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Brow Shaping – Should you wax, pluck or thread?

15 February, 2017 - 10:49pm by - First Lady | 57 Comments

Article by BR Tabatha

"Why let someone else do for you what you can do yourself, except in the case of eyebrow maintenance."

Elle Woods - Legally Blonde

Eyebrows are the feature of your face to get right.  Whatever else is going on, be it breakouts or a bad choice of lippie colour, it's bad eyebrows people will notice first.  And even if everything else is going right with your makeup and overall look, bad eyebrow game will bring it down immediately.

Over plucked, under pluck, too sparse or unkempt are the main eyebrow faux pas, and unfortunately they are all very easily done by the amateur brow-scaper. 

So let's talk about how to step up your brow game by investigating the different options of maintenance.

Unless you incredibly blessed, your eyebrows will need some sort of shaping and as always there are several options to choose from.  Let's look at the most common options.

Waxing.

Waxing is quick and easy for a professional to do and it generally lasts for 3 to 4 weeks.  It's no more nor less painful than plucking and just how painful depends on your pain threshold.

It's going to set you back around $15 in the salon, but a trained technician and eye is invaluable.  You'll need about 1/4 inch growth though, so you could look a little bushy between appointments.  It's also important to note that waxing isn't for those with sensitive skin or those using retanoid products as it can cause the skin to tear.

You could DIY at home, but it's very easy to take too much off and very difficult to create even shapes by yourself.

Threading.

A trained threader will use a thin cotton to pull the hair out.  It's generally quite less painful, but it does depend on how good you are with pain.  Threading lasts around 3 - 4 weeks but you only need 1/16th inch of growth, so you're going to look less bushy between visits! There are no chemicals involved, so if you have sensitive skin this is a great option. 

Prices vary from $5 threads to $20+, but you might want to bear in mind you're probably going to get what you pay for - with an experienced threader the experience is going to be quick and more precise than waxing.

Plucking.

Hands up, who has plucked their own eyebrows? Yeap, that's what we thought!  Where would a woman be without her trusty tweezers?  Well dare we say it, they might be with better eyebrows!

Once you've bought yourself a pair of tweezers, plucking is the most economical way to maintain your brows.  But like scissors, tweezers have a quality scale.  A decent pair of tweezers are going to set you back around $25 - $35.  Don't scrimp!  Your tweezers should have a slanted tip and you might find it useful to have a pair of super pointy tweezers for ingrown or very short hairs.  Square tips may allow you to remove more hairs at once but this can lead to ingrown hairs.  The inside of your tweezer tips should be scuffed to help them grip the hair.  They should be matte coated on the outside so you can grip them lightly without them slipping.  

Plucking puts you in complete control of your brow shape, which is great if you're a control freak, but if you get carried away and over pluck, you might just end up cursing yourself! 

Shaping Guide.

There's a whole science behind shaping your eyebrows to suit your face shape and features - this is why seeing a professional, at least for an initial shaping is your best bet.   

But here's a general guide for all eyebrows: 

  • Hold your tweezers (or a pencil) vertically against the side of your nostril.  This is where your eyebrows should start.  In particular, don't pluck them shorter than this guide.  Just as you don't want a mono-brow, you don't want too-far apart brows either.
  • Hold your tweezers diagonally from your nostril to the outer corner of your eye.  Where the line intersects your eyebrow is where they should end.
  • Stare straight at the mirror.  Your arch should begin level with the far edge of your iris, right on the brow bone.

Dos and Don'ts of eyebrow shaping.

  • Do schedule your plucking sessions after a warm shower, the hair is more easily removed
  • Don't continue plucking if you've over plucked.  Stop!  Do not attempt to 'even' out the other one.  Grab your eyebrow kit, fill it in and wait for it to grow back!
  • Do use a white eye pencil to draw a guide line - stick to it!
  • Don't pluck from above your arch unless you have errant strays.
  • Do brush your brows to your advantage - upwards for sparse brows and to the side for thick brows.
  • Do trim ridiculously long hairs carefully with a pair of nail scissors

 

And there we have our guide to eyebrow maintenance and shaping. How do you maintain your eyebrows?  Have you had any disasters or do you always leave them in the hands of a pro?

