By Janvi Sai, Contributor 

In these past few months I have made it one of my missions in life to achieve a complexion as glossy as a glazed doughnut. With an almost religious skincare routine and iridescent highlighter, I aspire to be able to signal aliens from my bedroom. Lockdown has brought the pursuit for glass skin in my life, but to my surprise has also rekindled an unusual romance. 

An epic twist in my beauty saga, my bushy eyebrows have come back to life for the second act. 

But how can this be; I thought I killed them?

Or so I thought. At the dawn of puberty, I grew a moustache before the boys in my class, had a gap between my front teeth, was the only one in my class with a big curly hairdo, and did not have two eyebrows but one long one; so no, middle school was not fun. Fed up with taunts from classmates and feeling like an outsider, I took matters into my own hands. I snuck into my parents’ bathroom after school while my mom was still at work, “borrowed” her tweezers, and went to town with them. I expected to transform into a fabulous and adored brown Kate Moss, but instead I was grounded for turning myself into Charlize Theron in Monster (2003) and no one at school even mentioned my eyebrows. 

And ever since, I have been on-and-off again with my unruly bad boy brows. 

At one point I read on the internet that brushing my eyebrows with a toothbrush would help them grow, and since this advice was coming from the internet, obviously it was completely true and I had to try it. 

photo credit: Janvi Sai

But next thing I knew, I was plucking away my eyebrows again in the hopes of looking like the white girls at school. I gave eyebrow threading aunties and waxing centers the go-ahead on disfiguring my thick eyebrows into fragile twigs. 

Now, during these unprecedented times, the glossy glass skin look has brought me indulgence in self-care and an embracement of individualized and natural “un-Instagram” beauty. 

I have begun rejecting Eurocentric beauty standards by appreciating my curls and the masti in my melanin. 

As for my current relationship status with my eyebrows, I have replaced my tweezers for castor oil. My newfound confidence in my eyebrows is here to stay, for they are unabashedly Desi.

About — Janvi Sai is a student at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is passionate about Rooh Afza, soundtracks, and the heated debate over what constitutes as “real” biryani. Janvi can be reached at js5707@barnard.edu or found on Instagram @janvisai. 

Cover photo of: Kajol in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge