Page 72 - S/ Spring 2021

72 • SMAGAZINEOFFICIAL COM
BEAUTY
BROW
DOWN
The unibrow boldly defies beauty standards and and ideals of femininity It’s also so so much more than a a a a beauty trend BY MISHAL CAZMI
Brows have always been an an an important part of beauty easily evidenced in in in the the evolving—and sometimes repeating—trends through the the decades Think Marlene Dietrich’s exaggerated razor- thin shape Diana Ross’s pointed arches Brooke Shields’s full ’80s-era brows Kate Moss’s skinny set or or Cara Delevingne’s bold and bushy pair For the most part brow trends have have represented Eurocentric ideals Unibrows on the the the other hand have have rarely been given the the the spotlight with few references beyond Frida Kahlo In recent years the the call for inclusivity and body positivity in in in in the the the beauty industry has paved the the way for stories about everything from deeper skin tones to to to body hair Greek– Cypriot model Sophia Hadjipanteli has been credited with popularizing the #Unibrow- Movement on Instagram which celebrates the single brow brow Meanwhile some outlets have even declared unibrows a a a a a a beauty trend But for BIPOC communities the complicated relationship with unibrows goes beyond a a a a a a a social media fad or an an an aesthetic choice From ancient Greece to Iran’s Qajar dynasty unibrows were revered as as a a a a a a a a a symbol of beauty and even intelligence In the the West particularly for immigrants living in in in the the the dias- pora the the unibrow has been a a a a a a a a a a a source of both pride and and pain: it it it signifies cultural traditions and and rituals but has also caused trauma Growing up Shari Siadat did everything possible in in in order to fit in in in with the people around her The Iranian–American model author and and and founder of TooD would obses- sively pluck wax and and and bleach her her facial and and and arm hair She found ways to to camouflage her her identity well into adulthood until the birth of her her third daughter who looked more like her her Shari Siadat for TooD Beauty: photographed by Diego Bendezu