From shaved to tattooed: the world has seen all kinds of eyebrows, literally

Deepika Padukone's unibrow has brought back the unibrow and discussion around eyebrows

A dusky, smiling Deepika Padukone, with folded hands is  Rani Padmavati in the poster of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming  movie Padmavati. The thing that draws attention to the poster is Deepika's unibrow. Love it or hate it, the unibrow has suddenly come back, with a huge bang.

Deepika plays Rani Padmavati in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming movie

So let us take a look at the history of eyebrows across the world.

Where did it all begin?

Queen Nefertiti had beautiful eyebrows that everyone wanted

Queen Nefertiti's bust displayed in Neues Museum in Berlin tells us that eyebrows in ancient Egypt were arched brows darkened with powders made from minerals. The forehead was the most important feature of the medieval period, which is why women often removed their eyelashes and eyebrows.

Queen Elizabeth's reddidh blond hair lead to many colouringtheir own eyebrows

In England, the 15th century, Queen Elizabeth's reddish blonde hair colour inspired many women in her country to dye their hair and brows in similar reddish shades. In the 19th century however, women who wore obvious makeup were frowned and thought of as prostitutes, which is why ladies of breeding left their brows quite bushy and untamed.

Movie stars decide look of the eyebrow in every few yeras

In the 1920's, it gave way to needle thin eyebrows and in the next decade, it was needle thin curved eyebrows, made famous by popular actresses of Hollywood.

Shaving off eyebrows

Expressions were determined by shape of eyebrows

The turn came about in the 60's when eyebrows would  be shaven off completely and redrawn in desirable shape. This was also done in India by dancers, who wanted their eyebrows to be used in conveying specific  expressions. The eyebrow pencil would be used to create fake, but beautifully shaped eyebrows.

Bushy Eyebrows

Shilpa in earlier days with bushy eyebrows

It was 1970's that began the trend of bushy eyebrows. It began with the hippie movement. The idea was to look 'natural' with no trimming of body hair. This trend caught the attention of actresses in Bollywood in the late eighties and early nineties with actresses like Karishma Kapoor and Shilpa Shetty.

Unibrows

Karishma Kapoor was the most recognisable heroine in the ninties for her bushy eyebrows

In Ancient Greece, people valued purity, so women often left their brows untouched or darkened slightly with black powder. In both Greece, as well as Rome, unibrows were prized as beautiful, desirable features worn by the most intelligent and lusted-after women. If one didn't have a unibrow, they would create one with black paint.

Kajol is the only female Bollywood star with unibrow

And in many nearby Central Asian countries, like Tajikistan and Azerbaijan, the unibrow is still preferred to shapely eyebrows. It is seen as a symbol of purity for women and virility for men. Closer home, unibrow of course was made quite the rage by Kajol for the longest time and now it's Deepika in Padmavati.

'Threaded' eyebrows

Marilyn Monroe's eyebrows were beautifully shaped

Eyebrow looks kept changing, with threaded being the only constant idea. Curves, rounded or straight or arched would keep changing, usually according to the styles sported by famous celebrities or actresses. In India too, most beauty trends, not excluding eyebrows are influenced by Bollywood.

Tattooed Eyebrows

Tattooed eyebrows is the current fashion trend

While unibrows maybe the buzz in India, in abroad, tattooed eyebrows are quite the rage. Tired of shaping them after every month many get them fixed. Also, they look perfect, even after you might have got drenched in rain. But like every cosmetic procedure, it needs touch ups,post a year and is pretty expensive with the process costing 400 US dollars or approximately 2600 rupees.

Unibrow, no brow or tattooed brow, eyebrow fashion keeps swinging like a pendulum from thick to sleek in every couple of decades. The point is to do exactly how you please, keep them in whichever way you please. In some country or the other, your kind of eyebrows would mean something amazing anyway, so why bother?