My eyebrows curl a little in some places unless I keep them in shape with a strong gel.

This is just one of many insights into these fine hairs.

If an intimate relationship with one's own brows is possible, then I have it.

Even as a child they were rather dark and bushy.

When I later started doing my make-up, they had to go through a lot: As was usual in the 1990s, I filled in the brows excessively, defined them precisely and used hot wax and tweezers for the beautiful shape.

My eyebrows have already undergone a chemical straightening, in which they were combed strictly upwards.

However, I have never plucked them thin.

My mother's horror stories of brow baldness always put me off.

And something else I haven't tried yet:

Johanna Schwanitz

volunteer

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The brightening isn't that far off.

If you look at the catwalks in New York and Paris, you see many faces with bleached eyebrows.

Bella Hadid and Nicola Peltz Beckham have long worn their brows light blonde in contrast to their dark hair.

The fashion and beauty search engine Tagwalk has recorded that the runway shows in September and October showed almost 100 percent more bleached eyebrows compared to last year.

"Underdog of bleached eyebrows"

Berlin make-up artist Philipp Verheyen has been familiar with the trend for some time.

He refers to the 90s and noughties, to models like Kate Moss and Linda Evangelista.

Lady Gaga has been wearing her eyebrows light blonde for 14 years: "She's sort of the underdog of bleached eyebrows."

Maybe it's worth trying it out?

What have I got to lose?

Eyebrows eventually grow back.

So I drive to Berlin, to Andreas Kurkowitz's hairdressing salon.

I'm meeting up with Philipp Verheyen there.

The trained hairdresser and make-up artist knows how to get dark, bushy, unruly brows under control: "We'll see a real change there."

That's what scares me.

You know the photos of celebrities who have their eyebrows removed to show how important eyebrows are because they frame the face.

Do I look similar?

Philipp Verheyen also says that not everyone looks the same with bleached brows.

It suits an extrovert better than a down-to-earth person.

So can I wear the almost invisible eyebrows?

Or are they carrying me?

Verheyen mixes bleach and developer together in a bowl.

If you want to bleach your brows yourself at home, it is better to go to a hairdresser's shop than to buy it in a drugstore or on the Internet, says Verheyen.

He recommends getting advice from professionals to match the strength of the bleaching to the skin and hair.

Before actually applying the bleaching paste, he outlined my brows with a layer of Nivea cream.

This protects the skin from irritation.

Verheyen also recommends this to those who dare to try the experiment themselves.

The bluish bleaching tingles on the skin.

This corresponds roughly to my expectations of the result.

Even before the exposure time is over, I can see the first light hairs.

Even now my own face is alien to me, as if a part is missing.