"I finally decided to get my eyebrows waxed for the first time — up to that point I had never even plucked them. My eyebrows were not horrible but were definitely on the full side. My friends and I were throwing a party at a bar that night, so I thought I would give it a shot. I guess, because it was my first time, I didn't really know what type of instructions to give the nice woman in the back of the manicure salon. The woman took off 80 percent of my eyebrows, leaving only a very thin line above each eye. I never realized before that day how much the shape of your eyebrow impacts the way your face looks! After crying for several hours with my friends, who were trying to be so nice despite how horrible I looked, we went to the party. What was really interesting was that several people came up to me and asked if I had gotten my hair cut or changed the color — they knew something was different but couldn't put their finger on it."
S.G., Natick
Major brow maintenance is not something that should be undertaken spur of the moment, says Sasha Zakharova, an aesthetician at G2O Spa + Salon (338 Newbury Street, Boston, 617.262.2220). When she meets with waxing first-timers (or even clients with bushier brows), Zakharova takes time to sit down and discuss their ideal shape. She plays around with a light powder, encouraging them to do the same at home, so they have an impression of how their brows will end up before any wax is applied. The one thing she asks clients not to do, however, is to rely on celebrity photos ripped from the pages of Glamour or Us Weekly.
“When they show pictures of perfect eyebrows of the perfect model, it’s not exactly what it’s going to be because we all have different natural shape,” explains Zakharova. In other words, what looks great on Halle Berry might not translate well to your face — just like that couture gown she pulls off so well probably won’t look the same on your body. If you end up like our skinny-browed S.G., your best bet is to arm yourself with an eyebrow pencil or powder, says Zakharova, because depending how fast your hair grows, a full recovery might take a while. “Sometimes it takes a few months,” she says. “Sometimes it takes a few years.”