All About Eyebrows: Part 1 - History of my Brows

A while back I received a question on my Formspring requesting me to do an eyebrow tutorial. At first, I was never planning to do a tutorial because it seems like everyone does it basically the same way, and my way was definitely not unique - but then I decided I wanted to do a two part series, explaining how I fill them in and how I maintain them, because I feel like that's just as important.

I thought I'd start off by telling you my "history" of my eyebrows:

I have really thick & bushy brows. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any photos, so you're just going to have to believe me on that one (lol). During the summer of 9th grade, I kept bothering my mom about having my eyebrows done - till that point I had always gone au naturel. However, in Afghan culture, a girl doesn't get her eyebrows done until she's married. So with my mom wanting to adhere to some Afghan customs, she was weary about having me get them done.

Finally, she had given in and off we went to the local eyebrow threader. I opted to get my eyebrows threaded because, it was cheap, and well, it was what my mom did to her eyebrows.

We went to the place, and my mom's "regular" person wasn't there, but another lady was. My mom told me I shouldn't get my eyebrows done by her because she always messed hers up, but I was too stubborn and too excited to care. I was nervous at the same time. So off I went to lay down on a table, and the lady went to work.

After about 5-10 minutes, I got up, took a quick glance in the mirror, my mom payed (it was $3.00 CDN), and we set off to go home.

On my whole way back, I was nervous to run to a mirror and see exactly up close how they turned out.

Once I got home, I was horrified.

I looked completely different. I think it was the shock of having such a small change done to my eyebrows and how it made such a difference to my whole face. Every time I looked in the mirror for like, 2 weeks after, I was surprised by how I looked.

And both my eyebrows looked completely different from each other. I swear I immediately regretted it, cursing myself for not listening to my mom and getting my eyebrows done by that certain lady.

One was circular, and one was square. I kid you not. My mom tried to console and assure me that nobodies eyebrows looked exactly the same. But I wasn't having it.

I was constantly asking people, "Do my eyebrows look different?" and nobody could tell the difference unless I pointed it out to them, I was that paranoid.

Anyways, what I ended up doing was changing my part and where my bangs lay so they covered the circular eyebrow that I hated.

As far as thickness and length and all that go, she didn't really thin them out too much (which I was happy for, because I think it would be way more traumatic if she had given me thinner eyebrows) and she didn't cut off any length. Basically, she cleaned them up and followed my natural shape.

From then on, whenever I went to get my eyebrows done, I'd always say before they got to work, "I want them just cleaned up, I don't want them any thinner or to change the shape, except I was this eyebrow more square, like this" and I pointed to my "I-like-this-one-better" brow and depicted with my finger how I wanted the circular brow to change and be like the squarer brow.

I hope I make sense and I haven't lost you guys yet. :P

Overtime, they started become more alike, but I realized eventually that nobodies two eyebrows were exactly the same - and that was what everyone told me. "Eyebrows are more like sisters, not twins."

Up until now, I've been threading my eyebrows. You can learn more about threading on my post here.

One of the reason I've stopped going to get my eyebrows threaded is because I'm happy with how my brows are right now, and I get weary when I go and get my eyebrows done because I'm putting myself in the hands of someone else, and that can be nerve wracking.

In my next post, I'll talk to you and explain how I maintain my brows exactly, what products I use, some problems that I have and all that jazz.

In the meantime, I'd love to know your "brow story." When was the first time you had gotten your eyebrows done (whether you started doing them yourself or getting them done by someone else) I'd love to know if anyone had a dramatic experience as I thought I had.