With the pandemic that is the coronavirus, our towns and countries are under complete lockdown. As a result, our favorite salons and beauty parlors have indefinitely shut down. The effects? Every woman cringing in front of the mirror at the state of their bangs, roots, and eyebrows.
Now while you may think that worrying about appearances sounds ridiculous at this time, maintaining both our grooming and beauty routines can help to provide us with a sense of control in such an uncertain and increasingly scary time.
When it comes to our eyebrows, we’re all definitely missing getting them shaped and plucked. As such, our brows are in definite need of a little maintenance. Thankfully, by using the right tools, you can still help to maintain and shape your eyebrows in your new socially distanced reality.
7 hacks to get those perfect eyebrows in quarantine
1. Get your eyebrow tools
Firstly, if you’re going to be taking care of your brows, you need to make sure that you have the right tools.
– Slanted tweezers
If you want to do any good for your eyebrows, then you definitely need a decent pair of tweezers. They should have a slanted tip as this will help to improve your tweezing.
– A (wide) mirror
Balanced brows are the best brows, so it’s important that you use a mirror that allows you to see them both. A smaller, magnifying mirror can affect balance.
– Natural daylight
– An eyebrow pencil
2. Find your natural eyebrow shape
To find out where your eyebrow begins, place the pencil on the outermost point of your nose and point it towards your forehead. This should mark the point where your eyebrow starts. To see where your eyebrow ends, keep the pencil in the same line of the nostril and turn the pencil diagonally towards your eye’s outer corner.
To find the arch, take the pencil and place it on your nose, lining it up diagonally, making sure that it moves right across the middle of your eye and points right where the eyebrow arch is.
Once you’ve worked out all the logistics behind your eyebrow shape, you can finally look to properly shape them.
3. Waxing your eyebrows
If you’re waxing at home for the first time, opt for wax products that are gentler on the skin, such as hard wax or sugar wax.
To effectively wax your eyebrows:
– Start on clean, dry skin
– Draw the boundaries on your brows with a concealer.
– You may want to powder the skin as this helps to improve the wax’s ability to grab the hair.
– Apply the hot wax in the same direction that the hair grows and let it harden.
– Stretch the skin by using your hand to pull your skin taut.
– Once the wax has hardened, pull the strip off against the direction of the hair growth.
– Use a light, hydrating moisturizer on the waxed brow area once you’re done. This will help to soothe your skin.
If there are any remaining hairs that the wax didn’t remove, you can use tweezers to pluck them out.
4. Tweezing
If you want to tweeze your eyebrows, all you need is a mirror, an eyebrow pencil, and a good pair of tweezers.
Before tweezing
Aside from ensuring that your skin is clean, you should also be aware of your eyebrow shape before you start tweezing. Use your pencil to fill in your brows and to create your preferred shape. Once done, focus on getting rid of stray hairs surrounding your perfect brow.
It’s so easy to over-pluck, so when it comes to tweezing your eyebrows, focus on the areas that may sport stray hairs – your forehead (unibrow), around the eyelids and under the brow bone.
During tweezing
When it comes to the actual tweezing, it’s important to always hold your skin taut as this will make the process easier and less painful. If you’re still worried about the pain, try to rub an ice cube around the area before tweezing.
Make sure to go slow, press lightly and quickly pull out the extra hair. Always pull the hair in the direction that it’s growing in. Not doing so can cause ingrown hairs, inflammation and even scarring. If you notice redness and sensitivity around your eye area after tweezing, try rubbing an ice cube on the area.
After tweezing
If you feel that you’ve made a mistake, or that your eyebrows don’t look symmetrical, it’s not the end of the world. You need to put the tweezers down and step back. If you become obsessed with tweezing your eyebrows, then you risk over-plucking, which is bad for the hair follicles. Try not to worry about it, and you can always use your eyebrow pencil to fill in your brows.
As for how often you should be tweezing? Every three days or so, depending on how quickly your hairs grow back.
5. Trimming your brows
Now you may have watched your eyebrow lady trim your eyebrows, and thought that it looked easy, but I wouldn’t whip out brow scissors just yet.
Just like trimming your own bangs, trimming your own eyebrows can end in disaster, so it would be advisable to leave it to a professional.
If, however, you can’t get over the long and unruly hairs, it’s important to proceed with caution. Brush your brows upwards and use brow scissors to slightly trim each individual hair. If you don’t happen to own a pair of brow scissors or unused nail scissors, then leave your brows alone. Using any other pair of scissors will only leave you botchy brows, and we don’t want that – even in lockdown.
6. Tinting your brows
Similar to doing your own roots, I wouldn’t recommend you tint your own eyebrows at home. When it comes to color, it really is best to leave it to the professionals. Instead, opt for eyebrow makeup and a tinted gel as they will help provide the color you’re looking for.
If, however, you’ve tinted your eyebrows before, and it hasn’t resulted in a color disaster, then by all means continue. If you have a lighter hair color, make sure that you choose a color that is at least one to two shades darker than your natural hair color. If you have a darker hair tone, on the other hand, choose a color that is one to two shades lighter. Also, always do a test patch on your skin 24 hours beforehand to make sure that your skin won’t negatively react to the product.
When it comes to applications, make sure that the area is clean. Try rubbing a little vaseline around your brows so that the dye doesn’t stain your skin. Apply the dye, from root to tip, to every hair and leave it on for no longer than 10 minutes. Finish off by wiping away the product using a cotton pad.
7. Go natural
If, despite our tips, you’re still worried about working on your own eyebrows then just leave them alone. There’s no reason as to why you should be fretting over your brows with a pair of tweezers if you don’t want to.
In fact, this could be the perfect opportunity to grow your eyebrows in, and you can even use castor oil to help condition and strengthen your brows. By the time you finally revisit your eyebrow specialist, you’ll have a fresh brow slate to work with, and you might even be closer to achieving your perfect pair of brows.
