Pluck You!

The 'self eyebrow plucking' debate

Ingredients:

A good pair of tweezers (no really, the good kind.)
Brow shadow
Digital camera

Do you debate plucking your own eyebrows? Have you made a plucking
disaster in the past? Do you stand in front of the mirror wielding
tweezers and don't know where to start? Eyebrows are important, they
frame our face and express emotion. It's important to get it right.
I'm going to show you how to be a professional self plucker!

First! Do not start plucking! We are drawn to symmetry; it's a
basic procreation instinct. With that said, our brains will try to
create symmetry in our own faces when we look in the mirror. I used to
work for an orthodontist. After adults had their braces removed you
could see the ways their mind tried to balance their features. If one
side of their teeth were higher, their lips would compensate by
crooking the smile. When their braces came off that lip would still be
higher even though the teeth were straight. We do this with our
eyebrows too; we cock our heads, raise a brow or both. We get very set
in our ways and don't see what's really there. The very first step is
take a digital picture of your face. Make sure your face is relaxed
(we have a tendency to make faces at the mirror) and square with the
camera (using a touchscreen phone with dual cams helps a lot!), and
the eyebrows are not raised nor pulled together. Find your inner zen
and shoot. Because the image is reversed from our mirror image your
brain will see the faults.
 
Step 2!

Still no plucking; we see that pic and want to jump in.
Don't! If you are growing out your eyebrows or you are unfortunate
like me and have very unsymmetrical eyebrows you must lightly shade
them in before you start plucking away. I don't care what the makeup
counter lady tells you, even if you have black hair, black eyebrow
pencils are a no-no! There are only 2 exceptions: if you have very
dark skin or if you put it on your hand first and use a brush to
gently shade, not draw, shade in where needed. We don't want lines! We
want shadows! Eyebrows should have a slight arch, begin slightly
before the inside corner of our eye and end at approximately a 45
degree angle from the end of the eyes. Once you're shaded bliss; you
think you have them where you want them, take another pic. Repeat
until relatively even.

Step 3!

Once you are happy with the shaded brows it's time to be
brave; let's pluck! You need a good pair of tweezers with a flat
angled tip (no skinny pointy tips!). Only pluck where you haven't
shaded! Grab each hair individually close to the root and yank with
the grain of the hair. Don't forget between the brows and near the
temples. When you are done if your skin is red you can place a cold
wash cloth gently against the bothered area.

The most important thing about DIY plucking; walk away! If you are
frustrated or feeling obsessive, walk away! It can take a long time to
grow back over-plucked eyebrows! Go slow, take pics and don't strive
for absolute perfection. Our faces our not symmetrical. We want to get
as close as we can but they won't ever be perfect. So, know when to
walk away!

Be patient, don't over pluck; You are on your way to better brows!

~ Nicole