All About Eyebrows: Part 2 - Maintenance

Continuing with my All About Eyebrows series, I wanted to talk more in-depth about how I maintain my eyebrows.

I feel like maintenance is the most important thing for caring for your brows because it helps keep your eyebrows clean and crisp looking.

I used to be one of those girls who would go and get my eyebrows done, wait two weeks for them to get unruly and go and get them done again - no plucking or maintenance in between visits. But since I've started doing my eyebrows myself, I've started to get into plucking/threading my eyebrows daily, if not every 2-3 days.

Brow Hair:
I have two types of hair around my brows, thick hair and very fine hair.

For me, my brow shape can get messed up quite easily because of the little fine hairs, these can be hard to pluck and usually get picked out when I thread. If I don't frequently clean up my brows and these fine hairs, it can contribute to the shape of my brows becoming unruly and less crisp (if that makes sense, I hope I'm not losing you here, but more on this a bit later!)

In the photo below (click to view it full size) you can see what I'm talking about when I mention those fine hairs:


How Do I Maintain My Brows?
I posted earlier about how I was all about threading my eyebrows. Since I can't really thread my eyebrows 100% myself, I've started plucking hairs under my brow, and threading the fine hairs above my brow.

I can only thread the top of my brows because it doesn't require me to stretch the skin taut, where as if I were to thread below my brows, I can't do it myself because I would need to stretch the skin (which I can't do it I'm using both hands to thread).

I use regular thread and make a loop and thread (you can check Pursebuzz's video here to get an idea on how to thread your eyebrows yourself).

For thicker hairs, I like to use tweezers:


I usually use the pointed tweezers picture on the bottom, but I find that I mostly end up breaking the hair and causing kind of "ingrown" hairs. This is because I try to pluck too soon and can't grip the hair well enough to pull it out, and I end up breaking the hair. So I recently went out and invested in a set of Tweezerman tweezers - these ones here - I've used them a bit so far, and to be honest I don't notice a HUGE difference, but we'll see how they work out in the long run.

How I Do My Eyebrows:
I cannot stress the importance of doing your eyebrows during the day by a window and with a hand held mirror. I find it's a lot easier to get every-single-hair including those fine pesky ones as well. Before I do my make-up (while I'm waiting for my moisturizer to sink in) I usually check for any stray hairs that need to be plucked, and that is when I take the time to do it. It usually doesn't take longer than 5 minutes if I'm plucking daily.

Every now and then I'll get my eyebrows threaded just to clean things up precisely again (I usually go once every 2-3 months), but mostly I focus on doing my eyebrows myself. If you're unfamiliar with threading, check my post here on that talks about it in more detail. Below is a photo of my eyebrows right after I've had them threaded:


Since my brow hairs can get pretty long, I usually trim them once a week using a tiny pair of brow scissors as shown below. I use a spoolie (a cleaned out mascara wand) to comb my brows so they're all going in the same direction.


How Do I Shape My Brows?
To be honest, that's something I haven't really done myself. Over time and having my eyebrows threaded by someone else, I've gotten it to the shape that I have today, which follows the whole "perfect brow" form:


If you have been following my blog for a while, you would of noticed how my brows thickness can fluctuate. As shown in the photos below:

^ Thicker brows (my brows are filled in here).


^ Thicker brows (my brows are filled in here).


^ Thinner brows (my brows are filled in here).

This is due to the fact that on my brows, on the underside of the inner part of my brows, I have to pay extra attention to a line of fine hairs to pluck, because if I don't pluck them, they can make my brows thicker.

And that's basically it as far as maintaining my brows. I hope I covered everything and didn't leave anything out. If you guys have any questions or anything, leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

In my last and final installment in my "All About Eyebrows" series, I'll cover finally how I fill in my brows. (: