The one feature I get the most compliments on is my brows but it was a long and torturous road to getting them to where they are today. To emulate the trend of the late 1990s starlets like Kate Moss and Gwen Stefani, I tweezed and waxed my brows until they were micro thin lines of hair. And let’s not forget the time I tried to shave my face as a way of exfoliating and took off half of one of my brows.
To grow my brows back I stopped waxing them about 5 years ago. When you get your brows waxed the first thing they do is take off any makeup around the brow. Now, I only take tweezers to them when they are filled in, that way I can clearly see what hairs lay outside of the area that I want without removing any stray hairs that I’ve spent time trying to grow in.
In the last year I also saw a major improvement in new growth and fullness by using the Lash Food company’s Brow Food Serum at night. It’s natural botanicals help strengthen your hair and encourage new growth.
To get the immediate satisfaction of fuller and shaped brows, there are several good products you can use. If your brows need a lot of filling in or they are uneven, I recommend using pencils. Start with a micro fine brow pencil (I like the Hourglass Mircro Sculpting Pencil or Wander Beauty Micro Brow Pencil) in a shade slightly lighter than your natural brow hair. Use this to to create little strokes in the beginning area of the brow. Place the pencil at the root of your brow hair line and flick the pencil upward simulating the shape of the hair. Then use a pencil that matches your brow hair for the middle, arch, and tail of your brow. For this you can use a traditional wooden pencil that has a more powdery finish like Laura Mercier’s Brow Pencil. The shape of your brows and where it should start and end should follow this 3 point rule in the chart below.
If you like the shape of your brows and you just wish they were a little thicker, I recommend using a brow mascara with fibers that simulate hairs like the ones from Trish McEvoy. Use the brow mascara spoolie brushing against the natural direction of brow growth first -from outer corner to the inner- then comb the brows into place. You should be gently touching your skin as well as brushing through your brow hair.
Last use a bit of concealer on a brush to clean up any product that’s made it’s way outside of the area you want filled in. A little trick I love is to set your brow products in place by applying a bit of loose translucent powder with a fluffy brush. This will also take away a little shine.
Filling in your brows, and getting them even takes a bit of practice but you can get it. Don’t be nervous like I was filling in the iconic brows of model Brooke Shields- talk about pressure!
