They’re kind of a big deal.
It’s a substantial thing to grow hair on your face. Billions of pounds go into the development of products designed to remove facial hair, but I’m not sure we invest so much time and effort in cultivating the hair we want to keep.
Mine are a complete and shameful mess. I’ve overplucked some areas and I continue to underpluck others… I have a great natural arch, but no idea how to make the best of it. Infact, I’ve managed to create total unevenness to the point where I look like I’m permanently raising one of my eyebrows when in reality, I’m not moving a muscle.
Brow powder is my makeup bag essential. I’ll happily hit the supermarket without a scrap of colour or foundation on my face, but take away my brow powder and I’ll be walking around wih my hands self-consciously hovering near my forehead in an attempt to cover up the offending area. Eyebrows, for me… are face framers, and KNOW that everytime I see a FOTD – I’m checking out those brows before ANYTHING else.
Obviously, this post is mostly an excuse for me to trawl the internet laughing at celebrities with dodgy eyebrows, but there is a serious message here. Tweezers are a dangerous implement and I’m not letting Leila near a pair. As God (or you guys) is my witness, I’m marching her to a salon when she hits 15. This house will be a tweezerless one.
I wish mine had been…
What a mess. I’m a (relatively) intelligent woman who clearly lost control of all mental capabilities when my grasping fingers first touched those tweezers 13 years ago and quite frankly, I haven’t regained them.
I need help, I know that some of my lovely readers MUST be brow experts! I see so many women with perfectly groomed eyebrows and I’m considering befriending the next one I see in Waitrose, lulling her into a false sense of security with hazelnut lattes and Heat magazine chats before slyly handing her my tweezermans and giving her carte blanche on my face.
Do you feel my pain or mock my affliction?
Where can I go from here? Professional help? Hands tying behind my back? Hair transplants? Threading?
Halp?!
Grow them out a bit, then go and get them threaded. You’ll then have a natural shape to maintain inbetween sessions.
Threading is the way forward for brows! I had to endure the pain of growing them in their natural state but then I got them shaped, it was wonderful.
I didn’t start ‘grooming’ my brows until my last year of university (which coincidentally was when I got into makeup… apparently I am a late bloomer) but I always get my brows professionally waxed since I am bad at trying to figure out which ‘arch’ would look best. And then I maintain for another 6-8 weeks and then (which is right now) it’s time for me to go back and get them done again!!
If you have sparse patches maybe try one of those brow growth stimulators? I think I’ve heard good things about Anastasia’s…
I second VexintheCity’s comment,Grow them and go for threading.
I feel your pain ….. my eyebrows are mental 🙁 The hair grows up, not across on my right eyebrow and is obscenely sparse but my left eyebrow is pretty much the perfect shape and has no sparse patches. I can’t pluck them thin because it just doesn’t suit my face and the hairs are quite long so you end up having to trim that but that just looks wrong :/
Sorry… I think I just treated you as my eyebrow agony aunt.
Brow powder is the love of my life!
Despite having auburn hair, my brows have always been blonde – great for lazy pluckers like myself, but not good when I want a bit of definition to my face. I’ve been tempted to have them tinted but I live in fear of looking like Jordan above..yeuch.
As they were driving me mad I decided to grow them out and work with them from there…they are so much better now. I’d definitely go along that route, just get the concealor out and only touch the random stragglers until you get a shape you like 🙂
Threading HURTS! When I had it done for the first and last time, my mascara ended up under my eyes because my eyes were watering so much. And my eyebrow area swelled up and went red and stayed that way for three hours. Not so great when trying to shop in the centre of London. I looked like a fool.
I’d vote for waxing, but either way: get a professional to shape them and then maintain at home by only tweezing hairs that are growing under the arch and are obviously not part of the main brow. Shaping is best left to the professionals I think!
You have an amazing arch indeed, wow!
