The Evolution of Eyebrows: The 28 Craziest, Boldest, Prettiest Brow Trends from the Past 100 Years

During the last leg of the silent film era, thin, rounded, and über-dramatic brows took the lead. Actresses like Clara Bow penciled their eyebrows into high-impact, drooping arches.

Stars like Billie Holiday defined the bolder, more fleshed-out arches of the 1930s.

The '40s marked the beginning of fuller, more natural-looking shapes. Joan Crawford inspired women to manicure their natural brows with a light hand.

Throughout the '50s, definition was added to natural brows with subtle pointed arches à la Marilyn Monroe.

Eyes became the focal point of 1960s beauty thanks to Twiggy's signature lashes, which meant brows were treated as more of a sideshow (read: short, neat, and understated).

The ultra-glamorous makeup of the '70s (think: vibrant eyeshadows and lots of blush) was accompanied by thin, heavily arched brows like Donna Summer's.

The '80s saw a spike in full, au naturel brows thanks to beauty icons like Brooke Shields.

Eyebrows were majorly plucked in the 1990s, with thin shapes defining the faces of models like Kate Moss.

Playing on the grungy brows of the '90s, the following decade saw even thinner, barely-there shapes on pop stars like Christina Aguilera.

Reeling from the tweezing obsession of the early 2000s, women like Angelina Jolie began to gravitate towards clean, natural shapes with minimal sculpting.

As the Kardashian Klan ascended to power, strong, powerful eyebrows followed suit.

Elongated, flat brows popped up on red carpets in 2011, especially on rounder face shapes, like Selena Gomez's.

As Cara Delevingne rose to fame in 2012, so did her incredibly bold, power brows. Thick and bushy, they purposefully contrasted with her honey-blonde hair.

Thinner brow-wearers, like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, took their own spin on high-impact brows by brushing and combing their brow hairs upward to create the illusion of volume.

In 2014, makeup artist James Kaliardos sent models down the Rodarte runway wearing faux eyebrow rings — an edgy, dramatic look that paved the way for other brow accessories.

Year 2015 marked the beginning of the "Instagram Brow" and the #OnFleek revolution. IG became the go-to destination for brow inspo thanks to beauty influencers like Patrick Starrr. You know this look well: They were perfectly brushed up at the beginning of the brow, and then faded into a super defined arch all the way to the tail.

Moving away from the plucking, waxing, and sculpting of the early aughts, 2016 served as the beginning of alternative eyebrow trends — like these bleached, whispery brows.

With 2017 came a whole new crop of unusual brow trends. Case in point: Beauty-obsessives flocked towards these weirdly beautiful feathered eyebrows created by makeup artist Stella Sironen.

Later in 2017, makeup artist Athena Paginton left us with these spiked, barbed wire brows — a look that we discovered was deceivingly hard to recreate.

Year 2017 also bore witness to bold, angular lines, as evident in trends like makeup artist Zakia Wahbi's infamous lighting bolt brows.