Eyebrows are back and they’re bigger and better than before, at least that’s the plan. I love eyebrows, it’s all about the eyebrows – the bigger the better I say, but after falling foul to over plucking in my teenage years, I haven’t had the eyebrows I wanted, until now.
If I could go back in time I’d gleefully slap my young self for reducing my once full brows to a mere pencil thin arch above my eye. I wish I’d listened to my Mum when she told me that big brows were beautiful “they’re like Brooke Shields’ and Cindy Crawford’s” she’d say, to which I’d reply “that is so 90s”! Eek, what a brat! Oh to have to wisdom of hindsight. Well I’ve learnt my lesson the hard way, and although I’ve slowly increased their thickness over the last few years, it’s only recently that I’ve been brave enough to push through the pain barrier to restore them to their former glory.
My Brows in Pictures
This is them many years ago, I’d like to say this was as thin as they got…. fortunately my digital photos don’t go back that far. All I can say, What was I thinking!
And during the growing out stage… spot the gaps
A few weeks ago using pencil to fill in the gaps (and full lashes)…..
And now, in all their natural glory…
I must warn you, it’s a long painstaking process. I started back in February – I was under house arrest with the flu. Surprised by how much they grew in one week, I was inspired to keep going. My plan was simple, just don’t pluck, whenever and wherever they grow, I’ll let them do their thing and eventually I’ll have a new bushy canvas. I wanted to find my natural shape, then groom them to frame and suit my face.
Eyebrow regrowth is unpredictable and uneven. Hairs seem to sprout up all over the place, except where you want them. To start with, I grew a new set of eyebrows, a few millimeters below my current set and it took ages for them to meet in the middle! But once they finally did it was so worth it. Ok, I know it’s August and I’ve suffered nearly 6 months of sparsely populated eye brow hairs, but I’ve finally got a thicker, fuller arch and I’ so much happier with them. I’m still not quite there, there’s some stubborn patches refusing to grow, but with a little pencil infilling, I’ll get there.
Top tips for growing back the brows!
- The first two weeks are the worst – depending how much damage you’ve done with the tweezers, you can end up looking like you have two sets of brows, one on top of the other, so start when you’re off work/school and can push past that initial pain barrier in private… unless you want to scare people of course.
- Pick a shape and resist temptation to pluck! They will grow back sparsely to begin with, after years of tweezing, it takes them a while to realise they’re allowed to grow back, and once they do they spring up all over. Decide on the size/shape you’d like to achieve – Look back over old pictures, do some research or look in the mirror and sketch the shape you want – only pluck the hairs that grow outside of that area.
- Apply Vaseline or 8 hour cream at night and massage the brows outwards, I find this helps them maintain their shape.
- Fill in the gaps with an eyebrow pencil or powder. I use Givenchy Eyebrow Show pencil to fill the gaps and tease the shape. I always choose ones with a brush on the end, really handy for grooming.
- Be patient and realistic. How long it takes varies from person to person and is dependant on many factors such as age and how over-plucked they were to start with. And be realistic, inevitably there’ll be some stubborn hairs that may never grow back, but with proper grooming and make up, no one will ever know.
After six months of growing them out they’re thicker and fuller and better than before. It’s amazing the impact brows have on the whole face and fuller brows suit mine much more than pencil thin arches. Now, I guess they need a bit of grooming, but heavy handed plucking is a definately a thing of the past – I couldn’t go through the pain barrier again!
