Low brows 'very high-brow among young'

February 7, 2007 - 10:59AM

High, perfectly-arched eyebrows are no longer the aesthetic ideal, according to research showing low-lying brows hold more appeal for young people.

A new survey by German scientists has found a shift in brow trends, with arches that sit high and peak in the middle now out of favour.

"Young people up to 29 years of age judge arched eyebrows to be unattractive and prefer the lower positioned eyebrow with a maximum in the lateral third,"

Instead, those that curve lower over the eye and peak one-third from the outside are deemed more attractive, so this is what women are requesting, they say.

But Australian plastic surgeons argue that this shape has been the ideal all along.

Researchers at the German University of Regensburg and Johns Hopkins University in the US showed pictures of women with different shaped brows to 350 people of all ages.

"Young people up to 29 years of age judge arched eyebrows to be unattractive and prefer the lower positioned eyebrow with a maximum in the lateral third," they wrote in the journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

"This form has become more prevalent over the past several years and can currently be described as the new ideal."

The researchers urged plastic surgeons to stop lifting the arches too high on the back of their results.

"Current concepts of brow lift indications need to be reconsidered," they wrote.

"The eyebrows are frequently placed too high, with the eyebrow arch in the middle, frequently leaving the patients with an unnatural astonished expression."

But Sydney-based plastic surgeon Dr Steve Merten said the definition of an attractive eyebrow has always been low-lying with the peak on the outside.

"The textbooks have never suggested an arch in the middle," said Dr Merten, spokesman for the Australian Society for Plastic Surgeons.

"The problem was not the definition but that the lifting techniques we used tended to be more vertical and more towards the middle, which wasn't ideal."

He said the brow lift operation - which costs between $6,000 and $10,000 - has surpassed eyelid reductions in popularity in recent years.

Surgeons increasingly used the anti-wrinkle chemical Botox to manipulate brow shape and position without surgery, Dr Merten said.

© 2007 AAP

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