Finding the Right Shape
Choose your eyebrow shape based on your face shape. Eyebrows are not “one style fits all.” People with square faces should go for rounded brows, while people with rounded faces should opt for angular brows. Long faces look best with extended brows, heart-shaped faces are best complemented by well-groomed (but not thin!) brows, and oval faces look best with classic, balanced brows. EXPERT TIP Shara Strand Shara Strand Makeup Artist Shara Strand is a Makeup Artist and the Founder of Shara Makeup Studio, a makeup and image consulting studio based in New York City. She has over 15 years of image and makeup consulting experience including working as a regional artist for Bare Escentuals and Estee Lauder, Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales, and Bergdorf Goodman. Her work has been featured in WNBC, Fox 5, Direct TV ABC morning news, and Hamptons Magazine. She is the creator of Shara Cosmetics and is a two time Billboard charted singer. She holds a BFA from New York University. Shara Strand Shara Strand Makeup Artist Our Expert Agrees: If you have a rounder face shape, choose an angular, more shaped brow to give definition to your face and eyes.
Measure your inside brow. The inside of your brow, the starting point, needs to be in just the right place to help give shape to your face and brighten your eyes. Avoid the appearance of a unibrow by starting your eyebrows too close together, or making them sparse by starting too far away. Hold a brow pencil or tweezers vertically, aligned with the outer edge of your nostril. The intersection of this line and your brow is where you should start your brow. This line usually aligns with the inner corner of your eyes, when it doesn't it's because eyes are beyond the inner or outer side of this line, which usually means they're either close-set or wide-set, so eyebrows ending up closer or farther can maintain a balance.
Find the right length. Take your brow pencil or tweezers to make another measurement. Start one end of your pencil at the corner of your nose, lining it up with the outside corner of your eye at a 45-degree angle. This will help you to find the perfect ending point for your eyebrows. The place the pencil extends past the edge of your eye is the ideal length for your eyebrow. Mark this with your eyebrow pencil.
Find your arch. Line up your pencil with the center of where your pupil would be if you were looking straight ahead. The extension of the pencil into your brow is where your arch should be. This should be the equivalent of about ¾ of the way into your eyebrow from the innermost point. Your arch should not be in the center or near the end of your eyebrow. This shape will give the illusion of surprise or boredom. Your arch should always have a natural curve if you have an oval face, and a sharp angle if you have a round face.
Create the right shape. Use your eyebrow pencil to fill in all of the brow from you're starting to ending point. Follow the natural thickness of your brows. Filling in your brows before removing hair will help you to not remove too much, and to be more conscientious of the shape. You want your brows to be at least as wide as 3 brow-pencil strokes. Too thin, and they won't have the ability to frame your face.
Remove the extra hair. Using angled tweezers, pull the hairs from outside of your shaped brow. Avoid pulling too many from above, as doing so can drastically alter the shape and angle, making them too low. Instead, pluck on the bottom and outside edges of your eyebrow. Pull hairs from the base to avoid simply breaking off the tops of hairs. Tweeze hairs in the center of your eyebrows above your nose, to help remove the possibility of a unibrow. Don't forget to pull out the soft, peach fuzz hair that often covers the upper part of the eyelid. This can give the appearance of untamed brows if it is not removed.
Trim your brows. Using a small pair of eyebrow or hair scissors, trim the tops of any hairs that stick out above the natural top of your brow. Typically, the hairs close to the center of your face grow upwards and may need to be trimmed to match the average height of your brow. If your eyebrows are very unruly and long, use a brow comb or spooly brush to brush the hairs up, and then trim the longest ones. Avoid trimming off too much hair, as doing so can give jagged lines to the hairs in your brows. Only trim if you have hairs that are too long.
Removing Hair by Waxing
Heat up your wax. Follow the directions that come with your waxing kit to see what temperature and method are needed to heat the wax correctly. Test the wax on the inside of your wrist before you apply it to your face, to make sure that it is not too hot. Liquid wax is easier to use than wax strips because they allow you more freedom of application.
Prep your face. Before you start waxing, it is important to make sure your skin is ready. Remove any makeup you have on that is around your eyelids and eyebrows. Pin your hair back so that strays don't make their way into the wax as you apply it. Some wax kits come with a pre-wax solution that you should dab onto your brows at this point with a cotton ball.
