AD FEATURE: How to Maintain Brilliant Brows Without Spending Hundreds
Main image – Sergefilimonov/Stocksy
When it comes to eyebrows, maintenance is- annoyingly- key. Because, like with many things, expecting them to look great and stay great with minimal effort is wishful thinking (hey, a girl can dream).
So, consider this your definitive eyebrow maintenance guide. From how to keep their shape to giving them a polished overall finish, here are the main things to remember to maintain seriously good brows.
Getting in shape
There are lots of ways to have your brows shaped but the most popular method of professional brow shaping is via either waxing or threading. Warning – these can sting a bit! But they are sure fire ways of achieving even brows. Because let’s face it, we’ve all got carried away with the tweezers at least once in our lives.
If you do decide to shape them yourself at home using tweezers, remember to never pluck above the brow, always below. Plucking above will take away your brows’ natural shape. While concentrating on the hairs below will help give them a lift and a natural arch.
Keeping their shape
Once you have achieved your perfect brow shape, you’ll need to work hard at maintaining it. Because – shock horror – eyebrows grow. So keeping on top of stragglers that contribute to your brows losing their shape is key.
The best way to maintain your shape is to check every day for stray hairs that have grown outside of your preferred brow shape and use tweezers to pluck them out individually. Some people wait until lots of hairs have grown before they have a bigger maintenance session, but this risks losing track of the original shape and having to start again. If you keep on top of it every day, overall, it will be much quicker and way more efficient.
When plucking out stray hairs, always pluck in the direction the hair is growing in and hold your skin taut as you go. If you pluck a hair without doing this, it will be much more painful as you will take the skin with you as you pluck. Remember – don’t over pluck! Just get rid of the hairs that stick out.
You can of course wait for your next threading or waxing appointment before you do any in-between maintenance, but you might find the regrowth too much to bear.
Enhance with makeup
After all your hard work, you’ll want to enhance your brows as best you can. Whilst some brunettes might not feel the need to fill their brows in with a pencil or brow gel, it’s likely those with fair hair will.
Image – Colourlaboratory/Stocksy
So, using a brow pencil or gel one or two shades lighter than you natural hair colour (judge it from your roots), draw light, quick, strokes that replicate brow hairs in order to fill in any gaps, enhance your brow shape and/or make them look fuller. Do this in an upwards-outwards motion to encourage a lifted look.
Whatever your hair colour, you can then use a brow gel to keep your eyebrows’ shape in place, again applying it in an upwards-outwards direction to enhance your brow arch.
If you find filling in your brows every morning takes too long, you could always try microblading, which is expensive but essentially does the hard work for you. It’s a semi-permanent makeup technique which uses a blade made up of numerous needles that scratch pigment into the skin. Yep, it hurts. But it cuts lots of time off your morning makeup routine and can last for up to a few years, depending on your skin.
Invest in a brow serum
If you struggle with hair growth or you just want to maintain a full brow look, invest in a brow serum which helps to stimulate growth and improve brow density.
It can take anywhere between 4-8 weeks to see results but applying it every morning or evening is a minimal addition to your routine for maximum results. Brow serums also help to condition and hydrate the hair too. Bonus!
Brush your brows
Another way to ensure healthy brows is to brush them daily. Using an eyebrow brush, simply comb them upwards once you’ve taken your makeup off and this will help to stimulate growth, keep brows clean and prevent flakiness.
The takeaway
Keep on top of your brow regrowth by plucking stray hairs as regularly as you can. Remember the rule of plucking in the direction the hair is growing in to keep pain at a minimum and only pluck below the brow, never above.
Invest in some products that help to enhance your brows too – an eyebrow pencil or gel, an eyebrow comb and/or a brow serum. The more you pamper your brows, the better they will look and the healthier they’ll be.
Surprising fact – the experts always say that brows should never be completely symmetrical as otherwise, they would look unnatural. So try not to over think it and embrace your eyebrows’ natural quirks!
Get Glowing!
