Since brows are a hot topic these days, I thought I’d give my two cents.  First off, a little background on my brows to give all of this a little context – I started out with a unibrow to compete with the best of them.  As I’ve mentioned here before, I was a very hairy little girl, thanks to my Portuguese Mama.  So at a young age, I started waxing and tweezing that caterpillar across my forehead.  I’m not sure at what point it got out of control, but I mostly blame the 90s (and a little bit Gwen Stefani) for my pencil-thin brows.  My mom told me the other day that one of our friends’ daughters specifically asked her for, “Thin eyebrows like Jen’s”. 😉  In my early twenties, I even had them lasered at one point.  Ugh, so dumb.

Fast forward to now when we all want our natural brows back, especially if they were thick and caterpillar-ish.  And unfortunately for a lot of us, they won’t grow back.  So what do we do?  Well, I’ve been obsessively filling mine in with brow powder, but there were a few things I didn’t like about it.  I didn’t like that it made my brows look so dark and solid (this is partly because I wasn’t very good at it, I realize!) and I hated when it would wear off and my brows would look uneven again.  I also hated that at work different makeup artists would fill them in differently, or sometimes not at all.

So for the last year I’ve been thinking about microblading.  If you haven’t heard of it, microblading is where an artist tattoos what looks like individual hairs.  They do it by implanting pigment underneath your skin using a handheld needle, and it’s semipermanent.  As I’ve been thinking about doing it, I’ve seen some really amazing brows and some really, really bad ones.

I picked one studio/person I wanted to go to and literally watched their work for a year.  When I became convinced this is something I wanted to do and who I wanted to do it, I started trying to get an appointment.  That took another few months, because she’s so hard to get into!  I finally got an appointment for February and went a couple of weeks ago.  Current feelings: I love them.  I go back for my 6-week touch-up in March – this is what most artists have you do to see what they look like healed and where they want to add anything!  But I already love how my brows look when I wake up in the morning – even and full, pre-makeup!

My immediate results (before healing):

And the inevitable car-selfies I sent my sisters and Mom right after:

A few things you should know:

Does it hurt?  I think so!  Ha!  Usually I’d say no, but I thought it was a pretty uncomfortable/annoying feeling.  But they numb you beforehand, and it’s definitely tolerable.

Me, mid-process with the pigment sitting on the wounds ;).

How long does it last?  They say a few years, so ask me in a few years ;).  Knowing that made me feel better about getting them done, but now that I have them I want them to last forever!  Also because ya know, they aren’t cheap!

What’s the aftercare like?  It’s not too bad!  The brows felt a little itchy/stingy for me the second day, but other than that they never looked crazy/weird.  You can shower normally, but avoid getting any cleansers or lotions on your new brows.  My artist told me to rinse with lukewarm water and apply this special barrier cream she gave me.  Also, the brows are super dark at first and then lighten by 30% when they’re healed.  You can see more about aftercare here.

So, who is this person I stalked and then trusted with my brows?  Well, she’s adorable and her name is Audrey Glass.  She has a perfect little studio space right on Sunset Blvd in LA, and aside from her being amazing at creating fluffy brows I just wanted to be her friend.  She made me feel right at home, totally comfortable, and did an amazing job.  You can see (aka stalk) her work on her Instagram.  She is tough to get into, but definitely worth the wait.  It’s your face, after all!

Seriously, message me if you have any other questions.  I had about a million before I was ready to try it :).  Or, if you’ve already done it I want to hear about your experience!

xx

Jen

 

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