Bushy isn’t usually a word that we associate with chic hair trends. But apparently the memo went out to beauty teams for the spring/summer 2019 shows that bushy brows (read: really full) are still on trend, and we saw countless runways filled with them.
At Christian Siriano those bushy brows couldn’t be hidden under wide-brimmed hats. For Noon by Noor it was all about clean skin with full brows and minimal makeup. Pamella Roland took it one step further, having no makeup makeup on her spring/summer 2019 runway, showing full bush eyebrows and blemishes the same.
While it’s become such a hot trend that influencers now give tutorials on how to fake a bushy brow if you weren’t born with the natural base for it, we all know that eyebrow trends are fleeting. Television shows like Pose, and Glow easily remind us that the eighties were a time of pencil thin brows—a time I’m hoping to never go back to.
For some of my naturally bushy haired colleagues it might feel like too little too late. But on the contrary, I say it’s never too late for beauty ideals to evolve. Perhaps as a teenager or in your early twenties you did everything to play down your full brows—and now you’re being told to let them grow in as big as your face will allow. This should be a time to embrace what your momma gave you.
A model walks the runway at the Noon by Noor Spring/Summer 2019 fashion show (Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images) 
A model backstage at Noon By Noor
(Photo by Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images)
I remember my first brow wax. I was 20, and my friend insisted that my eyebrows were unbearable. S0 she took me to a place she frequented, and they did a decent clean up—not making the brows too thin. Within hours I’d broken out so badly it looked like I had cystic acne. I stayed away from brow removal for years after that until my cousin took me to a threading parlor in lower Manhattan, and I found the only hair removal option that doesn’t cause irritation to my skin, on any part of my body, to this day.
So when I see brows so bushy they look like awnings hanging over the eyes like protectors from the elements, I feel proud. Not only is it a trend that I can participate in, I can do it naturally, which is one of the reasons why I hope that it shakes trend status, and like skinny jeans, is here to stay. Perhaps there will be room to wear your brows in other ways (the way flares are still cute and we love a great boyfriend jean), but bushy will be the tried-and-true that looks great on everyone.
For me, it comes down to three main reasons that I have to champion for the trend as a mainstay.
- It’s cost efficient. If your natural brows are thick and full you can save a lot of money not shaping, threading and tweezing all the time. One trip to the salon each month should do the trick, with DIY grooming at home for touch ups. With the average thread job costing as little as $8, it’s significantly cheaper to wear bushy brows than their thin counterparts. And if your brows don’t grow in as lustrous, brow growth and grooming products still won’t break your bank but last long.
- The bushy brow trend is part of a no makeup makeup look that promotes natural beauty. If I’m being honest, my no makeup makeup tends to be actually no makeup. My favorite routine is tinted moisturizer, Vaseline on the lips, and a little brow grooming. It takes about 5 minutes and it’s easy, and again, inexpensive. The bushier the trend, the better for my unruly brows. I love to get dolled up, but I also love to look most like myself. I feel like the more people see my natural face, bushy brows and all, the less jarring it is when they see me with nothing on.
- Bushy brows and natural hair seemed to go hand in hand on the runways, and that’s never a bad thing. It’s unclear if it was intentional on the part of designers and their beauty teams, but Black models with natural hair was heavy for spring and summer, all the way into resort. Just as we hope that that isn’t a trend in fashion and beauty that’ll fail to come back around for September’s upcoming shows, I’m rooting for bushy brows as the look if that’s a push towards natural. The natural hair movement happening across the globe has finally spilled over into fashion and beauty and I just hope that it can get enough love to become the norm. So if the look is a really full brow with that natural hair, I’ll take it.