For the better part of a decade, we’ve lived under the dominance of the big brow. In the early 2010s, Cara Delevingne became its poster child—her thick, natural arches helped swing the pendulum away from the pencil-thin brows of the 2000s. Soon after came the #BrowsOnFleek era, where fullness wasn’t enough—brows had to be sculpted, sharply filled, and carved into dark, graphic arches that resembled boomerangs. Pomades flew off shelves, microblading became all the rage, and everyone seemed to own at least one product from Anastasia Beverly Hills or Benefit’s brow lines.
By the latter half of the decade, the aesthetic softened into the fluffy brow. Glossier’s hero Boy Brow replaced heavy pomades, and brow lamination coaxed hairs upwards into feathery, upright soldiers. Across both phases, the mantra was clear: thicker was younger, bushier was better, and tweezers were practically taboo. But scroll through fashion Instagram or TikTok today—or the mood boards with the razor-sharp faces of Alexa Demie and Gabbriette—and you’ll see the trajectory has slightly changed. The big-brow energy that defined the 2010s is receding, making way for a look that is deliberate, architectural, and decidedly thin. It’s not just a trend; for many, it’s a rebellion against the “natural” beauty standards we’ve been fed for years.
“I prefer a skinnier brow because I feel it opens out my face,” says Shriya Zamindar, a Mumbai-based fashion journalist who has traded volume for space. For Zamindar, the shift is less about vanity and more about autonomy. “I’m totally against this concept of following a prescribed idea of keeping thicker brows because that’s what we grew up with. Beauty is a personal journey and if I choose to look unnatural, overpluck or wax it all off, it’s my choice. There’s a certain sense of freedom in making those decisions for yourself,” she adds.
That freedom, however, often meets resistance at the salon chair. In a country where “thick and dark” brows are the standard for Indian beauty, asking an aesthetician to go thin is met with a set of raised eyebrows in itself. “Beauty salons are too afraid to take that risk,” Zamindar adds. “They operate with a standardised idea of beauty and are sometimes unable to grasp that we don’t all prescribe to the same idea.”
For many, the thin brow is a nostalgic nod to the silver screen. While the West looks to Kate Moss and Pamela Anderson, Indian women have their own blueprints. “People often forget how thin eyebrows were also sported by Bollywood icons such as Zeenat Aman,” notes Molly Sood, a creative professional based in Paris, who started her brow-defining journey two years ago. For Sood, the choice was about facial geometry. “Being someone who naturally never had thick eyebrows, I found the skinny look brought out my naturally big eyes and helped me achieve a very ’90s look.”
