There’s no denying Alix Earle is a beauty trend-setter. The 23-year-old TikToker initially made waves by popularizing the trend of wearing white eyeliner in her waterline, a decision she’s since turned her back on. Now, the University of Miami alum has taken her influence a step further by dramatically bleaching her brows—a choice that’s taken social media by storm.
Earle shared a before-and-after of the brow-dying process on TikTok. The clip, which has already garnered over four million views, shows her initially applying what appears to be cream bleach, followed by the big reveal of her bleached-blonde brows.
Her followers’ opinions are sharply divided. “I don’t know why everyone’s hating; it looks low-key and fierce,” one person commented. Another less-enthused fan wrote, “Okay girl, now dye em back.”
Several people mentioned that she resembles Lady Gaga in the fifth season of American Horror Story, called Hotel. The comparison isn’t far off; in that season, Gaga sported bright blonde hair and similarly bleached brows.
At the time of writing, Earle hasn’t posted another TikTok to clarify whether she plans to keep her bleached brows for the foreseeable future or if this was merely a temporary look. Either way, Earle’s in good company when it comes to celebrities who’ve dyed their brows in recent years: Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Lily James, among others. It’s hardly surprising that this trend has resurfaced, given the resurgence of ’90s and early 2000s styles like French manicures, glossy lined lips, and French twists.
“The 90s and early 00s are back with a vengeance, and this includes the generation of bleached brows,” celebrity eyebrow expert and owner of Joey Healy Eyebrow Studio, Joey Healy, previously told NewBeauty. “The look was very runway and was pioneered by makeup artists such as Kevyn Aucoin. It was also very popular with supermodels like Claudia Schiffer. This led to us seeing the look throughout the late ’90s to the early ’00s.”
If you want to give the bleached brow trend a try at home without reaching for bleach, celebrity makeup artist Ermahn Ospina previously told NewBeauty that you can recreate a similar look with brow gel. “The key is to get it to be the same tone as your skin, so it all but disappears,” he says.
Healy added, “When you apply a mascara-like product, you really want to work it into the brow in all directions. You don’t want to just glaze the top. You want to really get in there down to the base layer, behind the brow,” he said. “This will visually erase all of the hairs and eliminate those dark shadows.”
Another option is to use concealer. “Dip your spoolie into your concealer and brush it through your brows,” celebrity makeup artist Jenna Nicole told NewBeauty in a previous interview. Healy said it should boast “more of a mousse texture, instead of pressed cream…the concealer should be a little textured, lightweight, somewhat movable, but still full coverage.” The key, he says, is to apply it in layers. Patience is key to perfect it.
