I don’t mean to press the panic button on you, but I think thin eyebrows are back in fashion. What the hell? Every woman who lived through the 00s, either as an adult or an impressionable teenager, counts over-plucking their eyebrows as their single biggest beauty regret, do they not? When it comes to youthful transgressions, plucking your eyebrows into one single file above your lids is up there with drinking one too many alcopops at a party, or dating that older emo kid just to teach your parents a lesson. We live and we do not learn, it would seem.

Possibly more alarming than the news itself is that I’m kind of excited about this development, despite what I *literally* just said about foolishly reliving our mistakes. Don’t get me wrong—I love myself a naturally full brow as much as I do a good sleep (lots!), but for anyone who isn’t Brooke Shields or Bambi Northwood-Blyth, it’s cool that another version of beautiful is creeping back onto the scene when it comes to our facial hair. Gwen Stefani and Drew Barrymore’s pencil-thin brows are probably drinking champagne somewhere in celebration as we speak. I don’t know about you, but I’ve already enthusiastically drafted up my goodbyes to the very obviously drawn-on, dyed-to-the-nines, caterpillar-esque brows that have birthed from this obsession with bushy face framers. I’ll be happy to see the back of that look. 

So how did we end up here? From the return of the low-rise jean and the ~going out~ top, to the tiny designer bags and hoops that we’re using to spice up our outfits, there’s no denying the 00s are back, baby! Don’t believe me? Just ask my blue eyeshadow. It’s little wonder, then, that sky-high, pencil-thin arches—the cornerstone of the late 90s and early 2ks—are trickling back onto the scene. My main hunch, though, is that Bella Hadid is single-handedly bringing back the trend. The supermodel has naturally fine, fair brows, and instead of using various means of trickery to amp them up to #instabrow proportions, she’s choosing to embrace their natural look. And she looks fucking stunning, IMO.

For all my downfalls, sparse eyebrows are not one of them. In fact, I’m (#humblebrag) pretty well-endowed when it comes to my arches. One of my admitted downfalls, though, is that I’m an absolute sucker when it comes to beauty trends. On a recent trip to the Benefit Cosmetics HQ (where their lovely brow wizard tidies up my unruly little John Howard brows on a monthly basis), I brashly proclaimed I wanted a skinny brow lewk. She advised against, unsurprisingly.

Eyebrow hair takes months, sometimes years, to grow back. As my mum loves to tell me, sometimes eyebrow hair doesn’t grow back at all. Unless you are like Bella and have naturally fine brows, I’d recommend stepping the hell away from the tweezers immediately. I repeat, do not try this trend at home. If you do happen to have naturally thin eyebrows, remember that brow shaping is a pro’s game—so save your arches for them.

Words, Madeleine Woon.