 

 

 

 



Comments

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18th May, 2017

Theoretically I pluck my own brows, but lately I've been getting them tinted in the salon instead of at home (cos I'm LAZY) and the beautician has been waxing them too. They are so blonde they're invisible so I never know until I get really close in bright light!

21st April, 2017

I use to get the salon to do my brows but after one uneven slip up and my brows taking as long as a year to fully recover I no-longer do anything other than shade them with a pencil

4th March, 2017

When I was a teen Brooke shields was the eye brow queen. She was a modern day Lorde with bushy eyebrows and a mean mane. Mum always told me to not touch my eye brows "Brooke shields doesn't! " I guess it shed me from over plucking...I began to get them waxed in my mid twenties and now love the brow game.

23rd February, 2017

I have always been a plucker but I fell in love with threading a few years ago and now I mainly bounce between the 2. I get them threaded to shape them and then maintain by plucking as I see the hairs starts to fill back in....then I get lazy, they get out of control and I wind back up in the threading chair.

22nd February, 2017

I pluck threading will make the hair grow back faster as it stimulates the hair follicles

20th February, 2017

I have plucked my brows for years and find that now I just need to pluck a few every week to maintain them.

19th February, 2017

I love waxing because its easy but have had a few bad moments where Ive ripped off more eyebrow than planned and trying a new wax strip that ripped off some skin so Im just a tweezer gal these days, I find tweezing so therapeutic and love plucking hairs from my face, the white eyeliner trick works very good too :D

18th February, 2017

I pluck mine. I find it quick and easy and pretty painless now. Would love to try threading oneday.

18th February, 2017

I've self plucked... and waxed my whole life UNTIL I had my brows threaded. I'm a total convert and recommend it to everyone. It's quicker every time as the growth is so much slower and far less painful than waxing or plucking

17th February, 2017

I pluck my brows but I have had them shaved into shape cheaply in the past and then plucked the strays after a few days when they grew out. One thing I haven't done is trim the hairs and brush them upwards.

17th February, 2017

I'm totally a waxer! I used to get mine plucked but now find that waxing is so much quicker and the pain is over and done with faster haha. I was put off of waxing for a few years after someone waxed off pretty much 1/2 my eyebrow haha. But I plucked up the courage and have been getting my brows waxed for about 6 months now and couldn't go back to plucking unless its just the strays in between appointments!

16th February, 2017

I'm 2 of the 3 I use to thread and I use to over pluck especially in the 90s as a teen if I missed my appointment for a wax. Now I wax at home sometimes go to salon for a shape and pluck in between. I now too trim the long hair that stick out

16th February, 2017

I get mine waxed nowadays. Partly because my eye sight isn't so good for plucking and partly because I can't be bothered taking up heaps of time and not always getting it right!

16th February, 2017

i got threaded for a few years but they ended up getting my brows to a very thin stage, so i've been growing them back in for a couple years and switched to wax and tint at Benefit. <3 I don't touch them myself, apart from tweezing the odd stray, and using brow makeup (Chichi Brow Pomade, Benefit Precisely, My Brow pencil and GimmeBrow currently!)

16th February, 2017

I've always used tweezers or waxed my own at home. I've only ever had one whoops with the wax and took off a bit of the end of my brow, nothing major though (fingers crossed). I think I need to find someone in my area that does threading and give it a try, at least once!

Macs
16th February, 2017

I'm curious about the benefit brow services. Sounds good

trudijoy
16th February, 2017

It's amazing Macs. I might go this weekend

Macs
16th February, 2017

I'm not good at plucking my brows evenly.

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