The Story of the New Millennium As Told Through Beyonce Knowles' Eyebrows

Racked.com:

If eyebrows are the window to the soul, then Beyoncé's eyebrows are the window the American collective consciousness. Here now, with help from Wink Brow Bar’s Founder Umbreen Sheikh, is the definitive Beyoncé eyebrow timeline, a document that spins the story of the 2000s with startling precision, not a hair loose. 

1998

Beyonce's arched eyebrows, thinned towards the end, were "so on-trend" for 1998, according to Sheikh. The cringingly appropriated bindi placed between Beyoncé's brows–a fad in the late 1990s oft-attributed to Gwen Stefani–paired with a silver lamé brocade dress reflect a smaller, more insular, pre-9/11 America. LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Robertson were still part of Destiny's Child. Beyoncé's brand, like all of our brands, and Beyoncé's eyebrows, like all of our eyebrows, had yet to be honed with exacting detail on Tumblr. And yet, the world still spun on its axis.

2001

"Here," said Sheikh, "Beyoncé is still rocking the thinner, arched brow look of the early ‘00s." Beyoncé's raised brows, particularly on the left brow, signal wryly that she has a master plan for the new millennium, even if the rest of us were still stumbling and groping our way into the early aughts.

No longer able to take solace in our Y2K contingency plans, the nation turned to Beyoncé. In 2001, "Independent Woman"  was at the top of the charts and we all thought, "This is literally my jam" in whatever the parlance was in those days.

2003

2003 was the year of Beyoncé's first solo album, "Dangerously in Love." Accordingly, her eyebrows became bolder, wilder, and more daring (The left one, I've nicknamed Bonnie, the right one, Clyde). Sheikh calls this era The Reign of the Beyoncé Power Brow. "Her brows have gone under a wonderful transformation," said Sheikh, "adding a youthfulness to her face as it helps to incorporate fullness to sharp features."

This same year ushered in an epoch of unconventional grooming and we have Beyoncé's brow to thank and nothing else. It was all Bey's brows. They weren't always the right style decisions–mustaches, fedoras resting atop faux-hawks, etc.–but they had a point of view.