Saturday, January 31, 2009

To Pluck or not to Pluck that is the REAL question.
Are eyebrows beyond your comprehension? Do they just seem too impossible for you to try on your own?
Your eyebrows can set the foundation for your face, framing your best features and making you look younger and more awake. My 4 year old daughter refers to them as “eyebrellas” Little umbrellas for your eyes. They are the main focal point on your face and can make or break a look.

Eyebrow fashions change like hair styles. But just as with hair styles not everyone can do the style they see on their favorite star. You have to work with what you already have.
A great way to test a look out on yourself and see if you have the hair it takes to pull it off is go buy a charcoal pencil from the art store. Draw your eyebrow onto your face as you would like to see it on you. Keep a photo handy of the style you like to refer back to.
Now inspect your work. Do your hairs actually even grow where you have them drawn? Does this style suit you?
A good rule of thumb to follow as far as shaping and arching your eyebrows is as follows .Take a pencil and place right on the outside edge of your nose going straight up to your forehead. Your eyebrows should not start any closer or farther away than this line. Now place the pencil on the tip of your nose and looking straight forward direct the pencil over the center of your iris at an angle. Where the pencil crosses your eyebrow should be the very highest part in your arch.
(I would like to take a moment here to credit my model Fifi VonPaint for being gracious enough to allow us to draw on her face for demonstration purposes)
Use your handy dandy charcoal pencil to mark these spots! Color in your eyebrows and then when you go to pluck do not go over into where you have drawn.
This will keep you from looking like The Rock.








If your eyebrows are nearly invisible or painfully fine, Try dying them on! Use carefully a dye for eyebrows and make sure you do not get it into or near your eye area as this can be extremely dangerous. Your face is covered in superfluous hairs called lanugo. These baby fine hairs are hard to see and are almost clear. But if you dye them they become visible and you can take advantage of them showing up to form part of your eyebrow arch. Its truly amazing to see a client who never thought they had enough eyebrows to shape suddenly have a frame for their face.
Now that you know how to shape your eyebrows you need to know the right way to pluck them. First step is use an astringent over the area to prevent infection. Sanitize your tweezers with alcohol. Wash your hands thoroughly. Put a little tension on the skin and pull the hair out in the direction of growth. After you are done plucking use the astringent again to close down the opened hair follicles and prevent infection.
If you opt for waxing use the same sanitation precautions.
A few tips for waxing:
Apply wax in direction of growth and remove in opposite direction of growth.
Try to avoid plucking between waxing. The hairs have to be long enough for the wax to grab them and when you pluck a few out here and there in between times, those hairs will probably be too short to adhere to the wax next time. You need your eyebrows on a schedule so they are all ready to wax at the same time to get the best results.
When you are removing the wax put enough tension on the skin so that the skin doesn’t “flop”.If you do not put enough tension on the skin you can tear the delicate eye area skin.
Don’t tan before or after you wax. This can cause your skin to rip and burn and leave nasty scars.
Use a mineral oil based product to remove wax residue .If you accidentally get wax on an area you don’t want removed use the oil to gently remove the way off those hairs and reapply the astringent before continuing.
If you are using heated wax don’t get it too hot. It should be just hot enough to spread easily but be comfortable to the skin. Test temperature on the back of your hand. Also for wax that uses muslin strips press the strip and rub with gently with your fingertips to make sure it adheres to the hair .Don’t let the wax cool all the way before removing the strip .You want it a little soft still when you remove it so it doesn’t take part of your skin with it. I count to 4 rubbing the strip the whole time and then remove the strip. You may need a few seconds more or less depending on the temperature of wax at application. Sugar waxes and waxes that do not use muslin strips should be allowed to cool completely before removal or they will just break and shatter and your left trying to pull of little bits of wax with one hair in each.

If your eyebrows resemble any letter of the alphabet like an upside down V or a sideways J or C or god forbid an M or - -and you just cant get the shape right ,go to a professional (a term I use loosely )Make sure you go to someone who deals in skincare and eyebrow shaping not your stylist. Many stylists do a great job with eyebrows but most are clueless about shaping and just clean up what you already have. Get a good foundation to build from and you should be able to maintain your eyebrows as long as you don’t get crazy and start plucking the wrong hairs!
If you have crazy hairs that grow straight out or are way longer than they should be don’t pull them out! You may be left with big holes in your eyebrows. Opt instead to trim them with a small pair of scissors. I use a good pair of cuticle shears that are not curved for this. Only cut one hair at a time and cut each hair a slightly different length .Hold the shears at an angle along the hair shaft so the tips end up pointed and more natural looking. Don’t give yourself a eyebrow flat top! Trim them sparingly and use an eyebrow brush after each cut to inspect your work. A little goes a long way here.If you need help troubleshooting problems that are not covered here or just enjoyed this article , post a message in reply! I would love to know what you think.

2 comments:

  1. hey found this to be very interesting...i usually have someone wax my eyebrows but lately i have been doing it my self with tweezers.. very challenging

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  2. hey please check out my blog it kinda of goes hand in hand with yours its al about fashion

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