You might have heard of the equivalent of lilash for brows, which cost as much as the original product for eyebrows. Well, don’t bother buying it if you were hoping a miracle growth there as I have not heard good reviews from it, and for something that costs nearly £100, definitely not worth the risk. If your brows just don’t want to grow where you want them to grow, the only thing I can think of is to carry on practising with brow pencils and ‘brow’ eyeshadows to get the look you want: more defined, but not too drawn on. I would imagine the brows from Jacqueline (brilliantbrunette) and one of the ladies from bslap cosmetics would not be your style as they look very drawn on: superb for an editorial look, but maybe not for buying a refill of eczema cream at the 24/7 pharmacy (I am in awe of their makeup by the way, but not a fan or their brows). Funny enough, from watching lots of makeup tutorials, I’ve seen lots of people using a regular matte brown shadow to fill their eyebrows, which they prefer to pencils as it reportedly gives them a more natural look. And to perfect the definition, I’ve seen some using a little bit of concealer on the outside edges.
As for threading, not personally had it done but I’ve heard it’s super painful.
Hmm – I have brow issues too. Bare bits and straggly bits and uneven bits. Guess I might have to grow them out and restart but oh my that’s scary!
Big bunch of empathy heading your way. My brows SUCK! I always think they look bushy but I’m FAR too frightened of overplucking them – my little sister (14 years of age) had a secret, overzealous pluck when she was 12 and she still has the most ridiculous looking tadpole-brows. I think mine have got quite a good shape, actually, I just don’t know how to make them look groomed. Perhaps I should just go and get them done professionally *sigh*.
I honestly think you either have good brows or you don’t.
I actually detest mine and they are even in my top 5 body/face hates!
I know people who don’t even have to tweeze and they have perfect ones. My issue is the tops, I *have* to have them groomed otherwise they are like a mans!
I have them threaded, which is definitely a good way to maintain them, however beware as I’ve had good and bad experiences with the threaders! I tried the Blink ones in Selfirdges a few times and they were very hit and miss, and one time I ended up with a thickish brow which then went really really thin at the end.
I think you definitely need to have “substantial” brows to consider threading, so best to let them grow a bit more first.
Good luck!!!
I think your brows look fine 🙂 just need some filling in
I have a love-hate relationship with my brows. they’re squabbling sisters who don’t always agree with each other. But sometimes they turn out ok. I used to go to a pro to shape then keep up the brows by plucking them myself but now I shape them myself too
Why oh why as teenagers do we totally think we know best for our eyebrows? 😛 😉
I’m actually in tweezer rehab at the moment. I just couldn’t get my brows to do what I wanted so I fell into the trap of over plucking! I’m actually really pleased with them- one is better than the other but my fringe covers the other one lol! So it’s all ok.
I tend to just fill them in when I’m looking for a more dramatic look- my brows are so dark I get away with them everyday now they’re rehabbed.
I even wore my fringe off my face last week!
I’m trying to grow out my very thin left eyebrow so it matches my normal right eyebrow. I tweeze everyday and I just hate seeing those little stubbly bits and having to leave them alone!
I don’t think mine are even in the middle either, but I’m reassured by the phrase “eyebrows are sisters, not twins”.
I would recommend threading but let your brows grow back first. I’m trying to get my ends to grow out a little and am using Mavala’s Double Lash, which is an eyelash/brow treatment. But it’s only been one day so I have not seen results yet.
I say let them grow in a bit and then reshape them by getting them waxed. Mine are really quite monstrous and I desperately need to get them waxed but I’m afraid to try a new salon! Anyway, for now you can make people think your brows look perfect – hooray for powder!
I sympathise, never liked my brows, they used to be too thick and now I’ve overplucked them and they’re not even either. *sigh* Can’t possibly let them to grow out naturally though, I will look like the man in the first picture if I do. 😀
Agree, threading is the way to go. I cannot do my eyebrows at all and I am not great at visiting the beauticians to get it done!
On Saturday, she gave me such a row for leaving it too long. She said thats why it was so painful. Oops!
According to her, we should get them threaded every 3 weeks….I left mine for 3 months! Eek!
Grow them out for two months, then go for professional threading. I go to the brow bar at House of Fraser at Westfield London.
You won’t be sorry!
your brows look fine to me. indian threading is amazing for cleaning and shaping brows. I”d lend you my indian housemate, but i’m not sure she’ll like that i’m pimping her out. =)
you think you have problems? my eyebrow hairs are long and curly. I can’t straighten them, obvs, (so wish i could) so i trim them down, but then i get really blunt obvious ends where i’ve snipped. it’s a bad situation.
i have zilch eye brows, its actually quite embarrassing, they are just ultra fair! people ask me if i shaved them off, and no i diddnt..
i leave them the way the are, because i would just look plain weird if i had some 🙂 xxxx
I love getting mine threaded (when I can afford it 🙁 ) but the first time I went, I got told off by the woman for having quite thin eyebrows. They’re naturally like that!
