSMETIC SOLUTIONS

People who have sparse brow growth or want to do away with the daily hassle of maintaining their archs are opting for semipermanent cosmetic solutions. The most popular being microblading -fine hair-like strokes are created with a special pigment using microblade; it lasts for more than a year. The other popular technique is the brow extension, where tiny synthetic hair dipped in skin-safe glue, is applied to the brow.

WAXING'S THE NEW TWEEZE

Once relegated to guybrows as men tend to have coarse hair, women are now choosing to wax their eyebrows than thread them more than ever. It's quick and gives the brows a sharp definition. This trend is spreading far and wide among Mumbai's numerous parlours.Women who have coarse brow hair prefer waxing to threading as they find it less painful and tedious.

Aacharya Atre Yanche Nivadak Vinod