Our eyebrows take such a small amount of space on our face, but they can take a BIG space on our minds, and hearts....
And they can be a cause of grief and insecurity,
But I want to shed a little light on this post, so that you can understand that a lot of this grief comes from the trends that another human being has come up with,
And that when in Islam, we are told to embrace your natural brows, and not remove any hairs from it in order to change it's shape, we are actually being liberated from having to chase these different, and ever-changing standards.
We are being freed from having to adhere to what the magazines, fashion editors, and beauty bloggers and influencers decide it's beautiful.
Because, let me show you, just how quickly and how drastic these changes can be:
In the Middle ages, you would have probably shaved your eyebrows clean off, to achieve a wide forehead, which was considered a sign of beauty and aristocracy.
In the Colonial Era, which was the time between 1607 to 1777, the trend for eyebrows was to darken them with natural and readily available items, like Coal.
Then we jump ahead, to the 1900's and starting with the 1920's the trend for eyebrows was pencil thin,(which meant lot's of plucking), and this is the time where women, started looking towards celebrities to copy their looks, which meant an ever changing swing of trends, as we will see in the slides.
By the 1930's the super thin eyebrow needed a change, and the very arched and round, (but still thin) eyebrow came in fashion, following the trend of famous movie actresses. If you lived during this time, your eyebrow arch might have reach your temples!
Then, as expected, the trend swung the other way in the 1940's, when thick, natural and well groomed eyebrows came back into play. During this time women had to stop plucking and tweezing and were encouraged by the actresses of the time to follow in the natural trend.
Then in the 1950's this trend gets even more dramatic to really emphasize the trend that was picked up in the 40's, the natural eyebrow was darkened to the max to achieve the look of actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor.
Between the 60's and 70's eyebrows go on a range of trends, and in the 70's they were not even the main focus, as bright eyeshadows took center stage.
But in the 80's, the natural trend was back, and rejoice, you can leave your eyebrows alone for a bit to embrace your natural shape....but, as expected, the trends don't stay too long in the same place, and they switch up on you: enter the thin, arched brows of the 90's...and so you see the pattern,
In one decade your brows could be totally in, in the next you would need to be best friends with the tweezers...
So, knowing this, and seeing how these trends will always keep changing, why don't we hold up to the standard that never changes, and that does not seek to make us feel like we don't belong, or that we need to change our appearance to fit in.
You are beautiful, and your eyebrows are beautiful and don't need any alteration.
So how can we start to embrace our natural brows, our natural beauty?
Number 1: Your intention
Number 2: Seek help...yes, for Eyebrows
Number 3: Get to the root..
Number 4: Experiment
And, I'm going to keep it real with you, this is not a 10 day challenge, or a 1 month thing, this is a journey, that is filled with small steps, with personal realizations and with self love, this is the journey that will help you honor the body Allah has blessed you with, with all the good that's in it, and that we can sometimes take for granted..
If you have any advice on this journey, please leave it as a comment so other sisters can benefit and so they know that they are not alone on this journey!
