The Art of Style by Kit Mills 079: Elder Eyebrows in NYC

As a person grows older, certain things about their appearance become more prominent. For some, it’s centered around clothing. The fedoras and high-waisted trousers that were once the sartorial status quo are eye-catching relics of a bygone era when worn in 2015. For others, it’s etched in the body, like an interesting pattern of deep wrinkles or an impressive nose that has only grown in size and character with age. For this gentleman I saw reading the newspaper, it is his eyebrows. They grew like luxurious caterpillars out of his forehead, gently waving in the breeze as he frowned at the latest reports of economic disaster.

Standards of acceptable grooming for eyebrows have shifted plenty throughout modern history, ranging from the sculpted arches of the 1940s to the drawn-on comet trails of the flapper era and the plucked-to-oblivion arcs of the 90s. Of course, only women were expected to adhere to these trends, with men’s brows sprouting off as they pleased through every era. However, the current eyebrow trends for all genders favor a “natural” look, which seems to mean thick and a little rough around the edges. (I suppose people who have naturally thin brows are now expected to add additional scruff with an eyebrow pencil. Natural isn’t natural enough!) Either way, this fellow fits right in, though I suspect that even if we were living in a thin brow decade he’d still look exactly the same.

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