Eyebrow grooming (part 1)

There are several ways to groom your eyebrows, and figuring out the best way can be a daunting task. In fact, I know some women who basically let their brows grow wild and free because deciding what to do, and what shape to go with, can seem so complicated. You can tweeze, wax, thread, or even shave. You can go straight, rounded, or arched. Rounded on the inside, squared, or slanted. Thick or thin. And then what about filling them in? Should you, or should you not? Pencil or powder?

To me, the first step to take is figuring out which hair removal method fits your needs best.

Tweezing

If you feel you already have a nice, natural shape to your eyebrows, you can likely stick with tweezing for any stray hairs. It's pretty quick, and easy when targeting just a couple of hairs. Once you own a pair of tweezers, the rest is free, and you can do it yourself. There aren't many cons to tweezing. It can be painful, but most methods are.











Threading
A step up from that, in my opinion, would be threading. It can be easier than tweezing when targeting more than just a few hairs, when you don't have a massive amount of hair to remove. You can do it yourself, or you can get it done professionally which runs and average of $10. It's not painless, but it's no worse than tweezing. A downside to threading, is if you or the the person doing it aren't careful, you can catch your skin. It leaves a little tiny cut, and then scab. It can usually be covered with makeup, but it can still be annoying.






Waxing
The ideal method for removing a lot of hair at once, while still maintaining the shape of your eyebrows is to wax. You can spread the wax over as large of an area as you need, but be selective about which hairs are covered and which are not, making sure only the ones that you want are removed. If you end up with wax on the wrong hairs, warm, soapy water can wash the wax off and you can start over again without sacrificing the hairs you don't want removed. You can wax at home, or have it done professionally starting around $5 and going beyond $20 depending on the quality of the salon. At home, you can use a soft, heated wax or go with pre-done wax strips that you typically heat between your hands. Downsides to waxing: If you aren't careful, you can wax hairs you really didn't want to, and if your wax is too hot, you can burn your skin.


Shaving
A less popular option for removing unwanted eyebrow hair is to shave. This is usually for people who want a quick swipe to remove a unibrow, to shave half, or even a whole eyebrow off. This method has a bad reputation, and is associated with the "Chola eyebrows". But it doesn't have to be such a drastic thing if you're careful, know what you want, and know what you're doing. The problem is that razors can be big and difficult to control, and with one slip, oops! You've taken too much off. The risk of cutting yourself can be pretty high, and then there's also a risk of razor burn. On the plus size, razors are generally inexpensive and you can do it yourself at home.