Choosing your look

Regardless of how your best friend’s perfectly plucked eyebrows look, the shape of your face determines the shape of your brows. You can also purchase stencils like Colorescience In Perfect Shape Stencil to assist with brow shaping once you’ve chosen the correct shape for your face.

• Oval: You can essentially choose any shape, but curved eyebrows will look best.


• Round: Go for arched eyebrows, which will define and accentuate your facial features.
  

• Square or rectangular: Try rounded brows for a softer look.

Measurements

• Space between the brows. While you don’t want a uni-brow, it’s also unflattering to have a too-bare space between your brows. This space should be no smaller than the width of your eye. To determine the ideal width, hold a pencil upright from your nose to the inner edge of the eye. Your brow should stop where the pencil meets the brow.
• Arch. Imagine a straight line (or use the pencil again) that runs directly upward from the outer edge of the eye to the brow. This should be the highest part of the arch.

Removing stray hairs

Tweezing. A widely popular at-home method, tweezing is an affordable option for eyebrow grooming.

• The optimal time to tweeze is right out of the shower when your pores are open, which minimizes pain and makes hairs easier to remove. Or you can soften the skin by holding a warm washcloth to the area.


• For best results, use a pair of sharp, slant-tipped tweezers like the Billion Dollar Brows Tweezers and make sure to pluck in the direction the hair grows; pulling out hairs in the opposite direction actually bends the hair follicle and can cause irritation and ingrown hairs.
• To make stray hairs underneath the brows easier to find, apply a dab of eyebrow gel; then brush the eyebrows upwards using a small makeup brush. Look for hairs that disrupt the natural outline.
  
• To avoid over-plucking, pluck one hair at a time.
  
• After plucking a few hairs, stand back to look at your whole face before continuing.
  
• Generally, most people should avoid tweezing hairs above the brows, because it changes the natural shape of the arch. If your brows are messy on top, leave it to a professional.
  
• To ease any pain or redness after tweezing, use an ice cube to dull the pain, and then apply a soothing product like Korres Yogurt Cooling Gel.

Waxing. Because it saves time by removing all the hairs at once, waxing is a popular option. But, it gives you considerably less control than tweezing — which means, it’s too easy to make mistakes. Many people prefer to leave waxing to a pro and tweeze stray hairs between sessions. However, at-home kits work well for the hairs in between the brows, especially for thick and unruly uni-brows. Skip the home kit if you have sensitive skin or are using retinoid treatments, because fragile skin can peel off with the wax.

Trimming. Because brows vary in length, everyone should own a pair of specially designed eyebrow grooming scissors to trim long hairs. Comb the hairs toward your temples, and then trim the hairs a little at a time.

Filling in sparse brows

• For the most precise look, choose a wax-based eyebrow pencil that’s one shade lighter than your natural hair color.
• Sharpen before each use, and then gently fill in gaps or sparse areas using small strokes.
• After achieving your desired look, soften and blend using a sponge or grooming brush like the Billion Dollar Brows Angled Tip Spooly Brush.
• Next, apply a brow powder over the pencil to soften the look. Using an angled brush, dust a light layer of eyebrow powder directly over the brow, following the natural direction of your eyebrows from the inner corner outwards.
• Blot off any powder that ends up on the surrounding skin.
• Finally, set the brows with clear brow gel. This is especially helpful to tame those unruly baby hairs while you wait for them to grow back. Use a small dab of gel, so your brows don?t look shiny and unnatural.

Painfully over-plucked

Sometimes we over-pluck eyebrows, leaving those baby hairs weak and thin. While you can fill in sparse brows, dyes and pencils wash off easily when exercising or swimming. If you’ve seriously over-plucked, try a brow conditioning treatment like the Billion Dollar Brows Brow Boost to stimulate growth and fill in empty spaces.

Professional solutions

When shaping our brows, it’s difficult to know where to start or how to enhance our natural shape. For help, visit a salon every four to five months, which will make maintenance between appointments much easier. Aside from tweezing and waxing, here are other options for grooming and shaping the brows.

• Threading: A newer trend that originated in the Middle East and Asia. Skilled threaders quickly remove hairs from eyebrows by twisting threads together.
• Electrolysis: For extremely unruly brows, electrolysis is a good option for permanent hair removal. A technician inserts a small probe into each follicle, and after a series of treatments, the root of the hair is destroyed, preventing hairs from growing back. Because eyebrows naturally thin with age, be wary about electrolysis if your eyebrows are already thin; you don’t want to end up with no eyebrows at all!

See also:

Let’s Face It: Facial Hair Removal

Electrolysis and Laser Hair Removal: What’s best for you?

Threading: A Unisex Trend