Eyebrows-- they have the power to make or break a look. Countless women and girls spend hours and hours and dollars and dollars trying to get the "perfect" eyebrows. We all have been there. We pluck way too much, grown them out, get them waxed only to be unsatisfied, pluck way too much again, and next thing we know, we women are caught in a vicious cycle we cant seem to escape. I was in that cycle for nine years, ladies. I know your pain and I am here to help. I am writing this to share with you the knowledge that I have gained through my middle school, high school, and college years with the hope that you wont make the same mistakes I did, and, for those already have, I hope to provide comfort and consolation that you are not alone. I am here to give you a solution to your eyebrow struggles in 10 simple steps. I'm going to tell you how to get YOUR perfect eyebrows.
1. Realize that your face is unique, so your eyebrows will be unique.
The most important step in getting your perfect eyebrows is understanding and embracing this fact. No one has the same face and therefore no one has the same eyebrows. You must shape your eyebrows to fit your face, not try to fit someone else's eyebrows on your face. Countless ladies, myself included, have spent hours and even years trying to model our eyebrows after celebrities like Emma Watson. What we don't always understand is that it's not the eyebrows alone that make celebrities like Watson so beautiful. It's how her brows compliment her face. That's the real goal. Not to make your eyebrows a photo copy of someone else's but to make them compliment your own uniquely beautiful face.
2. Do NOT wax or thread first.
Stylists have always told women not to pluck their own eyebrows in fear that they may over-pluck. Yet, when women get their eyebrows waxed or threaded the first time, it isn't always what they wanted. Never let someone else decide what your eyebrows should look like. Waxing and threading can be wonderful but, as strange as it may sound, you don't want to leave your fate entirely in the hands of a stylist. For example, I have a scar that runs right through my right eyebrow. Stylists did not know how to wax my eyebrows accordingly so the first waxing was a disaster. Experiment a little first with some LIGHT plucking, emphasis on the LIGHT. Don't overdo it. Remove the stray hairs and cover up some parts of your eyebrow with concealer make-up to get an idea of what you want.
3. It's OK to pluck on-top.
If you inherited your father's thick bushy eyebrows like I was fortunate enough to, you may be familiar with the frustration of people saying you should never pluck on the top. I am here to say they are both correct and wrong. Some girls who already have nice and slender eyebrow tops don't need to pluck on-top and if they did it would turn their eyebrows into a, unfortunate U shape. However, for those of us with bushy brows, often what you should do is pluck (or wax) on the top and NOT on the bottom. Stylist Joey Healy told Good Housekeeping "There's a difference between thick and polished and thick and messy." Healy says that often plucking on the top is necessary and shouldn't be neglected. If you have bushy brows and try to tame them by plucking on the bottom, you could end up with eyebrows way too high on your head, making you look much too surprised. I pluck my eyebrows on the top and have never had any issues with strange new hairs showing up higher on my head. Do what is right for your face, not someone else's taste.
4. Keep it soft.
You don't want two strait skinny lines or two harsh arches that look like crooked upside down Vs. You want natural and smooth ~waves~. Many of you may not have or desire for an arched eyebrow and that is perfectly fine. For those who do, a subtle arch is the best arch. Eyebrow stylist Ramy Gafni told Cosmopolitan, "Look at your face straight on in the mirror and find the highest point of your brow. Tweeze directly below it for a perfectly placed arch." However, don't tweeze too much, it should only take a couple hairs. For those of you who have strait eyebrows similar to Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence, resist the urge to over pluck. The more naturally tame, the better.
5. When in doubt, trim instead of plucking.
A common mistake that people make is to pluck every hair that doesn't belong to a thick clump or that goes outside of the brow-line. This is the biggest cause of over-plucking and can lead to eyebrows that are either too thin or too short. I'm not saying you shouldn't separate a uni-brow, but you want to keep your brow in line with the sides of your nose and with the outside of your eye or farther. Never go shorter than that. If you have a hair that is too long and sticking straight up, trim it with small silver hair scissors (you can get them at Target or Walgreens). That way, you keep the thickness and shape and avoid plucking off important hairs. You can also use lotion and a brow brush to smooth the wild hairs down. There is even eyebrow gel that you can use to keep your brow hairs in place. However this has a less natural look which is why I use just common lotion. Remember to not over-trim. Only trim the hairs that can't be tamed, you want to keep as much length and thickness as possible.
6. Get the right pencil color and don't overdue it.
Understand first of all that there will be sections of your eyebrows that are thinner, or less abundant in hair, than other sections. This is perfectly normal and is the case for everyone. For this reason, others like myself choose to lightly color our eyebrows with eyebrow pencils to even out the thickness. It is important to note that the color of the pencil you use depends on the natural color of your eyebrows. The writers of Eyebrowz suggests the rule that "dark haired people should go one or two shades lighter than the color of hair on their head and light haired people to go two shades darker than the color of hair on their head." However, if you are a blond with black eyebrows like me, use a very dark brown or blackish brown pencil. Whatever color you use, but especially if you are using a dark color, be careful not to color too much or go too thick. Remember, the key is to look natural, you don't want to look like there's any added color or that you used Sharpie on your brows. Plus, if your outside on a hot day your brows will run which is about as unnatural looking as you can get. Lightly brush your brow with the pencil then run an eyebrow brush through it to give it a faded look with the same texture as hair.
7. Remember, they grow back!
If you make a mistake and over-pluck or have to remove a hair to take care of a zit, don't try to even out your brows or fix the mistake by plucking more. Rather than helping this will only make it harder to get your eyebrows back to where you want them. Instead, do nothing. Remember, hair grows back and you can always use your pencil to help fill in the space.
8. For regular plucking, keep make-up on.
For those of you who decide you have the confidence and self-control to self-pluck your brows regularly instead of spending money on waxing or threading, don't pluck after you have freshly washed your face. It is best to pluck with your day-to-day makeup still on. This prevents over-plucking of hairs that accent your face and brows and which is normally not seen under the make-up. Plucking a bare-face can cause the perfectionist in all of us to surface and cause us to make our brows increasingly and unnecessarily thinner.
9. Give it time.
The miraculous thing about our hair is that it can be trained and tamed. Give your brows time to adjust to how you care for them and they will look better and better each time. My brow line has gotten thicker over the past year of me caring for them a certain way and the hairs have started to grow in the direction I brush them. Another trick to this is to pluck the hairs out in the direction you want them to grow, but don't pluck too much, the more hair you can leave the better off you'll be. It leaves more room for error. The important thing, however, is not to force anything too early. Baby steps. Give it time.
10. Embrace your brows!
Last but not least, embrace the brows you were given! I have greatly stressed the importance of not over-plucking but that is not to say that thin eyebrows wont work for some of you as well. Some people look just as good or better with thinner eyebrows and with thick ones. I also haven't said this yet and will thus say it now; some of you do not need to pluck, wax, thread, color, or even trim. Congratulations, less work for you folks. It's all about personal preference but the key is to make sure you are shaping your brows to fit your standards for you and not someone else's standards for other people like celebrities. You are each uniquely beautiful and you should treat your brows as such.
