In the 1950s I guess it was the style to have gigantic eyebrows like two moustaches. Audrey Hepburn and Joan Crawford had eyebrows that just could not be natural. I’ve never seen anyone with eyebrows that big. In closeups, they look to be real hair, not just pencil. I’ve seen photos of both of them and it almost makes me think they were glued on or something.
Were they real? Or were they glued on?
Audrey’s were mostly penciled-in; you can see the reflection off the eyebrown pencil in some photos. Crawford’s were actually real—she kept 'em thick for the rest of her life, after growing them in from the pencil-thin '30s look.
I just saw Jean Harlow in Bombshell the other night and was stunned again at the high, arched drag-queen brows that were popular in '33.
Bette Davis had those caterpiller brows too. They were supposed to make ones eyes look bigger. :dubious:
I’ve seen photos of Joan Crawford where they look like two little manicured lawns. I just don’t know how she did it. I’ve seen photos of her 20s and 30s where they were obviously shaved/plucked but if she spent a couple of decades fighting back those natural brows it must have been a full time job.
I think it helped her face look better as she got older but I wonder how she came up with the notion to have big eyebrows. I always think she looked at a photo of Gregory Peck and decided he would be a good role model. I like the way it looks, but I just don’t really understand her thinking. I always think of Joan Crawford as being the genius mastermind of the face. Or maybe the exact opposite. Tough call. Either way I guess I think she made a decision to get the big eyebrows and then it seems like a pretty lucky break that her forehead just provided them. I couldn’t do that even with rogaine.
The other thing that freaks me out is she looks sort of older to me in The Women than she does in Sudden Fear and I think it’s the eyebrows. It really puzzles me more than it should.
Still, she always looked gorgeous.
Eyebrow styles come and go. I was in high school in 1984 and had lovely eyebrows for the era - very Brooke Shields - and didn’t do anything but pluck in the middle a bit. Now I pluck almost daily so I look don’t look like Groucho Marx.
And I think Audrey Hepburn’s eyebrows look positively delicate compared to what I look like without tweezers.
Audery Hepburn’s eyebrows, although large, suited her face well. It also helped that she had such a pretty face. Joan Crawford, on the other hand, looked severe and slightly frightening with them, IMO.
After a while plucked eyebrows will quit growing back. I wish I hadn’t thinned mine out quite so much.
