I’m not a thin brow girl. My eyebrows have always been on the full side, and as a teenager I was definitely intimidated by them. Instead of plucking them into submission, I left them mostly alone. I occasionally plucked stray hairs, avoiding a monobrow. So, I managed to escape my teen years with brows that are still fuller than normal. This works in my favor since full brows are in, yet again. This happens every few years, and I love when magazines declare my full eye brows desirable.
However, having full eyebrows isn’t exactly easy. There’s a lot of maintenance involved. I outsource most of it to an esthetician, I visit every 4-5 weeks for shaping. In between visits, I keep things looking groomed on my own. Which means I have a brow shape up routine that I follow every day. Skipping a day can mean unruly brows and a lot of extra time is needed to shape things up the next day.
To clean up my brows, I use a regular number 2 pencil as a straight edge, slant tip tweezers, a pair of sharp scissors, and a combo brow brush/razor.
Step by step how to fix your eyebrow shape
The first step is verifying where my brows should be. I really do this every day. I swear that a few hairs can pop up overnight and throw off everything!
1. First, I run the pencil from the very edge of my nose, to the corner of my eye. The end of my brow should reach the pencil.
2. Now I move the pencil in to the side of the tip of my nose, where the nostril starts to take off if that makes sense. I align the pencil to go through the center of my eye. Where the pencil hits my brow is where my arch should be. I try not to move it around when cleaning up stray hairs under my brow.
3. Finally, from that same point on my nose, I move the pencil to be pointing directly up and down. This show where my brows should be starting, and I admit this is the spot I have the most trouble. Hairs like to suddenly show up in this area overnight, but I want my brows to stay balanced and not overplucked.
Once I know where I’m going, I break out the tweezers. I pluck only one hair at a time, and I go for the hairs that are out of place. Every few hairs I make sure I lean back and make sure I haven’t done too much plucking. I don’t do any shaping, I only pull out hairs that are out of place.
As well, I only pluck hairs that are under or between my brows, very rarely do I pluck any hairs that are above my brows. When I do, they’re dark hairs that are pretty far from the brow itself, I leave any shaping on the top of my brow to my esthetician.
Next, it is time to make sure my brows haven’t gotten too long. I brush my brows straight up, any hairs that are more than 3 or 4 mm above my brow get trimmed. I usually trim 1 hair at a time, I don’t want to have a big clump all the exact same length. Varying where the brow hairs gets trimmed looks more natural.
Finally, the last step is one that makes it all look much more professional! I turn around the Get In Shape and using the razor side, I can quickly shave away any peach fuzz in between my brows. Sometimes I’ll use it over my brows as well. Cleaning up the peach fuzz makes a big difference!
Completing this whole process only takes a minute or two when I clean up my brows every day. Once I’ve finished cleaning up my brows, I can fill them in and finish my makeup.
I’m a doctor, a mommy and a bit of a beauty addict. If you let me, I can take 2 hours to get ready in the morning. Really. I'm on a quest for faster beauty that works!