The taming of a Brew !!

My journey of “eradicating unruly eye brows forever” began years ago ,( my college first year to be exact) when a bunch of my seniors dragged me to a local beauty parlor to get me introduced to eye brow grooming. I was a “brow-virgin”!! Till then I was blissfully ignorant of how much difference a bunch of neatly arranged, painted and gelled –facial hairs- would make in ,my overall appearance .Little did I know that being on a hotseat with a so called eyebrow grooming professional , who was pulling off “stray hairs” (( eyebrow maintanence jargon!)) would eventually turn into a personal obsession and take over my life!

The obsession that began almost a decade ago , slowly turned into a passion and eventually into a communal service. I’m a eye brow stylist! Yea, that’s right. I style brows for strange people i meet, whose fur above peepers irk me so much that i cant help! but reach out for my tweezers. it jus ends up being a free service! . In other words , I reveal the hidden swan in every ugly duckling. Some of you may shrug it off, the very thought of believing that a set of well groomed eyebrows can change ones life is rather preposterous! These were my very thoughts too , but that was before I ventured into this fragile terrain, where a single strand of hair makes all the difference!. Sounds scary? Trust me it isn’t. it just requires a bit of a open mind, patience and a teeny tiny bit of ability to withstand pain.in principle atleast. for the actual procedure you need powder to dry the skin, tweezers to pull the hair, mirror to be presice, gentle hands- to continue seeing that mop of hair. i know of people who have in their brow removing frenzy , polished off the whole lot till there was nothing to be adressed to as eyebrow! poor girls used pencils then :P

According to me- a perfect pair of brows are those which make you feel like you dont need any make up at all!!!. The amount of confidence a pair of brows can bring is unbelievable.

Here is how you can achieve professional quality eye brows. A quick DIY!

First thing, pluck all stray hairs that are bugging you. Use a good quality tweezers, like tweezerman, or bare essentials. Pick one with a slanted tip for precision . It sounds painful but in reality its more convenient , lasts longer and definitely less painful than threading or waxing! Some of you may be sentimentally -read lazily – attached to unibrows, ie brows that join at the temple above the nose bridge. PLUCK THEM OFF NOW!!! No, you aren’t another Kajol or brooke shields, they got away with it only coz they had a lot more to show, no brows or unibrows could be ignored.That obviously doesn’t sanction it to become a trend or a style statement. Co joining brows were and are hideous! Pluck beneath the brows and go easy on the upper half. Leave enough hair to groom. If you go in a frenzy of over plucking you ll end up looking more like a plucked chicken and less like a movie star. Brows can talk, and stars like Ms Rai or Madame Jolie are live examples!

Second ,Trim your brows. Take a brow brush or a toothbrush and brush your brows straight up and trim the very ends with a pair of precision scissors. brush brows straight down and repeat. You’re not wanting to take too much off; just neaten things up a bit.

Then ,Shape your brows by plucking. The general rule is to hold a pencil vertical to the nostril, the point where the pencil and brow meet, that’s where you brows should start. Then, hold the pencil vertical to the outer edge of your pupil, the point where the pencil crosses your brow should be the highest arch point. Pluck sparingly …just a few hairs during each session.in the initial days, pluck once a week. Wait at least few hours and evaluate the shape before resuming the pluck-fest. Again, the goal is to neaten the brows, not to dramatically alter their shape or even thickness. This is for the first time, I promise it get less time consuming the second time on.

Finally – maintenance-

Maintain brow shape by plucking new growth daily. My new growth starts as a black dot and is quite noticeable. The best tweezers for getting at those dots is Tweezerman’s stainless steel tweezers with a spa point tip. They’re also great for getting out ingrown hairs and splinters .

Once trimmed and shaped to your liking, brush upward with a clear mascara or hair gel. I personally love Revlon color stay eye brow grooming gel and pencil. It’s a dual ended product. If you have scanty brows like mine fill it with a eyebrow powder that matches hair color. Doesn’t mean if in a bout of madness you colored your hair pink then pink it is, for brows. The rule is to shade the brows a shade lighter than your scalp hair. If you’re a blond then use ash tint or clear gel , maybe even some blond colored brow powder. A lot of high end brands have eye brow powders. I like the body shop brow powder, and m.a.c brow tint. If you want to shell out less for your brows go for maybelline brow shadow or loreal powder pencil for brows, they cost almost half of the high end products and do just as well. A detailed analysis of the available brow products will be posted later.

Finally ,Apply a little beige /white shadow to highlight beneath the arch.

There you go. Shine on hon!!