Tips on properly grooming the brows...

Do you see perfectly groomed brows and wonder how you can ever achieve that look and have your eyebrows perfectly on fleek? You’ve come to the right place. The brows do need a bit of maintenance to retain that sleek look. We have some tips for you that’ll set you up for good in the brow department, now let’s get to it.

First things first, you’re going to need to grow them out. To be able to groom your brows into the shape and size you would like, you have to grow out your eyebrows. This means that if you’ve been trimming them a lot, you’ll have to stop and grow them back to health. This will give you a clean slate to start with and go wild shaping it to suit your face.

Have the appropriate tools needed

What tools are required to get that perfectly groomed brows?

A pair of tweezers, brow scissors, and good lighting. When shaping your brows at home, pick a tweezer that is best suited to grab the hair at the root, to avoid breaking the hair instead of removing it. Experts advise that you get tweezers with slanted tips. For the scissors, make sure you buy the ones made specifically for trimming the brows as they are thinner, longer, and not tight enough to make you trim unevenly. Always tweeze and trim under good lighting and a mirror. Be it natural or artificial light, you want to be able to get a good look at your entire face and visualize both brows in order to avoid making mistakes. You want to shape your brows to suit and balance out your face, so you need the entire face in your line of vision. A full-face mirror should be used, not the tiny or magnifying ones. No one wants botched brows. Or worse, a well-done one and a bad one.

Decide the direction to go

To pluck your brows properly, you need to understand this bit of science about growth patterns, blood vessels, inflammation, and scarring. Relax, it’s not rocket science, it’s easy to understand. Hair grows in a particular direction and pulling it against that direction can damage the blood vessels underneath. This will cause inflammation which then leads to scarring. To avoid this, tweeze in the direction the hair grows. Professionals usually advise pulling slowly but firmly, upward and outward from the face, instead of straight off the face. Also, gently lift the skin to tighten it when pulling out the hair.

Choose a shape for your brows

As unique individuals that we are, no two persons have the same brow arch. Be careful when trying to copy the shape your friend has or that of the popular celebrity you follow on Instagram, as this might not go with your face. Why? The brow arch follows the bony structure of the face and it differs in individuals. Find out the particular arch that balances your face. Is your arch high? Low? At the middle of your brows or towards the end? Follow the arch of your brows when tweezing and endeavor to do it appropriately so that the resulting shape suits your face overall. Remember that the brows are sisters and not twins, so even if they’re not identical, don’t push it. You can always fill in your brows if you don’t have enough hair for your desired shape.

Finally, know when to stop

Yes, sometimes people don’t know when to stop once the tweezing and trimming starts, because we all want to achieve brow perfection. The downside to this is that you can botch up your brows if you overdo it. Be conservative. A little pluck here and there, a bit of a snip over it, once or twice a month, should be good enough. And please, trim sparingly with the scissors and only cut the hairs sticking out and not in line with the shaped brows.