Don’t be brow beaten in 2013
Pluck up your courage and focus on keeping eyebrows in shape
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Perhaps this is why, like venetian blinds (ick) and floor-to-ceiling curtains (lovely again), eyebrow trends change each season.
For fall/winter 2012, designers and makeup artists dreamed up everything from stone- and crystal-encrusted embroidered brows (thank you, Chanel, those were amazing) to the sort of bushy caterpillar wonders last seen on Brooke Shields.
But what about those of us who don’t have geniuses like Chanel makeup’s creative director Peter Philips on speed dial or simply want naturallooking brows that frame our face, not overtake it? That’s where brow bars and brow artists come in.
Specialists, such as Alisha Noon, have been perfecting their craft for years. You may scoff, but anyone who has overtweezed or witnessed a bad over-tweezing job — and who hasn’t? — knows the value in a proper eyebrow styling.
In fact, “the most common disaster I see is over-tweezed brows,” confirms Noon, who has been shaping brows professionally for over five years. It’s a common blunder.
“Many women think that tweezing a thinner, higher brow makes eyes appear more open, therefore making them look younger,” Noon explains. “It actually does the opposite.”
Ravy Mehroke, president of Bombay Brow Bars, agrees. “Often, women don’t understand the shape of their brows and end up over-tweezing them,” she says.
Of course, short of calling in a pair of crystal-studded eyebrows, there’s no way to make hair suddenly reappear but all is not lost.
“I hear women all the time saying, ‘oh, there’s nothing you can do with my eyebrows, I don’t have any,’” says Noon, “but these are usually the people who see the biggest difference. Shape the eyebrows that you do have and you’ll be amazed at how they actually become more prominent on your face.”
Good eyebrows can also shave years off your age — or at least make you look like you had an incredible night’s sleep. And it may seem obvious, but good eyebrows should also be symmetrical and suit your face shape.
Each appointment at Bombay Brow Bar begins with a “brow gossip” session to analyze the customer’s eyebrows and facial structure. Similarly, Noon approaches each client, old or new, with fresh eyes.
“Eyebrow hair grows in three cycles,” she reasons, “so regardless of whether they’ve been keeping them up, every month it’s time to regroup, reevaluate, and re-shape.”
So what about this season? For fall, fuller is definitely better. “I think most women these days are looking for fuller eyebrows,” says Noon, “but not everyone looks good with crazy thick eyebrows and not everyone has the ability to grow them.” She adds, “and full eyebrows doesn’t mean unkempt and ungroomed eyebrows!”
That said, be realistic. Getting your eyebrows to your desired state can take months: hair doesn’t grow overnight, after all. In addition, consider your hair type.
Asian women’s brows often grow up instead of down and across; Amanda Peet-esque eyebrows may therefore be out of the question. And despite the fact that many salons and some stylists will try to convince you otherwise, don’t be averse to trying different types of hair removal.
For Asian women, Noon often opts for a combination of waxing, tweezing, and trimming (but only in one-millimeter increments!) to help “declutter” the tiny, short hairs surrounding the desired shape.
Most brow bars employ a combination of threading, trimming, and tweezing.
As for the pain factor? Each technique has its champions and its opponents, but no one denies that hair removal will never be entirely pleasant. And at least that’s something that will never change with the seasons.