6 Easy Ways To Maintain Your Eyebrows Without Going To The Salon
Your beauty routine won't suffer.
getty Many of us are used to getting our eyebrows shaped and cleaned up at our local salon. Whether it's tweezing, waxing, or even threading (or a combination of them all), people who are serious about their eyebrow upkeep go to the salon at least once a month like clockwork.
But now that salons are closed (as well as schools, restaurants, and most businesses) to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and most of the country is following stay-at-home orders, our eyebrow appointments could be put off for months.
What can you do? Well, for one, you can learn how to maintain your eyebrows from the comfort of your own home.
Despite having to be stuck at home, we still want to feel our best, right? Whether video conferencing for work or having virtual happy hour with friends, looking good means finding ways to tame and shape our brows before they get out of control.
But we also don't want to make a mess of our eyebrows (hello, overplucking!), which could take many more months to grow out. How do we keep our eyebrows looking their best until this horrible mess is all over? Here are a few ways to make sure your brows look good while you quarantine.
1. Fill in your brows with your favorite product.
While some of us have thick eyebrows, others fill in their eyebrows with eyebrow tattoo pens or eyebrow pencils of their choosing. For those who are new at filling in their brows, there are a few things to keep in mind.
According to brow expert and makeup artist, Danielle Boyer, “Under your brow, you want to draw a line from the front to the tail of your brow. Think: connect the dots.”
Be careful to go over any bald spots, and spots that need to fill in. Do the same on the top of your brow. Then, says Boyer, “Blend all the color with a spoolie brush (mascara wand) upward, and then brush downward.” All you need is just a few strokes.
Another tip: If you want to grow out your brows, Boyer advises exaggerating this shape with an extra line of pencil or powder. This is imitating where your future brow hair will be.
2. Grab your tweezer.
Those familiar with getting an eyebrow wax know the esthetician often uses a tweezer after the wax to clean up stray hairs. And you can do the same for your eyebrows.
Says Boyer, “Now, with a tweezer just clean up your unibrow area, under and above the brow.” However, be sure to not get too close to where you filled in. Leave a little space so you're just cleaning up your brow. “This ensures you can still grow in any spots and will not over-tweeze this way,” she adds.
3. Trim your eyebrows.
When trimming, be very careful that you don't accidentally poke yourself in the eye! For a proper trim, you'll need either an eyebrow trimmer or eyebrow scissors, as well as an eyebrow brush.
Says Boyer, “Just brush your brow hairs up with a spoolie. Any hairs that go beyond where you filled or where there is no hair, trim the hairs a tiny bit. Then, brush down and trim the hairs that only go past what you filled in. Brush up and over. If you like a brushed up 'feathered' brow, brush up and trim"
4. Maintain full brows with arches.
This may take some practice, so follow Boyer's instructions: “Make sure you hold the end of your spoolie in the front of the brow, aligning vertically right outside the bridge of the nose. This is where your brow should begin."
As for where the arch should be, it should land right outside the iris.
“For the ends, hold your spoolie (brow brush) at the corner of the eye like you're going to extend a winged liner all the way out. Where you meet your brow is where it should end,” Boyer adds. You can even draw this line so you don’t take too much off the ends.
5. Know your growth cycle.
While we're stuck at home, we may be bored and looking for things to do. But remember that you should only shape your brows once a month! In fact, over-tweezing will lead to having more to tweeze, so discipline in this area is important.
“Brows have a 28-day growth cycle. They will look so much cleaner in the long run the less you tweeze. The more you tweeze, the more they grow, thys creating a brow that always needs tweezing!” recommends Boyer.
6. Promote brow growth.
Remember that this is an amazing opportunity for us all to let our eyebrows grow, and then become the best part of our face! Keeping them healthy is important until we can visit our brow artists again.
How can we keep our eyebrows healthy and growing? Says Boyer, “Castor oil and vitamin E are two great all-natural products if used everyday to promote brow growth. It's especially true if you want to take this time to let your brows be all they can be!”
Aly Walansky is a NY-based lifestyles writer who focuses on health, wellness, and relationships. Her work appears in dozens of digital and print publications regularly. Visit her on Twitter or email her.