How to keep wild brows in check

Feb 14, 2013 6:00 AM by Melanie Allen

Posted in Beauty & Style / Makeup & Skin Care

Eyebrow Pow Wow

We’ve all heard that your eyebrows frame your face. Polished and alluring, the perfect eyebrows can take any face from drab to fab. And really, is there anything worse than spotting stray brow hairs when you glance in your rearview mirror? We’ve all been there.

Woman having eyebrows waxed

Start with a professional shaping

To get your brows shaped initially, head to a professional. They know all the ins and outs of matching your brow shape to your hair type and face shape. There are two main types of professional shaping: waxing and threading. Both techniques are quick, precise and relatively inexpensive for a single visit.

But which is right for you?

Threading

This ancient Middle Eastern technique quickly gained popularity in the States and it's easy to see why. When brows are threaded, a cotton thread is tightly wrapped around the hair, and pulled to lift the follicle up from its root. Natural and target-specific, threading is often regarded as being less painful and irritating than waxing. The results of hair removal by threading also last slightly longer than waxing.

The downside: Finding a talented threading technician in your area can be a little tricky. Women with lighter brows sometimes find that threading doesn’t take care of their short, light hairs as well as waxing does.

Waxing

Widely available, this traditional hair removal technique can actually reduce hair growth over time. Waxing can be performed on any length of hair, removing even the shortest, lightest, hard-to-see hairs.

The downside: Pain and skin irritability are the two major downsides of waxing. If your skin is sensitive or acne-prone, check with your salon about using a sensitive skin wax — many salons offer a gentler option!

Brow
wow

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Maintaining at home

It is important to have a quality pair of tweezers, small brow scissors and a brow comb. When plucking at home in between professional shapings, proper lighting is your best tool. Late-morning, natural light is the brightest, allowing you to see stray hairs you may miss in your bathroom mirror. Avoid overtweezing by following the brow shape that was professionally outlined, sticking to tweezing stray hairs between and underneath the brows.

Does tweezing pain make you cringe? The best time to tweeze is after a hot shower or bath, when the steam has opened up your pores.

Super products

Keep a couple of brow-specific products in your makeup arsenal to help with brow grooming. Wax pencils, such as Givenchy’s Mister Eyebrow, are newer to the market and allow a more controlled, less goopy application.

Givenchy’s Mister Eyebrow

Overtweezed and without product? Try a matte eyeshadow similar to your hair color and a little bit of clear lip balm. Crisis averted!

Whether you maintain them yourself, have frequent professional shapings or a combination of the two, beautiful brows require serious attention. It takes just three to five weeks for a brow hair to fully regrow, meaning that, for some ladies, daily tweezing is a must!