In ancient cultures, the unibrow was considered a desirable and attractive trait. Here in the modern-day Western world, however, we'd rather have scalding hot wax ripped off our faces in dangerously close proximity to our eyes than cultivate a bit of hair between the brows. But while the rest of us have been conditioned to think that the area is best kept hairless unless you're a (male) rock star (George Harrison, Frank Zappa) or an iconic post-revolutionary Mexican painter (the one and only Frida Kahlo), model Sophia Hadjipanteli is taking over Instagram, one unibrow selfie at a time.
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The 20-year-old social-media star, who's also a marketing student at the University of Maryland, has garnered nearly 50,000 followers thanks to her striking look. A natural blonde, Hadjipanteli actually tints her brows nearly black to emphasize their shape and size — but other than that, it's her Greek-Cypriot genetics, not grooming, that have blessed her with the statement feature. "If you’re in a family where your brother and dad also have really nice eyebrows, you’re never really self-conscious of having thick eyebrows," she told Harper's Bazaar.
It was only when Hadjipanteli took her looks to Instagram that her perception shifted. After the intense criticism she's faced from commenters (just one recent example: "Waving your unibrow is not making a statement, it's just not talking care of yourself lmao"), the model has made it her mission to spread the gospel of the #UnibrowMovement. "Until people start to accept others for this specific feature on their face, I won't feel ready to move on from it," she said. We all have our calling — and Hadjipanteli's just happens to be making the monobrow cool again.
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