Eyebrow Shaping and Grooming Guide for Women

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If you have attempted to shape your eyebrows in the past, it is likely that you probably overdid it. Before reshaping your eyebrows, give them a rest and let the hair grow back.

Yes, you heard that correctly. For a full re-shape, give your eyebrows about three to four months (sometimes, up to a year!) for your eyebrows to completely grow back.

You don’t have to go monobrow (unless that’s your thing), so you can remove the hairs that pop up in the middle of your brow. Just don’t overdo it and let nature take its course.

Think of it like this: If you were sculpting a bush in your front yard flower bed, you need to allow the branches and leaves to grow in and overgrow a little. Cutting the bush back too soon before the foliage has filled in will leave holes and gaps in the bush, basically blank spots with no leaves that make the bush look like it is diseased.

While waiting for your brows to grow in, you can patch up gaps from previous mishaps with a little makeup. The use of makeup pencils, brow waxes, and putties are very helpful here since your eyebrow hair will not grow back at the same rate across your brow.

For colors, choose ones that are one or two shades lighter than your eyebrow hair. Apply the coloring in short strokes, angled to the same direction as your hair growth.

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How to Groom Your Eyebrows

Eyebrow shaping for women

To properly groom your eyebrows, you can have them professionally done with wax at a salon (do not attempt to wax them on your own since it is very easy to make big mistakes). If you wish to groom them yourself, you need to define the borders of the brows that will most accentuate your eyes, but first, let’s talk about technique.

Choose your method of grooming, either trimming, tweezing, or threading. For some hairs, it is best not to tweeze them but simply trim them using a small sharp pair of scissors (there are eyebrow scissors you can purchase specifically for this purpose).

Trimming your eyebrows is usually the best way to go about 90% of the time since this minimizes potential longer-term mistakes and is a bit easier to perform. Get a spoolie brush, comb your eyebrows straight up, then trim only the longest hairs that stand out.

Before you trim, you should set the intended shape dimensions of your eyebrows. Use a white makeup pencil and mark the ends of your eyebrows.

  1. To do this, hold the pencil against the side of your nose, on top of your nostril (basically, have the inner edge of the pencil passing through an imaginary line from the inside edge of your nostril up to your eyebrow). Place your finger next to the pencil between your eyebrows and mark a vertical line down across your eyebrow with the pencil.
  2. Next, place the pencil next to your nose in the same way as before and tilt the pencil until the inner edge of the pencil is aligned with the outer corner of your eye. Put your finger at the outside of the pencil in your eyebrow, then mark a line down your finger across your eyebrow.
  3. These two marks are the outer limits of your eyebrow grooming. To accentuate your eyebrows and give you an “alert” look, place the pencil on your nose as before and tilt it so that its inner edge passes just by the outer edge of your iris.
  4. Put your finger on that spot where the pencil crosses your eyebrow, then mark down your finger across your eyebrow with the pencil. This point marks the arch of your eyebrow and will be the highest point.

When shaping, taper the ends to a point and do not take too much hair from under the arch or your eyebrows will look like commas or tadpoles. Any work near the top of the arch should be done very conservatively and most of the focus should be on the inner half of the brow.

Choosing an eyebrow shape is also a challenge as different eyebrow shapes are appropriate for different shapes of faces. If you have delicate features, then your eyebrows should not be bold and large or you will look like a cavewoman.

However, if you tend to have bigger, more bold facial features, then bigger eyebrows are more balanced and ones that are too thin will end up looking strange on your face. If your facial shape is more rectangular, then a straight and flat (non-arched) eyebrow will make your face appear shorter and more balanced.

If your face is more heart-shaped, do not go with thick eyebrows, but groom them well and go for a medium body brow look. If you have a heavy, squared jaw, thicker eyebrows will provide a balance and give your look continuity.

For diamond-shaped faces, grooming your eyebrows into more of a curve will diminish the angular features of your face. If you have trouble deciding there are two ways to go.

One way is just to work with a soft and angled eyebrow groom that will look clean and tends to work for most facial shapes. If you want to find something more specific, then assess the shape of your face, do an internet search, and pick a model with your facial shape and match that.

To determine your facial shape, do the following. With a vinyl or cloth tape measure (like ones used in sewing), measure your forehead across the widest part (the midpoint between your eyebrows and hairline is the spot for most folks).

Then, measure your cheekbones, from pointy part to pointy part just below the outer corner of each eye. Next, measure your jawline from the tip of your chin to just below your ear where your jaw takes a turn upwards.

Finally, measure the length of your face by running the tape measure from the tip of your chin to the center of your hairline. Taking all these measures, determine which of the following fits your face.

Eyebrow shaping for women

Square: All the measurements are close and the jaw angle is usually sharp.

Rectangular: The face length is the largest value, with other measures smaller and similar

Round: Measures of cheekbones and face length are similar

Oval: Face length measure is more than the cheekbones and the forehead is more than the jawline

Diamond: Face length is largest followed by cheekbones, forehead, and jawline with a pointed chin.

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