How To Trim Your Eyebrows

It's fantastic to have some bush on your wee puppies but you don't want to have any wild Bob Hawke's flapping about in the breeze.

Bob Hawke - A look not to go for. You can if you want. But I don't recommend it. 

Too much bush can make you appear older than you actually are and I don't know many people who desire that quality.

As I have previously discussed, research has shown that there is no harm to your eyebrows to trim them. It does not make them grow back faster, thicker or longer. 

Trimming them is rather simple. The only trick being that you don't trim too much. A little goes a long way (unlike chocolate...a little never goes a long way.)

It is recommended that you trim after you have had your eyebrows shaped. Most places that shape your brows will also trim them to give them the finishing perfect look.

1. First brush your wee puppies upwards. You can use a small hair comb or a mascara wand like these.

2. It should look something like this now...

Then grab your scissors and softly trim the random stay and excess hairs. When trimming never trim to the line of your eyebrow. Go a millimetre or so above the line of your brow. The reason being that when you brush your brows back down into place after trimming you don't want to create any holes or sparse areas, which can happen if you trim to close the the edge of your brow.


You can always trim a little and then brush them back down into place to see what they look like. And if you desire a little more off simply repeat the process.


3. After you have brushed them upwards, and trimmed them, repeat the process by then brushing them downwards and trimming. 


And bingo you have yummy trimmed groomed brows!

To Trim or Not To Trim

As a young'n for some absurd reason my father let me regularly cut his hair. I was an unqualified 8 year old (unpaid) barber for my dad's beautiful curly locks. 
Not only does my father have these delicious large curls, but a little south he has unruly massive big banger brows. Those wee puppies have a mind of their own and fly off in all directions.
Armed with a pair of scissors snipping away at the locks I once went to tackle the brows and give them a wee trim.


Now my father has a gentle soul. When I was 14 my friend & I drove his (stolen...or "borrowed without permission"...opps) truck through a butchery shop. Yep in the front door, through the counter, through the freezer and out the back door...there was meat and sausages everywhere...opps. We even made the front page of the newspaper. He wasn't very happy with me. The point however is he never told me off. He never raised his voice. I didn't get grounded. Nothing. Even when he went back to the butchery every day for the following two weeks to rebuild the butchery, he still didn't tell me off.
All I got...I say "all" when actually it was worse than any 'tell off' was "The Look". 
Do you know what 'look' I mean?
Yes that one which say's 'I am more disappointed with you than words could ever communicate.
I haven't actually received 'The Look" very many times...actually I'm lying...I got it regularly throughout my teenage years. But those are different tales to tell.


Anyway! The reason for the above little detour is I just wanted to give you an idea that my father is most certainly not the 'tell off' type of father. 


Back to cutting his hair & trimming his brows.
I leaned inwards armed with the scissors to snip away at the brows and was rather suddenly yelled at; "don't go near my bloody brows Rat!" (He calls me Rat...that is normal isn't it?). "You DON'T trim eyebrows Rat. Not ever."


And that little datum of 'not ever do you trim' has stuck with me for years.
I have never really looked at this data and evaluated it to see if it was truth or not. Dad said it, so it was true. That was enough for me.


But since opening Play Brow Bar where brows are all I eat & breathe daily, I've had to re-evaluated this datum I'm so dearly holding onto.


Ok lets look at it...
1. This is a datum that comes from a man who got eye LASH & eye BROW extensions mixed up thinking they were the same thing (beats me what brow extensions are??)
2. This is a datum that comes from a man who wore the following;

Hmmmmmmm I think I'lll just stop there now.

Maybe he is not the most reliable source of information & the beauty expert that I believed him to be.

With a little help from my own expert observation & knowledge on the subject of brows and also the ole chap Mr. Google, I have come to find out the following to be true.

1. Trimming your eyebrow hairs will not encourage your hair to grow back more or faster. This is simply because you are trimming the hair particle from the outside, not from the actual follicle below your skin. All the genetic information about length, thickness and color of the hair is in the root. Trimming will leave the root intact.

