The Art of the Eyebrow

Beautiful eyebrows make a woman's face look fresh, interesting and  emphasizes the eyes. With perfectly shaped brows a woman can visually alter or correct the shape of her face and hide or minimize face defects even without any makeup. Brow shaping should become a regular beauty regimen and should never be skipped. At the same time one should be careful and not to tweeze the brows too much, because it can take months for a once plucked brow hair to grow back. 

The correct eyebrow shape can completely change and rejuvenate your whole appearance and presentation. It can create for an intriguing  look, perhaps sensual, even mysterious. Or just plain alive and vibrant.

Our beauty therapists are experts at shaping eyebrows using a combination of waxing, plucking and tinting to achieve a fabulous individual look to suit your face.

Some women do not think they need to pluck their eyebrows. They find their brow shape perfect without tweezing and leave it at that. Some of them just have no idea how to take care of the brows. But in reality even thin and delicate brows need shaping or at least caring. If you want to have and keep a beautiful eyebrow shape, you should prepare to care for it. There are several methods used in shaping the eyebrows.

Plucking Brows

Millions of women around the world find eyebrow plucking an ideal way to have and maintain a beautiful brow shape. Plucking your brows hurts, but if you do it regularly, maintenance involves only a few hairs at a time and you do not have to pluck a lot. At the same time if you shape your eyebrows with a pair of tweezers regularly, your skin gets less sensitive in these areas and does not hurt so much. Some of us visit beauty salons to get the brows shaped, some do it by themselves at home. On the one hand, plucking the brows at home is less painful and you always know at what moment and in what place it is going to hurt. On the other hand, a professional cosmetologist can advise what brow shape is appropriate for your face type and will do this for you without any mistakes and with an eye for perfection as well as provide suggestions for their maintenance and care.

Waxing Brows

Beauty salons offer such service as brows waxing. This can be also done at home. Waxing brows can provide a very nice look and brow shape, as well as plucking. One of the drawbacks are in-grown hairs. But you can prevent in-grown hairs by cleansing the brow area with a toner. This should be done immediately after brow waxing. DBW supplies excellent products to prevent and correct in-grown hair.

Cosmetic Tattooing

Permanent cosmetic makeup is one more alternative to plucking, which has recently become quite widespread. Cosmetic tattooing means implantation of pigment into your skin. It sounds a bit scary, but the result (beautiful eyebrows) lasts really long and you never need to use brow shadows, tint your brows or draw you brows with a pencil. But even with brow permanent makeup you should prepare to get rid of extra hairs around the line, that is again plucking or waxing. There exists one more drawback of cosmetic tattooing – if it is not done by a professional, it can turn out to be a life-long regret and nightmare. Better to keep your natural eyebrows and take a rain check on this current fad. 

Lots of women ignore their brows and do not take care of them. But brows are an important  part of the face and plays a crucial role in the overall presentation and balance of facial features. The hair, which gets a lot of attention, only serves to frame the face. The final subject, therefore, is the face, regardless of the amount of detail given to the hair. Choose a proper brow shape that uses the eyebrow's natural growth pattern and the contours of your brow line.

Discovering the best shape for your eyebrows without sacrificing their natural appearance is what you want to accomplish when shaping your brows. Pencil thin or overly bushy eyebrows are dated looks that can be distracting rather than enhancing.

Just as the shape of a mustache can drastically change the appearance of a man’s face, the shape of the eyebrows affects the appearance of the eyes. In many ways, the overall appearance of the eye area is defined by the arch, length, and thickness of the eyebrow.

Perfectly Shaped Eyebrows: The shape of the eyebrow is correct when the beginning of the brow is aligned with the center of the nostril and the arch falls over the back third of the eye.

Eyebrow Shape for Round Faces

For those women, who have round face, the best shape of the eyebrows is angular shape. Eyebrows of this shape contrast with the face shape and emphasize the  eyes.

Round Eyebrows for a Wide Forehead

Women with large eyes and wide forehead should shape their brows round. Such brows should taper gently at the end and follow the frontal bone.

Low Arched Brow Shape for a Small Forehead

Women having small forehead should pluck their eyebrows to the low arched shape. This eyebrow shape brings visually more length.

Eyebrow Shape for Round Cheeks

If a woman has round cheeks or wider jaws, their brow should have an arched shape. This brings visual harmony to the face with one larger and most visible part.

Whatever eyebrow shape you choose, remember one simple rule: if you have small delicate features, you should pluck your brows to a delicate shape as well and, vice versa, if you have an athletic build, thin brows on your face will look unnatural.

Eyebrow Tragedies/Heresies

Over plucked.-  Hairs have been tweezed and abused to oblivion, the brow is barely visible but for a very thin line. The effect is that an additional ten years has just been added to one's age. In addition, it makes for a puffy-looking eyelid and a slight suggestion of an eye-droop.

Tadpole Brows (aka commas, sperm) - A big blob above the nose and ending in a disappearing line as it arches over the eye. Extremely unattractive and does nothing and makes every makeup artist gasp and scream "Why?'. This style is for Bozo the Clown and should never occupy the face of a woman.

MacDonald's Arches or the Big M - These are semi-circle brows that is only a slight improvement to Bozo the Clown's eyebrows. These come out and scream  cheap rather than sophisticated,  adds weight, at least to your face,  makes your nose look  bigger and your eyes droopy. Need we say anything more?

The Downhill or Sad Face - Self explanatory as in sad, sad eyes and puffy eyelid-look. These shape does nothing but make you look haggard and tired.

The Gap - Plucking farther out than the center of your nostril or the inner corner of your eye give you a blank look and a little weird or unnatural. They disrupt the natural harmony of your face and makes the nose unbelievably wider. 

The Triangle or Delta - These is where you peak or lift the brow in the middle of the eye, creating a downhill puffy eyelid and distorts the eye shape. A very hard look in contrast to the sexy and sultry look a correctly peaked eyebrow will give.

If you are guilty of any of the above heresies, then go for an immediate re-take and re-assessment of the status of your eyebrows. You don't have to live with the fallacy that has been adorning your face. DBW has many products to regain your eyebrows back and make it an instrument of beauty, not a comedy of errors.

Study your eyes and brows. Completely cover your brows with your index fingers and determine if your eyes look better with or without your current brows. If the answer is 'without'  then your brows are doing more harm than good. It's time to study the principles of correct and proper brow shaping and reclaim your lost beauty. Better still consult your friends with great eyebrows to point you in the right direction and find that precious beauty therapist friend of theirs.

Remember, your brows must suit you. If they don't  then get them regrown first, if needed, and then consult a professional to have them re-shaped according to your face, not some celebrity that you wish to emulate. Templates should only be used as a guide, not the final word in shaping your eyebrows. The shape should fit and match your facial features not the template.

© 2008 DBW/arjee