Keep Your Eyebrows Tidy

Aside from armpits, legs, and bikini lines, our set of eyebrows is one of the most important part of our body(face) we should maintain. While unshaved armpits can be concealed by wearing sleeved shirt and not raising your arms too high, and while unwanted hairs on your bikini lines won't show unless you wear bikini, eyebrows can't be concealed at all. Ok, bushy eyebrows are not as gross as bushy armpits and bushy thing down there, but still it shouldn't be taken for granted just because it isn't gross. Remember, eyebrows frame your face. A well-groomed eyebrows makes a big difference on how you look, so never be too busy for an eyebrows trim. Who wouldn't want to look fresh and pretty towards our significant others?

First things first. If you are gifted with nicely shaped eyebrows, then don't attempt to re-shape anymore. What you should do is to just clean up the surroundings. Shave (or pluck) the stray hairs and that should be good.

If you are cursed with a bushy, rapunzel-ish, multi-directional eyebrows, that's where the issue starts. I always liked thick eyebrows, for as long as it's well shaped and clean. But since eyebrows grooming is a delicate topic, I will not attempt anymore to write about how to groom and shape your eyebrows. Instead here are some tips:

1. If you have never done or still in trial and error for a long time with shaping and grooming your brows and has never achieved the eyebrows you are dreaming of, I recommend having a professional to do it for you. When you do, observe very well and ask questions how it is done. And then maintain it. Do it with reputable salons please.

2. Follow the natural shape of your eyebrows when shaping.

3. Never have one-liner eyebrows. Do not ever make it so thin. Thin eyebrows makes you look matured and old. Put it this way : Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping beauty, they all have thick eyebrows; while the evil step mother always have one-liner eyebrows.

4. Finally, make sure they are even. Well, our eyebrows are sisters, but they aren't twins so they don't need to be exactly identical. Notice that sometimes your left eyebrow's hair direction or thickness is slightly different from your right eyebrows. What's important is they look even and balanced.

It is however, inevitable, that some people have an in-born thin brows. What you can do with this is to still clean it up and shape it, but fill-in and enhance your brows with a brow powder or brow liner. If you use brow liner, make sure you smudge it with a brow brush tool so it doesn't look too harsh and artificial. I prefer brow shadow over liner because of this. Choosing a color, on the other hand, is another story. But this is what usually works for me - I pick a color 1 shade lighter than my hair. So if my hair is black, the color i pick is dark brown. Usually, dark brown works for most Asian women with tan complexion like me.

Eyebrows shaping and grooming is one of my favorite cosmetic things to do, and seriously, I'm so obsessed with it, whether it's bushy as hell, or naturally thin (as in thin strands), I can shape them pretty well :). So let me share the "must haves" in your brows grooming kit.

A. Eyebrows razor/shaper - This is essential when shaping your eyebrows. It's quicker and less painful versus plucking. However, this requires precision so be careful. One wrong move can ruin the shape you are aiming for. It's best to shave slowly, and then little by little to avoid mistakes.

B. Tweezer - this is very handy. I sometimes resort to tweezers when : There are stray hairs that I couldn't remove by using a razor for some reasons; when I'm not comfortable with the razor to shape delicate areas. So I use razor for major clean-ups, and then tweezers for the details.

C. Lash brush - I prefer using this versus the real eyebrows brush because this is more friendly to the eyebrows strands. I also use this to gather the hair I need to trim using scissors.

D. Eyebrows Scissors - these small scissors are also used to cut nose hairs, but don't be grossed out. Use it on your eyebrows and nowhere else :). I use scissors to cut long strands of eyebrows essential for shaping.





headshot photo by: Mark Mulder