Also, my sister shaved her eyebrows off when she was 11, because she didn’t want to be laughed at in high school (first term of year 7) for having caterpillars up there. Of course she was the girl with no eyebrows for the 5 years she was there.
The day I learned that I could successfully fill in my brows was a huge epiphany in my cosmetics-level plane of existence. Before that I didn’t bother, and I don’t have much brow to write home about. Filling them in makes me look more confident, groomed, features more defined, etc. My brows are sparse with not much colour. The upside of that is that they are easy to tweeze into shape at home. Like you, I wouldn’t be without brow powder or pencil or *something* nowadays to fill them in.
Now I know a ton of people have told you to ‘let them [your brows] grow out’ on this blog post, but I think they aren’t realising that, perhaps, those are your fully grown brows, which is why you are in panic mode? I have the same problem. I zealously overplucked them when I was a teenager and now have straggly excuses for fully grown eyebrows. No joke. They just never grew back.
I would try one of those lash/brow growing serums OR Rogaine (why not?).
Eyebrow powder is the best way to go everday, though, you’re right as it’s not as obvious as pencil.
Good luck and let me know how you get on!
xx
Ugh, I feel your pain. All of you. 🙁
I had my passport photo taken today and it became painfully obvious how uneven mine are. I barely pluck them, just remove the odd stray hairs below their shape, and still the arches and beginnings are hopelessly uneven. I doubt that a professional could make them both even and natural looking.
I am however coming to terms with their rather odd shape. If only they could be symmetric…
Oh hun, you have a great natural shape and really they are not at all bad. As everyone has said just biting the bullet and growing them out as far as you can stand it is probably the best thing, after that go to get them threaded.
I know when I was about 15 and got into plucking it was a scary picture (and the photos never lie). The worst thing for over plucking are those magnifying mirrors, every time I look at one I become obsessed and 10mins later look very bald and surprised… do not recommend! xxx
I’ve always had full brows and trouble shaping them. I’ve never overplucked because I’m completely paranoid about it – I don’t want to be one of those women who has to paint her eyebrows on every day! As many mentioned here, I had them threaded by a pro to create the shaping. From there I was able to tweeze and maintain the shape on my own. If I had a big event to attend, I’d probably go have them threaded again about a week before the event. As someone mentioned, it DOES hurt and it DOES make you red. Some people say it hurts less than waxing or plucking and that may be true of maintenance, but plucking removes one hair at a time and you can stop whenever you want and start again later. Threading does it all at one go and it does hurt. If you do it, you may want to take an aspirin or analgesic before you go and even consider rubbing some of the gel used to stop tooth pain – in the US we can get it at any drugstore. I use a brand called Orajel.
I feel your pain 🙁 one of my eyebrows has been uneven since a plucking session when I was like 13, and I think I’ll have to resort to a lash growth serum (no point in buying one JUST for brows) to get that hair back.
What happened to Martin and Scorsese? I thought they were here to stay?
I’m afraid there is only one thing you can do – step away from the tweezers/wax/thread or anything else for as long as possible. A few months would be ideal. This will then give you a proper idea of what you have to work with. I’m sure if you leave them to grow as much as possible, it won’t be as bad as you think!
Ohhhh, I feel your pain. When I was 13 I had lovey brows, just thick enough with a nice natural arch, if I had only left them for a few years until I could afford a professional just to shape them… but no, I plucked and plucked and plucked, and I now have the same as your brows, except only the inner half of each!! I’ve tried growing them back, it doesn’t work, I’ve been plucking them for too long. And the worst thing is, each hair is so thick and wiry and long (seriously, “pube” springs to mind!), that they STILL manage to have a life of their own, even in their diminished state!!!! I’ve resorted to using a brow pencil to draw in a new brow shape in little feathery strokes, and then a brow powder over the top to set it- but i’m still not perfect at it. Here’s hoping you can manage to grow yours out and get them sorted, it’s too late for me, save yourself……
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