At-Home Brow Grooming Tutorial

The secret to building perfect brows is selecting the best shape for your face. If you have the “ideal” oval face shape, any brow style will work, especially if you stick to your natural shape with a soft arch. Round faces require a higher arch to lengthen the face. Long faces need a flatter arch to shorten the face. Those with square-shaped faces can soften their jawline by creating a higher, more defined arch. If you have a diamond-shaped face, you should round the brows to make your face appear less wide. Meanwhile, those with heart-shaped faces should add more arch because they do not tend have a very prominent forehead so this can lengthen their face. If your forehead is very prominent however, a lower, curved arch will balance a pointy chin.

Now that you know the best brow shape for your face, it is time to learn the Golden Ratio of eyebrows. The head of the brow to the arch should be 2/3 the length of the total brow. The last 1/3 of the brow length is measured from the arch to the tail. The head of the brow is measured from the corner of the nose straight up to the start of the tear duct. If your natural brow hair begins closer in towards the nose than this and you like it, keep it. This is about finding your own personal brow style! The arch can be measured from the corner of the nose to either the outside corner of the pupil or the iris. The tail of the brow ends at the mark made where the corner of the nose meets the outer corner of the eyeball. The tail shouldn’t descend lower than the bottom line of the head brow hair. This will make the eyes look sad and droopy.

Average brow thickness varies from 0.5cm to 1.1cm. Thicker brows are back in style (think, the Kardashians) and actually signal an increased amount of testosterone in a female mate, which apparently makes a man more inclined to reproduce. Who knew? Thinner brows used to be all the rage, and if you’re struggling to get the volume you lost back, PUT THE TWEEZERS DOWN! Eyebrow hair can take 3-12 months to return, if at all. While it can be embarrassing to walk around with untamed brows, letting them grow is the best way to reshape. Methods other than tweezing for brow hair removal include threading and waxing. While waxing is more popular than threading, it can irritate sensitive skin and cause breakouts. If you are using retinol or have a recent chemical peel, you should avoid waxing. Threading is said to be more painful, especially if the skin isn’t pulled taut during the procedure, but it leaves a smoother finish and is safe for allergy sufferers. Twinkle razors are also a great tool to clean up any stray hairs if you are attempting to avoid tweezing, or don’t have access to the other methods mentioned. 

Next, we have to trim the newly shaped brows. Any hairs sticking up outside of the 0.5-1.1cm thick line we have decided upon must go! Using a clean mascara brush, begin by brushing the hair up and use manicure scissors to make multiple, small cuts into the brow hair. If you make one long cut, you may hack into too many hairs that are no longer on your line. This is because the hairs fold under the weight and pressure of the scissors as you make the cut. If you make this mistake, prepare to fill the brow in for a few weeks to save face. Also, try to make the cuts from the arch to the head of the brow, as this will also prevent the hairs from folding down and away from the scissors. After the top line of brow hairs are trimmed on both sides, it is time to brush the brow hair down to trim the bottom outline. Be careful when trimming the hairs by the tail as well, especially when defining that very important bottom line!

Now it’s time to fill in these big, beautiful, bushy brows! Using a brow pencil that most closely matches your brow hair, begin by outlining the bottom line of the brows you just trimmed up. This line should be darkest, never the top line of the brow as this can make you look angry. Don’t apply too much of the brow pencil because it can clump into the brow hair and be difficult to remove, especially if you are wearing a full face of makeup! Use your clean mascara brush to work the brow pencil up and into the shape you have worked so hard to create. Use the brow pencil to really define the arch and tail, again working the product down into the brows trying to create a more shadowed look on the top line and head of the brow. Resist the urge to fill the brow beginnings in dark and thick with the pencil! Once you are satisfied with the brow definition, secure the stray hairs with a clear brow mascara swiped in the direction of the natural hair growth. 

Follow these simple steps to brow shaping and grooming each month and you’ll have bodacious, Kardashian-esque brows in no time. The butt, I make no guarantees…