beauty

'Why didn't anyone stop me?' Apparently we're all experiencing eyebrow blindness.

You hear that? Hear that? It's the collective rumble of sighs heard from generations of women, remembering that time they blindly messed up their brows.

And, look. Can you blame us? From pencil-thin '90s brows to Cara Delevingne-inspired thick brows and the blocky Instagram brows of 2016 — we've been THROUGH IT.

Now, in 2024, the term 'eyebrow blindness' is trending on TikTok, with people posting clips of themselves now before cutting to a 'before' picture from the past, with a rather noticeable difference in their eyebrows.

Watch: TRIED AND TESTED: Amy Clark's Brow Lamination. Post continues below.

And sweet lambs, we've all fallen victim. 

In the early 2000s, not only did I pluck and wax my brows, but one time I literally shaved the entire middle section of my brows, leaving a gaping space the width of a men's razor. Meaning? I had, like, a four-finger space in the middle of my brows and zero eyebrow tail. (ʘ‿ʘ) 

See this:

so. little. brow.

And this:

Note: I met my *literal* husband this night. With these brows.

I... I just... I thought they looked so good??

ANYWAY. The point is, it turns out we all f**ked up because lots of people are now sharing their bad brow work — and while it's very problematic and inevitably says a lot about the impact of changing beauty standards on women... you gotta admit. As messed up as it is, some of it is just funny. Because it's so damn relatable.

In the viral versions of this trend, people show their thick and blocky 'Instagram face' brows which was all the rage in 2010. You know the ones — that full, square-shaped vibe.

As one creator by the name of @maddiscott2 shared, "eyebrow blindness is so real".

@maddiscott2 Jump scare incoming xxx #fyp #foryoupage #eyebrowblindness #badeyebrows ♬ teenage dream - overlays 💐

Did someone say Anastasia Dip Brow?

Another creator by the name of @thelanarenee similarly shared her version of the pomade-ridden 2010 block brow, writing, "Literally no one suffered brow blindness more than me."

@thelanarenee Still recoveringgg 🤣🫶🏽 #browblindness ♬ Gnarls Barkley Crazy Stephen Kramer Glickman - Gustavo Rocque

But it's the more sublte changes that have grabbed the most attention. 

Creator Natalie King racked up millions of views when she shared a video of her kind of... uneven but otherwise totally harmless brows, writing "my eyebrows my whole life" before cutting to them with the fronts filled so they were closer together. 

"Me the past 48 hours since I learned I had eyebrow blindness," she wrote. 

And GAH she still looked great before but they look so much better now! 

@inatalieking shes learning guysss lol #eyebrowblindness #eyebrows #bridesmaidmakeup #unibrow #eyebrowshaping #nashville ♬ little miss sunshine - lanitas.LDR

There's also this one, where the creator wrote, "Why didn't anyone stop me!!!!!!! It was a very short period of my life. BUT STILLLL!"

And sweetie, we were all oblivious! We were too busy going too hard on our own brows!

Again, ultimately it says a lot about trend culture and how susceptible we are to getting sucked in to a 'cookie cutter' beauty industry. We're forever being told the new 'thing' to do is the opposite of what we already have — and this trend only proves it. 

It also shows how the 'ideal' brow just shifts shape every few years — and we're forever running like a hamster on a wheel, trying to catch up. Remember a year or so ago when everyone was microblading their brows? Or hopping on the brow lamination trend

As pointed out in this fantastic article by Allure, we were never really 'unaware' of our extreme eyebrow choices — we were actually hyper aware of them and simply trying to keep up with the whatever the beauty standards were at that time.

So, from the perspective of a 30-something-year-old who has done it all to her brows — don't feel like you have to follow the revolving door of micro trends. It's an impossible game of tag. 

Your brows are perfect just the way they are.

What do you think about the 'eyebrow blindness' trend? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Feature image: TikTok/@inatalieking. 

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Top Comments

d123 2 months ago 3 upvotes
Bit confused by this article, is the woman in the top left photo with thinner brows supposed to be what she thought her eyebrows looked like, but, the photo on the right with thicker brows what she actually looks like? And, which look are we supposed to hate? I think the slightly thicker eyebrows look better on her but maybe that’s because that first photo is a bad one of her as her lips look so swollen. In fact, I actually assumed that this article must be about women doing too much cosmetic stuff to their lips, because, other than the author all the women pictured have overly swollen lips. If, looking like you got punched in the mouth is the beauty aim well I guess they are killing it. 

As for the author of this piece, while I’m not a fan of overly plucked eyebrows I don’t think her brows in these photos are quite the monstrosity she seems to think they are. But, as there are no photos supplied of her current brow look it’s hard to compare as to what her eyebrows look like now.  Indeed, she looks naturally pretty, as in no obvious cosmetic surgery in these photos, so, that is refreshing to see. But, if her sentiment here is to embrace whatever nature gave us eyebrow wise I agree. I rarely ever feel critical about anyone’s natural looking eyebrows (whether they be thin or thick). It’s the fake look, whether overly plucked thin or ridiculously drawn on thick, that looks silly. So, I agree, stay natural and don’t give into the fads. 

caz gibson 2 months ago 2 upvotes
That "scary eyebrows" trend was one of the biggest makeup cons ever.
"Scary" because they were almost disfiguring - but we weren't supposed to gently mention how goddam-awful those big, black monsters were.
We valiantly hoped they'd go the way of the outlandish "brown lipliner" trend.
Still waiting............lol.