While it might be tempting to go at your brows yourself during this latest period of restrictions, trust me when I say – don’t! Many of my clients only managed to get their brows back in shape recently, having over-tweezed them during the previous lockdowns. When brow hairs are pulled from the root, it takes several weeks, sometimes months for the same hair to regrow. If the same hair is pulled from the root multiple times, this can damage the follicle and sometimes the hair just stops growing altogether!
To add to this, when we tweeze, most of us tend to pluck a few hairs a couple times a week. Whenever we notice a “straggler” and think “… I’ll just take that one..”. Until a few days later, one beside that one we took sprout’s up so we take that too. Then before we know it, we’ve taken a whole line of hairs over the course of a week or two and our brows are looking “off “ and “thinner than usual” but we can’t put our finger on why because we’ve “only taken the strays..”.
If you really must tweeze your brows, let me offer a few tips that could help.
Do it once a month (or less)
As I mentioned above, plucking too often makes it very difficult to judge where your shape should be. It becomes more about chasing strays than the overall appearance of the brows. Another reason to tweeze all necessary hairs at the same time is they will be on the same growth pattern. If we tweeze a group of hairs at the same time, they will tend to come back around the same time. This is good for three reasons: longer periods of time in between where your brows will look neater; you don’t have new hairs sprouting every few days that you’re forever chasing; Finally; it’s easier to judge the overall shape. You know what grows, what doesn’t and where.
Less is more (tweezing not hair!)
The less you take from your brows the better chance you have of not taking any wrong hairs. Try and only do the uni-brow area. Don’t be tempted to pluck your brows too wide apart either. If you’re in two minds about taking a certain hair- leave it. If you must tidy beneath the brow bone, try to leave a couple of millimeters away from where the line of your brow is.
Stand back and check
This might seem obvious, but take it from someone who was a victim to the 90’s brow- don’t get carried away! Every few hairs, stand back from the mirror and look at the overall shape. Have a plan in mind of which hairs you want to take next and take those 3 or 4. Check again, move onto the next few. Some people find it easier to envisage their desired brow shape if they pencil them in first and tweeze around the pencil.
And if you think you might have taken too much?
Don’t worry, there are plenty of growth serums available on the market. I’ve personally tried most of them! My favourite is the Revitalash Advanced Brow Serum. It retails from Simplicité for €99. It was created by an ophthalmologist whose wife had breast cancer and lost her brows and lashes due to the effects of chemotherapy. It works by stimulating and reactivating dormant hair follicles and strengthening current ones to stay in the growth phase for longer. It’s applied once per day on clean skin and starts to work after a few weeks. Results usually peak around 12 weeks at which point I find it’s enough to use it 2 or 3 times a week for maintenance. Each bottle should last 2-4 months with daily use.
Missing your tint?
While there are some at home brow colouring kits you can purchase, I don’t recommend these for most people as it can be tricky to get the right colour and depth. A far safer solution is a comb through tinted brow gel. This can be enough to coat the hair is a semi sheer colour and add definition whilst covering any greys. They tend to be pretty fool-proof as the product will only want to stick to where there is hair. Unlike a pencil where you may recreate a new shape, this will effortlessly enhance what you have naturally and takes mere seconds to apply. Revitalash do a tinted brow gel in 2 shades, soft brown and dark brown which suit all hair colours. This retails at €35 on our website.
Still have questions? Get in touch! We always love to hear from our clients and are happy to offer advice.