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Beauty

The Evolution Of Eyebrow Trends: 1980s to Today

Bushy brows to pencil thin and everything in between.

by Patricia Fox

There is no facial feature that tells the story of time more clearly than the eyebrows. At glance, it’s easy to guess what era a brows look was from. But just like fashion, these looks continuously cycle through, return, and evolve as modern interpretations of past inspirations. Whether super thin brows like Josephine Baker’s from the 1920s flapper era pop up again in the ’90s or full and wild brows like 1980s Brooke Shields get a groomed makeover in the 2010s, there are looks we see time and again.

Tap ahead to see the biggest eyebrow trends from the 1980s to today.

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’80s Full & Free

Brooke Shields’ bold, untamed brows were one of the most famous beauty looks of this decade.

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’80s Full & Free

In the 1980s Madonna also sported full, fluffy brows that with a natural arch.

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’90s Bleached Brows

Linda Evangelista flaunted bleached brows to complement her lightened hair in 1995.

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’90s Super Skinny

Gwen Stefani’s 90s era beauty looks almost always evoked 1920s flapper brows and sometimes featured face gems.

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’90s Super Skinny

Christina Aguilera was another icon for 1990s dangerously thin eyebrows.

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’00s Sleek & Arched

The trend of purely penciled in brows had passed, however thin brows, like Angelina Jolie’s, were still trending in the early aughts.

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’00s Sleek & Arched

J.Lo had 2000s beauty down, as seen here with her well groomed, brows with a perfectly waxed arch.

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’00s Natural and Rounded

Here’s Gabrielle Union in 2008 showing off her neat, yet still soft-looking brows.

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2010s Precise and Insta-worthy

Zendaya in 2016 posed with architecturally sculpted brows that are lighter in between the brows and taper and darken towards the outer-corners.

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2010s Precise and Insta-worthy

Rihanna softened the sharp Instagram brow trend with some shimmery shadow at the arch.

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2010 Big Brows Return

Cara’s extra bushy brows were the arches everyone was chasing with serums and brow mascaras in the 2010s.

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2020s Straight-Edged

Not a hair is out of place on Zoë Kravitz who styles her full, enviable brows with a soft arch that makes her eye brows appear nearly straight.

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2020s Bleached Out Again

Mostly seen as an editorial trend, more models like Kendall Jenner have been seen with bleached 1990s brows in off-the-runway settings.

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2020s Revenge of The Skinny Brow

Bella Hadid is the modern icon for skinny brows, inspiring many a Gen Zer to start plucking.

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