Keira Knightley and her lush brows.
Photo: Getty Images
If the current bold It Brow, as seen on beauties like Keira Knightley and Cara Delevigne and on the runway at Marc Jacobs, hasn’t been enough to sway you from too much tweezing, maybe this will: “The thicker the brows, the more youthful they are,” says Jaimineey Patel, brow guru and UK manager for B London, a chain of brow bars with outposts in New York — including a popup at Topshop through December 23 — and across the pond. Here are three reasons this less-is-more approach is better. Trust us!
1. Most people who pluck have uneven brows.
When I met Patel, she instantly knew I was left-handed. How? Because my left eyebrow was slightly thinner than my right. Apparently, DIY pluckers almost always start tweezing on their dominant side; by the time they move on to the other brow, they’re not quite as zealous. Patel says this is one of the most common mistakes she sees.
2. Too-thin brows aren’t flattering.
Anemic brows look dated (just Google “Drew Barrymore 90s” for proof), and they don’t do your features any favors. Instead of seeing a waxer every two weeks until your brows eventually disappear, get yourself on a regrowth program under a professional’s supervision. B London offers a Brow-hab service where their expert threaders reshape your brows and advise you on the best strategy for growing them in, all before anointing your arches with Nourishing Brow Oil to promote regrowth.
Resist the urge to tweeze between appointments, Patel insists, especially on the inner ends of your brows: “Those hairs take the longest to grow back.” And never trim the outer ends, since you’ll lose thickness and your brows may grow in differently.
3. Temporary fixes are safer.
If your brows look unruly, you have plenty of grooming options besides plucking or snipping them into submission. A brow gel like B London’s tinted Eyebrow Grooming Gel (blinkbrowbar.com) or Anastasia Brow Gel ($21, sephora.com), or even a bit of hairspray on a disposable mascara wand can help hairs lie in place. If you need to tweak your shape, adding pencil, such as Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil ($32, hourglass.com), is a much safer bet than subtracting hairs.
The best advice? Find a brow expert who shares your vision and don’t let anyone else touch your arches (even yourself!). Do you agree?