2. Trimming aids to define and create the 'perfect brow' shape.

3. Trimming your brows may make them look a little fuller, for you are cutting the hair to a blunt end.

So the verdict is...don't believe old men with stray fly away hairs that you must never trim.

Trim away kids. 

I'll write soon on "how to trim".

Peace out!

Jessica xXx

How Do I Get Me Some Bush??

Bush Is In - But How Do I Get Me Some Bush??

After my last blog where I basically made anyone who has thin brows feel like bollocks...I thought it would be good practice to give some solutions to making your brows a little more bushy.

Us females (and I suppose some boys out there as well) have realized that ones brows can make or break you. They are a thing of beauty and can accentuate your facial features or close your features in & add years.

To obtain this, we’ve plucked, picked, shaved, threaded and waxed at our wee puppies, all pulling the eyebrow hair out from the follicle itself.

And unfortunately, over time this causes the eyebrow hair to actually stop growing. It also promotes breakage and loss of existent hair.

But never fear there is actually something you can do about your wee hairless puppies to stimulate some growth back into them!

The ‘Au Naturale’ Approach

You know how your mother (or grandmother) may have told you to eat your crusts because they make your hair curly? Well they didn’t know what they were talking about when they told you that. BUT when they said to drink your castor oil...well they did know what they were talking about on this one (except this was for constipation...and we are not on the subject of that right now).

And also I’m not going to get you to drink it nor am I trying to advise a cure for constipation.

Castor Oil is a little secret that I have been using for years. There is a lot of scientific guff on how and why it works...but to break it down for you...it is an essential oil (which simply means that it is derived from a plant and not had stuff done to it nor is it chemically derived) that promotes hair growth by stimulating the hair follicles.

Apply the castor oil (you can get it from a chemist/drug store - it should be under $20) to your whole eyebrow area nightly. Wash it off with warm water & a cotton pad in the morning.

During the day you want to keep your eyebrows and surrounding skin nice and moist. Moist skin provides opportunity for optimum hair growth on the facial region. A moisturizer containing vitamin E or C is a jolly good choice (I personally use the Body Shop Vit E Day Cream - but that is just me).

You could also if you are really keen grab some vitamin E oil capsules (the ones you would normally take orally) from your chemist/drugstore. Take a pin and make a little prick in a capsule, and apply the oil directly to your whole eyebrow (this could also substitute for any eyebrow moose/gel that you already use.) 

Vitamin E & D will help also to prevent breakage (breakage can make the eyebrows look thinner.)

I would recommend doing the above religiously for 6-10 weeks (maybe longer or shorter depending on what you start with).

So that is the au naturale way to handle your hairless puppies.

A More Chemically Inclined Approach (and I must say, not necessarily more effective)

Ever heard of Minoxidil Lotion? No I didn’t think so. It sounds way too scientific and like some smart people were naming something to make you feel stupid.

Anyway, this drug was first invented (under the name of Loniten) to treat high blood pressure. However it was noted that it had a side effect which was maybe bad for the patients at the time, but fab for us because it increased growth & darkened fine body hairs. 

You can buy an over the counter lotion containing minoxidil (you’ll find 2-5% minoxidil is safe for the eyebrow area) in most countries. Some common brand names are ‘Rogaine’ in the United States and Canada, and ‘Regaine’ in Europe and down under (where all the ultra-cool people hang out.)

Apply each night (or whatever the directions on the label tell you to do.) You should see some difference in 6-12 weeks (again depending on what you started with.)

Please note that when you stop using this product, your hair growth will return it’s previously normal level within 30-60 days - but that is ok if your puppies have grown by then!

The Last Solution

We have recently discovered that eyelash serum actually DOES work on your eyelashes (I must admit that I thought it was a gimmick to sell cosmetic type stuff). But my business partner (Jaimee - she’ll be stoked I mentioned her by name) tried it on her eyelashes and she noted a 1-2mm growth in 3-4 weeks.

