Perfect brows 1-2-3

Tweezing and waxing your brows away (with some trimming along)

Whatever you do, whichever cosmetic products you use, no matter how expensive they are, nothing will mean a thing if you don’t have nice eyebrows. You can get your brows in shape by visiting a beautician, and then just maintain them at home, tweezing each brow-hair as it appears.

But what if you let them grow wild, they’re all over your face and all beauty parlours are closed? Learn here how to shape your brows to perfection and you’ll never have to worry again.

Before any hair removing takes place, make sure your face is clean, your hands as well. Be ready to suffer some pain, because skin under and around eyebrows is very sensitive. If you’re hyper pain-not-resistant, prepare some ice cubes to freeze slightly the skin and diminish the pain (when waxing), or shape your brows immediately after taking a shower (when tweezing). Next, comb your brows with a clean toothbrush.

The first thing to do is to determine what your eyebrows should look like. This is done wit some help of a ruler or a very long pen, if you have it.

To determine how long your brows should be, hold a ruler parallel to your nose. Level the ruler with the inner corner of the eye, and you’ve found where your brow should begin. Mark the correct point with a dot using a kohl pencil or similar.

The tricky part is the arch, or where the highest point of your brow should be. Avoid creating an unnaturally exaggerated arch; the shape you’re aiming for is thicker at the inner corner, tapering out over the brow bone. The best way to do this is by holding a ruler from the edge of the nostril past the outer edge of the iris (the colored part of the eye) and up to the eyebrow. Mark the spot with a dot.

‘Connect’ the nostril and the outer corner of your eye with a ruler and you’ll find where your brows should stop. Now link up the dots in a gentle arch to draw the ideal shape of your eyebrow. This will give you a guideline to go by waxing and tweezing.

If you’re about to use wax, do yourself a favour and buy a professional kit for waxing: a jar or a tube of wax ready to be heated in boiling water. Use a small spatula and apply only small amounts of wax at time. Put a muslin strip on it and remove it as soon as you can (consult the instructions that came with the wax, products vary). Do this in the opposite way of hair-growth, while pulling skin with your other hand.

Don’t wax above the brow, only underneath. If any hairs are leftover, tweeze it. You can also tweeze any strand hair above the brow.

Tweezing is a simpler solution; you only need a good pair of tweezers. They come in three basic shapes: thin tip is good for grasping small, fine hairs, and plucking ingrown hair, slanted tip gives maximum control while square tip is used for removing coarse hairs or several hairs at a time.

For brows to be just perfect, once you’re done with tweezing or waxing, comb brows upwards and trim any hairs that stick out too much. When you’re buying cosmetics next time, try to look for a good brow pencil. You can correct any mistakes you’ve made while removing brow hair with it (filling the gaps) or enhance the natural colour of your eyebrows.