I hate what I like to call the “anorexic eyebrow”- the overplucking of eyebrows so small that they look like tiny surprised lines over a person’s eyes. While many women (and men) like to groom their eyebrows so they appear more put together, over plucking is a dangerous reality when you just start plucking away. Here is how to avoid over plucking your eyebrows, based upon the advice of my aunt, who is a hair stylist and trained, uh, eyebrow plucker.
If plucking your eyebrows yourself, take a picture of your eyebrows before you begin attacking them with the tweezers. This way, you have an idea of how thick your eyebrows are to begin with, and you have a photo to turn to now and then as you tweeze and pluck away, to warn you when your eyebrows are hitting an unnatural thinness.
The photo of your eyebrows prior to plucking also lets you know how much tweezing you can get away with before you hit the “anorexic eyebrow” danger zone. If you have naturally thick and long eyebrows, you have a bit more allowance. If your eyebrows are thick but short, hardly extending to the ends of your eye, then you know to be careful to stay away from the ends of your brow to save the length. If your brows are on the thin side already, then you know that you are basically allowed to just search for a few unruly strays to keep your brows neat and attractive.
Only pluck the eyebrow hairs, one at a time, just over the eyelid. Leave the top part of the eyebrow alone. If you have short eyebrows, try to keep the length in them by only plucking underneath the eyebrow to get rid of the stray hairs that make your eyebrows look stubby. Don’t allow your eyebrow plucking to make your eyebrows be less than the length of your eyes. To keep that lean eyebrow line, try to limit plucking 2 hairs or more at a time, only plucking one and then looking at your progress. Unless you have a uni-brow or a lot of stray hairs, less is more, and you can always tweeze an errant hair later.
Try to keep a shape very close to your natural eyebrow shape, only cleaner, if you will. This means, don’t try to alter the shape of your eyebrow, as it will distort your natural look. Imagine putting on lip liner up to your nose to make your lips appear larger. You’re not fooling anyone. Just as applying lip liner stays true to the shape of your mouth, only cleaner and more feminine, do the same with your eyebrows.
Appreciate your eyebrows for what they are. If they are long and thick, be happy that you have a sexy brow that extends beyond your eye and makes a statement. If they are naturally thin and short, be ecstatic that you have less brow to pluck. The more you appreciate your eyebrows in their natural state, the less likely you will be to tweeze them where it really isn’t needed.
Don’t try to create a trend with your eyebrows unless you are a professional. Trying to make your eyebrows taper into thin points on the outer eye or make them bold on either end but thin in the middle will most likely leave you screwing it up and plucking more than you wanted to, then having to keep on plucking to repair your beginner’s mistake. Stick to basic grooming, like getting rid of strays, and if you are unhappy with the results, pluck a few from the underside of your eyebrow, and you should have great results without plucking your eyebrows bald.
If nothing else, you can just enjoy your eyebrows just as they are, or fill them in a little with an eyeshadow or eyebrow pencil to achieve the look you want. A lot less effort than trying to repair an anorexic eyebrow and a major cosmetic mishap.
Source:
my aunt
