What Every Woman Can Learn From Frida Kahlo’s Bold Unibrow

The brief, wondrous life of Frida Kahlo still seduces us on what would be her 109th birthday. The haunting resonance of her portraits aside, 62 years after the artist’s death, her personal style remains so intoxicating we can’t help but borrow from it ourselves—the floral crowns, the epic braids, an affinity for cactus gardens simultaneously reaching their cultural apex in recent years. You can practically hear her oft-quoted phrase, “I am my own muse,” reverberating from Instagram’s selfie-centric solipsism. And, now, perhaps her most idiosyncratic feature, that dark, ungroomed unibrow, is finally getting its day in the sun.

Just this spring, beauty’s most fearless bad gal, Rihanna, teased her single “Kiss It Better” with an Instagram revealing that the gap between her eyebrows had been closed by a smear of dark pigment—this on the heels of wearing a man’s suit to announce the Anti world tour in January, à la Kahlo’s Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair. Meanwhile, the 29-year-old performance artist Millie Brown regularly pencils in oversize wild arches that threaten to connect at the inner corners. And offering proof that the look is about to go mainstream, L.A. natural brow guru Kristie Streicher says a handful of clients are beginning to opt for the feral appeal of a unified line of hair above the eyes. As she puts it, “it’s almost like the brow equivalent of a Mohawk”—one that demands the wearer give up classic, controlled lines in favor of disruption and unfailing self-confidence.

Certainly in Kahlo’s case, brows represented a denouncement of outside opinions. As an artist, she famously dodged being categorized as a painter and rejected running in Parisian avant-garde circles in favor of cultivating a distinct visual and cultural identity. With her unconventional arches, she succeeded in creating an indelible image that’s as emblazoned in the collective consciousness as the face of the Mona Lisa. It’s a blueprint for breaking the mold—and in this landmark year for women’s empowerment, what could be more modern than a single defining feature that says you’re a force to be reckoned with? Here’s to taking your future beauty cues from the trailblazing legacy of a woman who meant business, right down to her eyebrows.

 

The post What Every Woman Can Learn From Frida Kahlo’s Bold Unibrow appeared first on Vogue.