Though the band is known for iconic hits, wild tours, and rebellious spirit, what happened during a quiet spring weekend
In the long and winding tale of rock ‘n’ roll history, few stories are as peculiar—and amusing—as The Great Rolling Stones Eyebrow Incident of 2007. Though the band is known for iconic hits, wild tours, and rebellious spirit, what happened during a quiet spring weekend in 2007 has lived on in whispered backstage chatter and fan lore: the day The Rolling Stones accidentally lost their eyebrows.
It all began in early April 2007, just ahead of a surprise photoshoot in Los Angeles intended to promote their upcoming European leg of the A Bigger Bang tour. The band had gathered at a private residence in Beverly Hills, where a team of stylists, makeup artists, and image consultants had been brought in to give the legendary group a “fresh yet timeless” look.
But as insiders would later reveal, a bizarre mix-up in the makeup trailer led to an unforgettable grooming disaster.
The Mishap
According to crew member “Danny M.” who later gave a tongue-in-cheek interview to Classic Rock Magazine, a freelance stylist mistook a container of depilatory cream for eyebrow wax. The cream was applied to Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts—all of whom were in good spirits and completely unaware of what was happening.
“At first, we thought it was just some fancy cooling gel,” said Ronnie Wood in a 2014 retrospective interview. “Then we started feeling this burning tingle… and the next thing we knew—poof! Gone. Clean as a whistle.”
Jagger, known for his flamboyant appearance and expressive facial features, was said to be “visibly horrified” when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
“He said, ‘My God, I look like a ghostly eel!’” recalled longtime tour manager Tony King. “He was pacing around in his robe yelling, ‘Eyebrows are half the emotion in a performance!’”
Damage Control
With a major press event scheduled for the following day, panic erupted. Emergency eyebrow pencils were flown in. Makeup artists spent hours trying to reconstruct each band member’s distinct brow lines using cosmetic stencils, mascara, and even bits of finely trimmed fake mustaches.
Keith Richards, famously unfazed by nearly everything, reportedly found the situation hilarious. “I always said we were shedding our old image,” he joked to a French journalist weeks later. “Didn’t know it’d start from the eyebrows.”
Charlie Watts, ever the gentleman, accepted the incident with his usual calm. “It’s rock and roll,” he said dryly. “These things happen.”
The Aftermath
Photos from the now-infamous shoot were heavily retouched, and the eyebrow-free versions never saw the light of day—until years later, when an unedited outtake leaked on a Rolling Stones fan forum in 2012. The image, which quickly went viral, featured the band looking oddly expressionless, as if mid-performance on a windless planet.
Fans affectionately dubbed it “The Eyebrowless Era.” T-shirts, memes, and even a brief “No Brows Tour 2007” parody video popped up online.
Legacy
Despite the initial embarrassment, the incident did nothing to slow the Stones’ momentum. They completed their 2007 tour to sold-out stadiums and rave reviews. In typical Stones fashion, they even joked about it onstage during a performance in Berlin, where Mick Jagger quipped, “If our brows don’t move tonight—it’s not the Botox, it’s the beauty trauma!”
Today, the story lives on as one of the band’s quirkiest and most human moments—a reminder that even rock gods aren’t immune to a beauty blunder.
As Keith once said with a wink: “We’ve lost hair, teeth, brain cells—and now we can add eyebrows to the list. Still here, baby.”
Rock and roll, no brows and all.