Apply the wax. Using the small plastic wand that it came with (you can also use a popsicle stick), spread the wax in a small section on your hair in the same direction as the hair grows. Work in small sections no bigger than one inch across. This way the wax won't dry too quickly, and you have the ability to make more minute changes. Work with the wax from the inside out. Start at the inside corner of your brow at the top, and work towards the opposite end. Then repeat, starting on the bottom. Wait a few seconds after applying the wax to let it set before removing it.
Press the fabric strip into the wax. Use pieces of muslin or pellon cut in small sections. Press the fabric in the direction of hair growth, leaving a small tab at the end. Press the fabric firmly in the wax, to make sure that it has fully adhered. Make sure you stick it to all of the wax, so none gets left behind. Wait a few seconds to let the wax cool a bit more, guaranteeing that it will remove the hair with the cloth.
Pull off the fabric. Using the small tab at the end, rip off the fabric in the opposite direction of hair growth. Do it as quickly as possible to minimize pain and help in pulling the hair out by the root.
Repeat applying the wax and removing it. Continue until you have waxed all of the unwanted hair from around your eyebrow, and then move to the next eyebrow.
Removing Hair by Threading
Prepare your thread. Measure a piece of regular sewing thread to the be about the length of your forearm. Tie the 2 loose ends in a knot, creating a loop. Avoid threads that are highly synthetic. Cotton thread works best for threading. If the thread is too long or short for your liking, feel free to cut a new piece of thread to meet your personal preference.
Trim your brows. To keep from trapping hairs that are too long, brush brows up and then trim any that stick out over the top of your natural brow line.
Hold the thread between your thumb and index finger in each hand. Presently, your thread should be in an oblong shape. Twist one hand, so that the strings cross in the middle, forming an “X” shape.
Twist the string 10-15 more times. Using the same process as you did to form the "X” in the string, twist one end of the thread between 10-15 more times, as you like. To remove hairs, you will catch them in the twists you've created in the thread. Having been caught, you will pull up to remove them. If you feel that your hands are too wide apart or close together when you place them near your eyebrows, cut a new piece of thread and start these steps over.
Begin threading. Holding your hands with the thread above your eyebrows, place the “<” shape created at the end of the twists near the hair you want to remove. If you are using the “<” next to your right hand, increase and decrease the distance between your thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Moving your finger and thumb closer and further apart with the string moves the twists in the center, trapping the hairs. Moving your finger and thumb further apart moves the twist closer to your right hand, while pushing them closer together moves the twist away from your right hand. Pull upwards at the same time as you open your thumb and finger. This will pull out the hair. Work as quickly as you can to aid in pulling the hairs out from the roots and not breaking them in their middles.
Continue pulling out hairs until you have matched your desired shape. Threading pulls out several hairs at once, making the process a bit faster than tweezing.
Fixing Misshapen Brows
Make your brows thicker. If you have over-plucked your brows in the past, or they simply grown in very sparse, you can pencil them in. Although you never want your eyebrows to look very obviously penciled, balding brows aren't desired either. Use your brow pencil in soft, short strokes to gently fill in sparse patches. Avoid harsh lines which look very fake.
Fix odd colored brows. Having eyebrows that don't match your hair color is very common, especially if you have light hair. To help even out your hair color, apply an eyebrow tint that is within 1-2 shades of your natural hair color. Tinting them too dark will make you look severe, while lightening them can soften your features. You can get an eyebrow tint done at local spas and salons, or you can buy a kit to do it yourself from a beauty supply store. Be sure to apply it to your entire eyebrow and let it sit for the right amount of time so that the tint is effective. Tint is not as strong as straight-up hair dye and will rinse out over time. If you have an accident and need to remove the tint however, you can use nail polish remover on a q-tip to gently wipe it off.
Allow the hair to grow in if you've thinned them too much. If you've removed too much hair, the best thing to do is stay away from the tweezers or wax. Let your eyebrow hair grow back in naturally over the course of 3 weeks or so before shaping them again. Your hair grows in stages, so waiting at least 3 weeks will give enough time for hair at every stage to grow in. Create a very clear shape, and stick to it. Be careful about getting absorbed looking at your eyebrows close-up without seeing the big picture. Take a step back from the mirror occasionally to check that your shape is in line. Don't change the shape of your brow often. This will make it look odd over time. Stick with 1 natural-looking shape and maintain it.
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