Although thick, full eyebrows are in right now, not everyone has them. Some people are born with naturally thin brows or have very light or blonde hair along their browline, making their eyebrows barely visible. Some people might have started out with thicker brows, but years of tweezing or waxing to shape and thin the brows might have left them without permanently thinned out eyebrows.
If your eyebrows are sparse and you want something a bit fuller or more dramatic, you do have options. Some tricks give you a temporary fix and last for just a day or for a few weeks. Other options, such as an eyebrow transplant will give you permanent results.
Filling In
One of the quickest fixes for thin or sparse eyebrows is to use a brow pencil, gel or powder to create a more voluminous look. Pick a color that is one shade lighter than your natural brow color, whether you’re using a pencil or powder. Use very short, feathery strokes to mimic the texture of the hair and to create a look that’s as natural as possible. Blend in the pencil or powder using a spoolie brush, which resembles a mascara wand.
If you’re unsure what shape to use or how to use a brow pencil or powder to create the right shape, stencils can come in very handy. Brow stencils are available in a lot of shapes, including thin arches, full arches and high arches, so you can choose the one that works best for your face shape or style preference.
A brow gel or brow mascara can be a particularly useful product if your brows are very light in color or if they tend to be unruly and need to be put into their places. You can use a brow gel after filling in with a pencil or powder, too, to set the shape.
Tinting Brows
You can try to dye, or tint, your eyebrows if they are very thin and light in color. While you might see products designed to tint brows at home, this is a treatment that’s best left to the professionals, since the eye area is so delicate and there’s an increased risk for infection or irritation. Brow tinting should avoided if you’ve ever had a reaction to an ingredient in hair dye or henna.
Usually, during a brow tinting session, the technician will apply a semi-permanent tint to your eyebrows using a disposable brush or wand. The tint rests on the brows for up to 20 minutes, then is rinsed away.
There are a few things to consider before tinting your brows. Keep in mind that it will only work if you have hair in the area. It’s also important to find a spa or salon that goes the extra mile when it comes to good hygiene and sanitation.
Using a Serum
There is a wide range of brow growing serums out there, which might help you regrow hair or encourage new growth in the eyebrow area. Overall, you can divide serums into categories: prescription serums that might actually stimulate new growth and over-the-counter products that focus on softening the skin.
A prescription serum does help eyebrows grow, but there’s a catch. You need to continue to use the product to continue to enjoy the results. If you stop using the serum, the newly grown hairs will fall back out. Over-the-counter serums typically contain ingredients such as oils and vitamin C, which help exfoliate the skin around the eyebrows. Those ingredients won’t make your brows grow, but they will remove dead skin cells that might have been clogging up the follicles. Some over-the-counter serums do contain peptides, which can have a positive effect on hair growth.
Transplanting Hair
If the idea of filling in, tinting or using a special serum for the rest of your life doesn’t appeal to you, there is a permanent solution: an eyebrow transplant. An eyebrow transplant is somewhat similar to a hairtransplant for the scalp. The transplanted hair is taken from your body, usually from the scalp, then moved to the eyebrow area, often just one or two hairs at a time, to produce a natural looking result.
Typically, recovery after the transplant surgery takes about five days. It will take a few months before the new hairs become visible and begin to grow in. The one potential drawback of the transplant procedure is that the newly transplanted hairs do require some maintenance. While regular eyebrow hairs stop growing at about 1/2 inch in length, the transplanted hairs do keep growing, meaning they need to be trimmed on a fairly regular basis.
Hair restoration specialist Dr. Jeffrey Epstein performs more than 150 eyebrow transplants each year. If you are tired of having thin brows and want a permanent fix, talk to Dr. Epstein to find out if a transplant is the right option for you. Call (305) 666-1774 to schedule at a consultation at his Miami office.