Eyebrow talk
I’m currently in the (at times, mortifying) process of growing out my eyebrows. And because it’s a topic that I want to know every single detail about from every single person who has eyebrows, I thought it might be worth talking about.
I’ll start by saying that I am currently in the process of growing out my eyebrows for the better part of an entire year. Yes, an entire year.
So far in my journey, this has mostly entailed me practicing acceptance of and gratitude for those tiny hairs sprouting up about eyelid and forehead level, as opposed to filling in my actual eyebrow line. Guys, it’s mortifying. I already said that. I want to walk around with a sign with the disclaimer “I’m growing out my eyebrows” so that people know that I know that they don’t look good.
I have never had great brows, even in the days before plucking, waxing, and threading. My natural shape is more of a too-short, bushy, slightly curved line than anything angular or face-shaping. That is what originally led me to begin plucking/waxing/threading, with the goal of creating some sort of arch where there isn’t one, naturally. But, in the process, my brows have become thinner and just generally still unimpressive, and for most of adulthood, I didn’t believe there was much I could do to change that.
But I’ve become completely mesmerized by the work of the Streicher sisters, (particularly, Kristie Streicher) or the famed trio who have helped cult-classify the look of the thicker, feathered brow. They hail from Los Angeles, but I’ve been able to scavenge the Interwebs for just enough of their expert advice to be dangerous. Their “portfolio” is so compelling that I knew I wanted to follow their every instruction to a T, in hope that I might be able to transform those two mismatched caterpillars of mine.
Which brings me back to where I was above: I am not touching my eyebrows.
According to the sisters, there is a three-phase growth cycle for eyebrows, and the single most important thing for thicker regrowth is to not interrupt this process that takes between three and four months to complete. It is the last phase, the telogen phase, in which hair falls out and new hair grows from it, that is so frequently cut short. This is the phase that absolutely needs to be waited out. Your new brow hairs will start to come in around the four to six month mark, and even so, your brows can take up to one year to fully pad out. Therefore, every time you take a tweezer to your brows, you are preventing this cycle from running its course.
This article explains all of this in more detail, and is one of my guiding lights during this otherwise dark, dark time (kidding, kind of). This also helps me rest easy.
I haven’t touched my brows since approximately August 8, which was right around when this picture was taken (after a fresh threading and some filling in with Anastasia brow wiz powder). So, I still have a couple of weeks before I’ll start to very carefully remove some hairs with the goal of stimulating more growth along my brow line.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so committed to anything before (which, that’s not a great thing), and I cannot wait to see how things turn out. For now, I’m all trust the process. And struggling to be in public, at the same time. Just kidding it’s actually really not that bad anymore, especially with the help of brow powder and gel.