My Eyebrow Evolution

My eyebrows. Oh my goodness. They have really been through the ringer, style-wise. I am one of those oh so fortunate people to have naturally heinous eyebrows. They’re not terribly bushy, but naturally they just don’t have much shape. They’d take over my face with strays slowly over time if I let them. Observe:

My “virgin” eyebrow – age 14. My freshman class photo. Ugh!
In high school, I discovered tweezers. The first time I plucked my eyebrows was like a gateway drug or something. I plucked and plucked until my little eyebrows were almost gone– which by the way is NOT a good look for ANYONE. Witness the painful aftermath…
Just a year later, what the hell happened? This is my sophomore class photo.
Just as a warning to you all, the damage I did took years to grow back. YEARS. Do not let this be you, lol. Over the next few years I let them grow out again, cautiously. The part closest to the bridge of my nose would not grow in. That took a few more years.
Me at 18 (or freshly 19, I forget which). My brows had grown back, but I was afraid to pluck them again so they didn’t have a whole lot of arch. Flat certainly beats plucked into oblivion though, no? p.s. I love that hair. I will get it back…
My 21st birthday – brows still not fully grown back in.
By the time I turned 21 most of my eyebrow woes changed. The front part of my brows (the part closest to the bridge of my nose) still wouldn’t grow back in. I turned to filling in my brows, now generally knowing “sort of” where they were supposed to be. Except I wasn’t very good at it, and ended up with brows that looked kinda like tadpoles, or -ahem- sperm. Not cute. I had a tough time finding something that looked okay on my eyebrows too. So many things I tried pulled really red. But at least by this time I knew where my brows should go, and had embraced a fuller brow. The color thing remained an issue, but hey, my brows looked good in black and white!
Somewhere between age 21 and 22 I settled on using the Shu Uemura Hard Pencil in Seal Brown as my brow color, and things improved dramatically. It was still sort of easy for me to get carried away when filling in, but at least the color finally matched. I also found a fantastic brow lady, who was able to give me a really great shape and help me get better at filling them in.
Finally getting somewhere!
Then one day, I was listening to Adam Carolla’s morning show on the radio (back when he was actually on the radio), some gals from a brow studio in Beverly Hills were visiting his famous unibrow in the studio. The name stuck with me because it was cute – Billion Dollar Brows. They sell a brow (and now lash) serum to help overplucked brows grow back. I tucked it into a corner of my memory for later. 
Then IMATS happened. My very first IMATS, that is. It was in 2009. I actually had my brows done by the girls at the Billion Dollar Brows booth! And it was love. Their brow powder in Taupe and brow brush have been by my side ever since that summer. I’ve tried other products, even some that I like (like the MAC Impeccable brow pencil in Taupe, for example), but I always end up going back to this amazing brow powder & brush combo. It’s so good because…
  • perfect match
  • looks natural (can go on existing brow hairs or on skin for areas that are bare/overplucked -ahem-)
  • brush is the perfect size/shape for brows
  • stays put (even when I don’t use brow gel)
  • lasts forever (I have been using this product almost daily since summer of ’09. I have barely made a dent in my pot of brow powder. This will last me for AGES!)

Which brings me to my modern day brows. :) Finally at 24 I have brows that look like they belong on my face (and like the whole thing belongs to me, instead of being able to tell where I’ve filled in so easily). Of course I still have off days (like the day my hand slipped and I trimmed part of one brow way too short!), but at least now I know what I’m doing!
I’ve become a bit of a brow perfectionist these days. I think a good pair of brows can really make or break the face! 
My total eyebrow arsenal:
  • ELF Tweezers (For some reason they changed the design. The OLD ones were good. The NEW ones suck really bad!) or Tweezerman Hot For Dots mini tweezers (these are SO cute and little and very good!)
  • Neosporin pain relief cream (I use this religiously every time I tweeze to lessen the irritation after tweezing. It also helps prevent post-tweezing breakouts!)
  • Billion Dollar Brows brow powder in Taupe
  • Billion Dollar Brows brow brush
  • Anastasia Brow Gel (This is a splurge item as it’s quite costly for what it is. When I run out, I will go back to using Maybelline Great Lash in Clear, even though I think the Anastasia stuff is great.)
  • Brow Scissors (I got some little pink ones in my local Japanese supermarket, so I can’t tell you the brand sorry!)
And that’s pretty much it! If you want a tutorial or how-to post on how I actually maintain my brows, let me know in the comments! I have not had my brows done professionally since late 2009 for a special event. I do it all on my own now!

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