Hence we have been trying it on the eyebrows and it is already having some great effects!

She is currently using “Rentoil Lash Serum" which she said she is finding is giving her the best results.

There are loads of brands available (just about every major cosmetic company has one now) - I can’t advise you on all of them, but Jaimee also said she had success with the Loreal one.

If you wipe a big blob of the serum or castor oil or minoxidil on your cheek please don’t expect that overnight you’ll get a hairy cheek & look like a werewolf. All of the solutions I have given above stimulate and promote hair growth where there once was.

It’s all worth a shot ha! Go Play with it!

Peace out kids

Love

Jessica xXx

Bush Is In

I recently read as a headline for an article (in the form of ‘breaking news’) “Eyebrows Are Back In Fashion!” It made me chuckle. I didn’t realize that such a thing could actually go in and out of fashion. Oh what feeble sheep us humans can be. Not too sure what one does with these body parts when they are “out of fashion”? Lop them off in fear of the shame of being unfashionable? 

I study eyebrows. Gone are the days when I evaluate people on character, shoes or boobs. I’ve become a stuck up snob in the presentation of eyebrows and will judge a character based on how well you groom those bushy puppies above your eyes (men included). 

My snobbery is completely justified however for I own an eyebrow bar (Play Brow Bar) in South Yarra, Melbourne. Eyebrows have become my life.

Now, one conclusion I have so informatively come to via observation, knowledge and the Mr Ever So Knowledgable Google is that ‘bush is in’. One’s mind may instantly divert to the lower regions of the human anatomy. And my household is very adapt to adopting this ‘bush is in’ principle (in the lower region) not however due to a heightened fashion sense, but simply due to complete and utter ‘marriage comfortableness’.

Right enough potty talk. Bush is in. Famous people who I can’t remember the names of, have dictated that this is in fact what you should be doing this season. 

See below for some photoshopped beautiful people (who will only make you feel inferior, over weight and compelled to dedicate your life to the attainment of a Gucci handbag).

Beautiful Person

Bush, or more eloquently put as ‘fuller brows’ is what one should aim for, not just this season & because it is what is ‘in’ but as a general rule in aid of not looking ridiculous.  Pencil thin is out. And has been out before it even came in, for I don’t think it was ever in. Maybe it was. Maybe I missed that memo. None the less. Thin is out and fat is in (gosh wouldn’t that statement be wonderful if it was true for the rest of the female body. Maybe eyebrows will begin a whole new revolution in the female presentation! Wouldn’t that be smashing).

I have yet to see a face that suits little wee lines posing as eyebrows. It creates a plastic and an overly expressioned face. Or put another way, look tacky. Have a look at Pammy below. She is hot, boobs or no boobs you wouldn't say no. But the brows don't do much for her. 

Pammy....you're a sexy wee chicken but you need a little bush hon

But bush comes with grooming. You can’t just go all out and let those puppies grow free and wild. There is a little care and maintenance involved in achieving this look.

The aim would be to go a groomed version of au natural. The brow should be thick, yet feminine, and then perfectly groomed (preferably through the method of threading) to form a well-defined shape and a gorgeous, lifted arch.

Old Ange has gotten the bush effect in full

It is recommended that you take you & your hairy wee bush brows in & see an expert in eyebrow shaping. I'm not going to be feeble and plug my eyebrow bar, but I will say go to someone who specializes in threading and knows their stuff. One great way to see if they are any good is look at their brows. Mis-shaped hairy wee puppies equals leave. Nice, groomed, well shaped, suits their 'look' and face shape equals take a seat & let the threading begin.

There is always the added trick after you've had your bush seen to by an expert and that is the magic of filling in the gaps with pencil or brow shadow to give the smoother, more defined look. You can also play around with your basic shape adding a higher arch or what have you. 

More to come another day about the benefits of threading vs other forms of brow hair removal.

Go Play with it!

Peace out kids

Jessica xXx