By Tina B
Eyebrows are nature's way protecting the eyes by stopping sweat running into them. Why women generally have finer growth hair than men is probably a result of evolution. One thing is certain though, eyebrows and their shape can make a big difference to a feminine appearance. Nowadays the fashion tends to be to let the eyebrows stay pretty much as they are - for women - and simply trim around them to achieve a well groomed look. There are a number of rules and principles that can help you achieve a natural looking, feminine shape without, if you wish, appearing too overtly female.
This article covers the following;
For some easier said than done. Like every task the an important thing is to have the right tools for the job. Tweezers should be of good quality and can over time get out of alignment so make sure the ends meet squarely together. Revlon make good ones available at grocery and drug stores.
Make sure you have a good hold of ONE HAIR AT A TIME and pull evenly with a slight force in the direction of the hair growth. You may be tempted to tug away in quick succession at errant hairs but unless you are really good it is better to take your time with each hair. The hairs don't really take much effort and you will avoid breaking them at the root if you think of it as simply pulling them out of the sleeve of skin they rest in. Applying some cotton or tissue soaked in warm water can help to open up the hair follicles a little.
See picture below for graphic explanation;
I think the most important thing is to look at women who are the same age as you and, excluding the 'thin brown line' brigade, model your look on them. The model in the picture above has beautiful eyebrows, but that may be a going a little too far for some of us. Remember also that, if this is to be your first time at 'plucking' , and you don't want to go to work on Monday looking like Madonna, you may want to ease into this.
Of course like all changes in your appearance, those of your acquaintances who haven't seen you for a while, will notice straight away. So that has to be a personal decision. I have been plucking since I was fourteen so, while on the face of it I am still not "OUT" as a TG, nobody I know now, including me, can remember what my eyebrows should look like - ANYWAY!
Many of you may have quite long hairs in the brows and these would be a good starting point for removal. Then proceed to the hairs on the underside that define the shape. I know some women who also trim above the brow but unless you are particularly hirsute (hairy) then I would leave these alone. Using the picture and the three pointers above as a guide, trim the unwanted hairs slowly. Try to take no more than three or four at one time and then repeat on the other brow to keep the shape even both sides. This is pretty tricky and, as you will see above, not even the super models achieve true symmetry. If you are trying to retain a modicum of discretion then you should be careful to not trim too much from the thicker, inside part of the brow but just trim very lightly at this point. The majority of trimming should be in the center - to create the arch - and the outer edges. Always though remember that you should try to retain the length to stay within the guidelines I have pointed out. As I mentioned this process may, if you wish take place over a number of days or weeks to avoid 'SDS' - Sudden Depilation Shock - among your friends, family and co-workers. Remember though that over time and between sessions, re-growth will occur.
Once you have taken the step to trimming the eyebrows there is one inevitable fact - they WILL grow back. As I have said I have been trimming for 24 years and there is no doubt that I have killed some of those pesky follicles completely, but even so I still have to live with the fact feminine eyebrows are an ongoing project. One thing to remember also is that re-growth in the very first stages will be very difficult to deal with. Hairs growing back under the brows will appear as only tiny dark dots and are very difficult, if not impossible to pluck out again. As above, a warm compress may make them easier to grasp with the tweezers but patience and time, probably just another 24 hours, will make them much easier to remove. You can try just exposing them a little by pushing them against the line of hair grow and then plucking, but you might only succeed in breaking them off short. Over time hair should grow back a little finer and not appear to dark before they can be plucked but this depends on the individual and on how adept you become at trimming. Try gently running your fingertip over the area and, if you can feel the re-growth then you can probably remove it.
When I was at Drama School we learnt how to disguise eyebrows completely a number of ways. Firstly there was the dry soap method in which you rub a fairly dry bar of soap over the eyebrows then cover with a thick coat of make-up. Then, if you really want a project, you can use specific make-up putty to literally cover the eyebrows with skin tone gook and blend them in with make-up. Both of these require that you use a lot of make-up and are not really discreet on close inspection.
I hope you have fun experimenting - but please remember that you will have to live with the results for quite a while and - again if you really want my advice - David Bowie was great as Ziggy Stardust in the 70's (and boy wasn't I one of the Spiders From Mars) but around the water cooler, you may want to be a little more reserved.
Read more on eyebrows in an article written by TGF's own Cindy Martin.
And if you have any Hair-Raising Eyebrow stories to tell, let me know
The Art of Plucking
Shape
There are three things about shape and length that a make-up artist once told me that has made so much sense and helped me ever since.
Trimming
Before you set to creating that beautiful feminine arch take a few days to look around you. Notice how women's eyebrows look - how they "wear' them. For many of you of my generation (born in the fifties/sixties) our role model may have been our mothers or her friends who tended to really create a very thin arch. Of course there was always Elizabeth Taylor (who is exactly the same age as my mother) for whom thick brows were her trademark, but generally the hang-up from the post war fashion look was to pluck away to pencil thin lines, then (strangely) to thicken them back up with kohl pencil - a real art form. Nowadays there is a much more natural movement above the eyes. Not exactly Mariel Hemingway (RIP), but certainly a lot thicker than we might think. The key is neatness and shape. When making up you can always add definition by using an eyebrow pencil - but of that more later.Re-Growth
Make-Up Tips
Until recently I never used any cosmetics on my eyebrows, figuring that I wanted to hide them not emphasize them, if anything. But then when I did my most recent photo-session, the make-up artist insisted on using a pencil to define the line. She used a rally light brown shade and traced the line gently to cover pretty much the parameters I have used above. This I thought a little formal, but for the photo-shoot it seemed to work and the results can be seen in my picture here. For most occasions though I just make sure that they are trimmed properly and use a small eyebrow comb to shape them.
DISCLAIMER - All my Tips for the Occasional Lady are written and published with no guarantee of success on the part of the reader. The writer cannot be held responsible for any consequences for any actions resulting from advice followed in these articles.
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