Brow Shaping 101
I've had a couple friends and family members ask me about brow shaping, how to do it, where to go, what method to recommend. So I thought I'd do an entry dedicated to those fuzzy face framers and all important glam radiators, eyebrows. The first question I'll address is method. I'm a tweezer girl. I like the control, I like how non abrasive it is to the skin, I like that you don't have to wait for hairs to grow to a certain length before you can be able to remove them. It also puts the power of your brows in your own hands which is nice.
I can't speak to threading. It's something I have little experience with. It seems as though the general consensus is that it's gentle and extremely thorough so awesome on both counts. It does mean you must rely on someone else. A makeup client of mine recently was bemoaning the relocation of her threading parlor and how it meant she had to find somewhere else, or travel quite a long way while in the mean time she felt her brows were getting unruly. Slight setback but 4.5 out of 5 stars really.
The two methods I cannot professionally or personally recommend are waxing or sugaring. And I say this as someone who was a salon brow waxer. It's rough on that oh so thin and delicate skin, and it's aggressive to the hair follicle. There's also far less control. I was taught by an excellent waxer, a really safe technique, and I still felt at the end I needed switch over to the tweezers because it was impossible to attend to certain sections of the brow with wax and not remove WAY too much hair. Waxing is a good method on areas where you want total hair removal of a larger space. The unibrow area is the most lenient I'm gonna get on this one. Otherwise, please avoid it. It can cause skin irritation, burns, ingrowns, follicle damage, and my personal pet peeve, skinny brows. Over waxed brows are...unflattering. I'll leave it at that.
--I thought perhaps this was my own personal "issue" to deal with, but about a year ago I was fortunate enough to hear the great Joey Mills (the creator of the strong brow) speak about brow shaping, and he was ADAMANT that tweezing was the method best for brow care, and that waxing was akin to brow evil...
Where to go. Well that's a toughie because salons really like the wax now don't they...So I say if you find a threader you love, stick with that, but they're so many, it's a bit of a crapshoot. Makeup artists can really be your saviors here because you can either have them shape for you, or give you a tutorial on shaping (like I'm doing right now! TADA!)
So let's move on to how to do the shaping. What you'll need.
1. A nice pair of tweezers. My all time fav shape for brows is the
revlon "splinter" shape (grocery stores, drug stores, Target.) I have a pair of the "pro" shape in my mani-pedi tool kit but I have to say I still like the splinter shape best. I think they grip and pick up easier. The inside ridges or "treads" can wear out with time. Then they stop gripping and you'll need to get a new pair, but seriously I think my pair lasted like a good ten years before that happened so they'll last a long time.
2. A pair of small scissors. Nail scissors should do it if you want a pair dedicated to brows instead.
3. A disposable mascara wand. (Ricky's/Sally Beauty.)
4. If you're in any way unsure about what shape you want - white pencil eyeliner. Doesn't need to be MAC quality. Can be Cover Girl or Wet & Wild (I'll explain in a bit.)
5. Brow pencil or powder. If you have one you already like, use it. I always tell clients to stick to blond. Weird huh? Unless you want to have a Groucho Marks thing going on, blond pencil or powder is the way to go. It fills in without washing you out. I have VERY dark hair naturally, almost black, perhaps the last stop in Brown City before Blacktropolis. And I always use blond or else it looks scary and weird. I like the
Bobbi Brown Brow Kit, but it is expensive, so I'll also say try the
Milani in Taupe.
Ok so now that you've assembled the necessary implements let's go ahead and wash your hands & face so that they're nice and clean. Next, take the mascara wand and brush your brows up. Yup, all the way up so that you look like
James Coburn in his later years. Now one brow at a time take the wand and brushing through the brow hold the brush in the brow so that edge of the brush is in line with the top edge of the brow and with your scissors snip in a straight line any hairs that grow past the top edge of the wand. Continue for entire brow. Now, brush your brows downward. Yup, all the way down, and one brow at a time line the bottom edge of the wand with the bottom edge of the brow and with your scissors, snip in a straight line any hairs that grow past the bottom edge of the wand.
** A word about hormonal thinning. If you've got sparse brows due to natural changes in your body, or thyroid medication, or other hormonal fluctuations feel free to modify this step to meet your needs. Due to my hormone issues and genetics I have quite sparse brows and, were I to follow the above procedure I would have very little left. I can say that no man or woman I've attended to ever had this problem and I trimmed them all normally, and it looked great. But if you know you need the "longies" to help fill in areas, just brush your brows upwards and outwards and trim any unruly guys that refuse to lie nicely in line.**
Next step. Refer to a pic like this.
Go ahead and use your mascara wand as a ruler or grab a nail file, makeup brush, anything nice and straight. Line the wand up with the inside corner of your eye and holding it straight take the white eyeliner and make a vertical line in your brow. This is where your brow should start. Do the same for the other brow. Everything in between can go my friend. You can go ahead and pluck those. If you want a very full brow, think young brooke shields, you can move the wand over by one width of the wand and start from there but no more. Unibrows = defeating the purpose of your efforts here today.
Outside: Use the corner of the nose and create a line with the wand that goes to the outside corner of the eye. Continue to follow that same line to the brow. Make a line with the white eyeliner. This is the end of the brow. Anything that extends past this line can be plucked. Conversely if your brow doesn't make it to that line fill to that point when we reach the filling section of this lesson. Do the same for the other brow.
Take the wand and hold it vertically at the outside of the iris. (the part with color.) Holding the wand straight make a line in your brow with the white eyeliner. Repeat on other side.
Now take the wand and create a line from the tip of your nose through the center of the pupil. (the black part.) Continue that line til it meets the brow. Make a line with the white eyeliner. Repeat on other side.
You should be noticing that those two marks are nearly on top of each other yes? Good. You have just located your natural arch!
Hold the wand horizontally straight across from the bottom of the inside corner of the brow to the outside corner and make a horizonatal line with the eyliner. Pluck anything growing below the line. (see line B.)
Things should already be looking much tidier. The next step is, well kinda more up to you and your brows. For very natural brows, merely remove anything straggly or hanging out on it's own, don't forget above the brow and outer temple region, stragglers live there too.
For a more manicured look, use the arch guide line you've just made and the horizontal line. measure a little under a centimeter from the horizontal line upwards. Make a dot with the eyeliner. This is about where the bottom of your arch should be, though it might be slightly more or less depending on your specific brows. This is why the liner comes in handy. If something looks not quite right, use a little makeup remover and try again.
Use the wand and create another vertical line at the outside of the iris (the part with color) on the INSIDE half of the eye. ( closer to your nose.) Make another eyeliner line. This is about where you should start to taper the brow. You should be able to "connect the dots" so to speak from the bottom of this new line to the previous bottom of the arch dot. If you do in fact create a line, remove everything below it.
Use the bottom of the outside corner line and the arch dot, along with the horizontal line to show you where to remove hair from the corner to end of the brow.
Phew ok give it a once over in case you missed anyone and then use a mild makeup remover like witch hazel to remove all that white liner!
From here, Take your powder or brow pencil and fill in any sparse patches. use small light hair like strokes with a pencil or light coverage with the powder, the aim is to have it blend in with the brow rather than stand out.
Finally take the clear mascara and with the wand --or another disposable (keeps the mascara cleaner) brush the brows gently upward and outward and voila! You should have proportional flattering brows. As you become more comfortable with this, you can personalize the shape a little more but be warned. Every few hairs take a step back and look. Make sure you take your whole face into consideration. Brows are meant to frame that pretty picture so don't make them disappear into Pamela Anderson land!!!!
