We’ve all had those eyebrow accidents where something goes wrong with the wax, or you go pluck-crazy and are left with a teensy row of hairs above your eyes. What if those “accidents” started happening on purpose? In an article that reads more like an April Fool’s joke than serious journalism, The New York Times reports that the latest beauty trend is razed eyebrows. Yes, as in no brows. See, Kim Kardashian even did it.

At left, Michelle Obama. At right, Michelle Obama’s makeup artist, Ingrid Grimes-Miles. Don’t their faces look eerily similar? See, ladies? The shape of your eyebrows and your makeup can change your face. [NYMag.com]

Michelle Obama’s expressions seemed a little softer this weekend. That’s because she underwent an eyebrow makeover. After bloggers warned that her eyebrows could cost her husband the election and pundits like Bill O’Reilly said her intense look was too angry or severe, Obama got the message that her brows needed to be revamped. Obama’s makeup artist, Ingrid Grimes-Myles, is willing to take all the blame because she said her personal aesthetic is a high arch, so she trained Obama’s brows to grow in that shape. Then in late summer, the criticism over the brows reached critical mass and the makeup artist took note, bringing the brows down and training them to grow in that direction, instead. To groom Obama’s brows, Grimes-Myles uses Tweezerman tweezers and a combo of brow powders and pencils. [ChicagoTribune.com]

Manscaping isn’t just a trend, it’s a bare necessity. While women have been waxing and plucking their eyebrows for ages, gentlemen are finally catching on and it’s become an eye-opening phenomenon. Salons and barbershops across the country are reporting record numbers of guys getting their brows waxed, tweezed, shaped, and shaved. Even Sephora is offering special products to de-unibrow dudes and even enhance their arch—like Gaultier’s $18 Monsieur Groomer gel. But is too much of a good thing, like manscaping, not a good thing at all?