Brow Shaping Tips and Methods

Flattering brows can make you look younger and means you can wear less makeup and still look fabulous with the same effect as a hair replacement. Read on for useful tips to maintain a strong brow and the professional methods of brow shaping.

• See a professional to shape your brows for the first time. For a bit of a dramatic look, ask the therapist to tint them a few shades darker than your hair colour.
• Maintain the shape by tweezing stray hairs. Do this by combing brows upwards and outwards, then removing hairs slowly and checking for symmetry as you go.
• Tweeze around your hairline and not directly along it. Don’t tweeze the long hairs because they give your brows its shape.
• Fill in any gaps with a brow product. If you have thin brows, use a brow powder or pencil to help create the look of a fuller brow. Use light and upward strokes and don’t draw one firm line. Then use a clear brow gel to hold hairs in place. If you’re using a pencil, hold it lying sideways against the brows.
• Always groom your brows in natural light. Use a hand mirror for a close and accurate look and a large mirror to check if your brows are even from a distance.
• When plucking, pull the skin tight and pluck hairs beneath the natural arch, along the direction they’re growing.
• To find out the inner edge of your brows, line up a pencil vertically against your nostril. Your brows should begin where the pencil meets your forehead.
• A good time to pluck is after a hot shower when it’s less painful and pores are open. Women shouldn’t pluck during their period, as skin can get very sensitive at this time.
• Your choice of tweezers is up to you. While pointed tweezers have more precision, it’s easier to remove stubborn hairs with slanted tweezers.

If you prefer to leave your brow shaping to the professionals, here are three classic options to choose from. Each one is bound to make you looking just as good as an eyebrow transplant.

Waxing

Perhaps the most popular option, this involves hot or cold wax spread over stray hairs above and below the natural brow line, then pulled off in one quick go in the opposite direction of hair growth. The hair removal lasts for two to eight weeks. Therapists usually tweeze for precision after waxing.

The pain is equal to a band-aid ripping off your skin. When hair is waxed off, your top (dead) layer of skin is also removed. This can cause your skin to be left red and irritated for up to an hour.

Threading

An ancient method often done in Asia, threading involves one strand of 100 per cent cotton thread. This is twisted and pulled along a row of stray hairs and removes multiple hairs from the roots at once. It lifts the hair directly from the follicle and needs three to five swipes per brow. Like waxing, the hair removal lasts for two to eight weeks. Although relatively painless, there is a more vibrating sensation.

Electrolysis

This method is highly painful (feeling like pin pricks), however the hair removal is permanent with eight to 12 sessions required due to hair growth stages and can only be done during active hair growth. This can be beneficial for people who have extremely thick and dark brows.

Electrolysis involves an aesthetician inserting a needle with an electric current running through it into one hair follicle at a time to zap it and prevent growth.