Good Gestures

Hugh Acheson Offers to Pluck the ‘Hughnibrow’ for Charity

Get the tweezers!
Get the tweezers!

We’ve seen unibrows before — Frida Kahlo, Bert from Sesame Street — but Top Chef judge and chef Hugh Acheson is perhaps the newest poster child for the distinguishing feature. “Twenty percent of the people who watch me on TV can’t watch me because of a centimeter of hair,” he says. But while Acheson has made it clear that he’s okay with the so-called “Hughnibrow,” he tells Grub Street that he’s willing to shave it — for a cause.

Get the tweezers!
Get the tweezers!

Wholesome Wave, an organization that brings locally grown fruits and veggies to the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, has set up Hugh’s Eyebrow Challenge. If the charity can raise $100,000 by March 1, Acheson will dispense with the monobrow. Top Chef’s top guy, Tom Colicchio, is onboard and supports Wholesome Wave (“They do amazing work,” he says), though he also admits that the unibrow “doesn’t bother” him.

So is Acheson afraid of the possibility that he might lose his signature feature? Not really. First of all, it will grow back. Plus, Acheson says, “To change the way the world eats slowly but surely, I will Brazilian wax my balls.”

Hugh’s $100k Eyebrow Challenge [Wholesome Wave]
Related: Chef Hugh Acheson Braves the Crowds at Eataly, Lectures the Millionaires at Google

Hugh Acheson Offers to Pluck the ‘Hughnibrow’ for Charity