Celebrities are obsessed with every last detail of their famous visages—even their hairlines become the subject of meticulous nitpicking. I mean, Marilyn Monroe famously underwent electrolysis to remove her widow's peak and Kim Kardashian has admitted to waxing off her excess baby hairs for a cleaner look. That's dedication.
But while the aforementioned measures taken are more extreme cases, there's another, more subtle technique that celebrities are employing to tinker with their hairlines. In fact, it's so undetectable that it's been happening before your eyes for years. The secret? They're making their hairlines look more precise and bold by filling them in with eyeshadow.
The biggest fans of this fix are the Kardashian sisters, whose longtime hairstylist Jen Atkin uses the technique to make their natural, raven-black hair look thicker. If you're skeptical of the results, look no further than their signature slick backs for evidence of the picture-perfect, not-a-baby-hair-in-sight look.
And it's not just Hollywood makeup artists and hairstylists primping stars for the red carpet that are using this go-to. It's a technique that's also become popular in Korea, where K-beauty companies are releasing hairline specific products, like Holika Holika's Wonder Drawing Hairline Maker, a spongey pen that contains pigment for pressing into the scalp.
"Filling in your hairline is not any different than filling in your brows," explains NYC hairstylist Kat Zemtsova. "It acts like a frame to your face, making your features look more balanced."
If you want to give it a go without doling out mad money for a new a product, all you need is a makeup brush for blending and a matte shadow that matches your natural hair color—but you've got to tread lightly. "Stay within the frame of your hairline, staying away from any section where you don't have hair to blend into," advises Zemstsova.
Since becoming aware of this phenomenon, I've decided that hairlines are, in fact, the new brows—given that every famous forehead I've dissected seems to be inexplicably perfect. And so, I plan to test drive the method on my own hairline, which has suffered its fair share of whittling thanks to peroxide, bobby pins, and hot tools alike. I'll be sure to report back.
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