Do I Have ‘Eyebrow Blindness’?

If you're on any social media platforms, chances are you've seen the phrase "eyebrow blindness" being thrown around. It might be on a video of a creator asking their audience if it looks like they have the "condition," or a comment left on a video telling someone they do have it. (The latter isn't exactly kind.) To know if you have eyebrow blindness, first you have to understand exactly what it is.

If you haven't shaped your eyebrows since 2000's skinny arches or you ignore them altogether, you just might have eyebrow blindness. If you took a razor to your unibrow in middle school and shaved off a bit too much, you also may have it. Eyebrow blindness is the theory that you think your brows look great as they are but you're "blind" to how much they don't fit your face. This theory started after an eyebrow filter became popular on TikTok. When superimposed over your face, it shows exactly where your brows should be, including the arch. Of course, it's not a perfect AI match to your face, but on most people, it's a pretty accurate representation of the general brow area.

When folks started using the filter about this time last year, they were shocked to see how "off" their brows were. And it's affecting people of all ages. Gen Xers and millennials realized their overplucked brows were too far away from each other, and Gen Zers decided that maybe they took the brow lamination trend a bit too far. Some fought the change, while others embraced it. For example, creator Keri B, who falls into Gen X, used the filter to fill in her arches with eyebrow pencil. Her TikTok has more than a million views with thousands of comments from fellow Gen Xers supporting her eyebrow journey. "What I thought would be just for a good laugh, turned into something much bigger," Keri recently shared. "I want to thank all of you who took the time to comment, give your suggestions, give your guidance, and follow me on this journey to rediscovering my eyebrows."

Now, like everything on social media, the eyebrow blindness trend has a dark side. Some are taking it upon themselves to tell people they don't know that they have eyebrow (or blush, or blonde, or lip liner) blindness. We say, let people do their makeup and wear their brows how they like. That is, until they ask for advice. Then, the eyebrow filter definitely comes in handy.