Your eyebrows help shape your personal style, enhance your expressions, and provide framing for your face. Getting eyebrows done lets you refine your look and enables you to change your appearance when the time is right. The first step is to make an appointment with a professional who will guide you through your options and give you their opinion on the shape that looks best for you. However, you’ll find that getting your eyebrows done is almost as complex as getting a new hairstyle.
The professional’s job is to make you look great, but you and your eyebrows need to be ready for the professional to apply their skills. The following is a complete guide to getting your eyebrows done the way you like so you feel good and look great when the job is finished.
Put your tweezers away
An eyebrow professional needs a maximum amount of hair growth to achieve the results you’re after. That means letting your eyebrow follicles grow out. It takes about six to eight weeks for a hair follicle to grow out completely after it’s been plucked. Letting your eyebrows grow out means putting up with an ungroomed appearance for a few weeks, but you’ll thank yourself when you see the results of your patience.
Figure out which hair removal process works best for you
You can get your eyebrows plucked, waxed, or threaded. Plucking and waxing tend to be painful, even with numbing cream applied beforehand, and threading tends to work best on bushy eyebrows. There’s also the fact that maintenance is needed to keep your eyebrows looking good. You can expect to go in every two weeks for plucking and every four to six with waxing. Maintenance for threading depends on how fast your eyebrow follicles grow back.
Find a professional that creates results you like
When you’re looking into getting eyebrows done, it’s important to choose an eyebrow pro that is capable of shaping brows in a way that you like. You choose an eyebrow professional the same as you do your hairstylist: You like their processes and the final results of their efforts. Both of you are going to be working together to figure out what shape and style look best for your eyebrows and overall appearance, and you want to be comfortable and confident with the person who’s doing the work.
Bring pictures of eyebrow shapes that you like
It’s good to have an idea of what you’d like your eyebrows to look like before you sit down in the chair. The internet is a great resource for finding images of finished brow shapes, as are fashion magazines. Pick as many shapes that fit your fancy, then narrow them down to a handful of picks. You may like a shape, but it may not work for your face. Sometimes you can’t tell if it’s going to work or not until you have a frank discussion with an eyebrow professional.
An alternative to using pictures is to get eyebrow templates and put them on your eyebrows as you look in the mirror. This helps you get an idea of how the shape works for your face, and if it’s complimentary or the wrong way to go. Examine the appearance from all angles to determine how well the shape follows your brow and enhances your eyes.
Take a pain reliever before going to your appointment
There’s always going to be an element of pain involved with the process. Which one you choose depends on what you can tolerate, but you can also get ahead of the pain by taking a pain reliever of choice two hours before your appointment. Two hours is enough time to have the pain reliever fully circulating through your system and at the ready to block pain signals.
You might be thinking that you should take a pain reliever after your appointment. There’s nothing wrong with going this route, but you’ll have to deal with stronger pain signals as you wait for the medication to take effect. Being proactive is better than being reactive in this case.
Remove makeup before the appointment
It’s important to have your face free from makeup when you go for your appointment. This prevents pores from becoming clogged and creating pimples after a session and lets your skin heal without issues.
Every time a hair is removed from the skin by the root, it leaves behind a tiny open pore. You may not easily see the open pores with your naked eye, but they’re essentially a wound and can bleed a little bit no matter how careful the professional is. All of this is perfectly normal and a part of the process of getting eyebrows done. Cleaning your skin and making sure it’s free from makeup helps prevent complications that come with having a bunch of open pores after hair follicle removal.
The pores close up quickly after an appointment, but you want to take the necessary precautions to allow them to close cleanly.
Book a longer appointment, especially if it’s your first time
You’ll want extra time to talk to the professional before anything gets started, especially if you haven’t had your eyebrows professionally done in the past. You and the pro have to go over your history of brow care, if you’ve had a facial done, when was the last time you plucked, and the most important part of all, your desired brow shape.
Discuss the eyebrow shapes you prefer prior to getting eyebrows done
This is the moment where you bring out your pictures of eyebrow shapes that you like and talk about them with the pro. The pro then advises you on which ones are best for your face by showing you how each design balances, if you have enough brow length for an arch, when a straight line works best, and other details to take into consideration before getting started.
Conclusion
Following the steps in this guide will help you achieve the final results you desire with the least amount of stress and trauma. It is possible to get your eyebrows done in a way that makes you look and feel good as long as you take care of yourself before the appointment and advocate for yourself during the session. You’ll like what you see in the mirror when all is said and done.