I Colored My Brows Blue for a Day — and I Actually Loved It
By Sam Escobar. Photos: Hannah Choi/Allure.
Since the ripe old age of 12, I have been the type of person who gets extraordinarily bored with my hair. Starting in sixth grade when my mother allowed me to color the underside of my hair ruby red with Manic Panic (the "gateway dye," one might call it), I have relentlessly pursued brighter, bolder, and longer-lasting hair hues. Within a few years, I tried pink, purple, orange, red, red-orange-brown — thanks for that travesty of a trend, MySpace — but while each color was fun, it got boring quick, not to mention highly damaging.
And then I found blue.
Even as a teenager, I could tell that it was the perfect color for me. I was a little insecure about my skim-milk-blue complexion and, given my teenagehood, about pretty much everything else pertaining to my appearance, too. But I knew that whether it was icy or navy, blue hair simply looked right on me and gave me more confidence than any other color had. So I kept it! And for the last 11 or 12 years, my hair has been almost consistently blue (though I admittedly hopped on the pastel lilac bandwagon in 2015 and it was difficult to maintain, to say the least). My eyebrows, however, have remained just plain brown.
Fast-forward to today: I started working at Allure a few weeks ago, just prior to our spectacular April issue's debut (which you should go pick up ASAP for a multitude of reasons). Not only am I fortunate enough to work in a position that allows me to play around with my hair color and wear green lipstick on camera, I also feel incentivized to experiment with new techniques, trends, and products. What better way to learn than by first hand? And that is exactly why I decided to try coloring my eyebrows a super bright shade, just like makeup artist did for a model one of our lovely in-book shoots.
Rather than going hot pink or neon orange, I opted for a hue that would match my hair: blue, of course. I might as well get my feet wet by exploring the shades I already wear every day, right?
Using a mixture of D-236 and ME-216 from Make Up For Ever's 15 Artist Shadow Palette, I brushed a deep turquoise-cobalt combination into my brows, lightly diffusing as I went. To add some shimmer a la the original photos, I dusted a bit of golden shadow at my inner corners. Initially, I assumed it would look a little silly — but, surprise surprise, the results were actually wonderful in a Disney character kind o' way.
After applying my vivid look, I was very conscious of the fact that my eyebrows were very, very bright. A few people commented here and there, I snapped a few photos, but then I went about the rest of my day as an editor at Allure — and completely forgot about my new blue brows.
I attended meetings, went to lunch, and even had a FaceTime meeting with — you guessed it — blue eyebrows. You would think after the first couple of times of people remarking, "Oh hey, your brows finally match your hair!" or asking, "Are your eyebrows...blue?" I would have kept it in mind. Alas, I am the type of person who had a microdermal piercing on my chest for eight years and consistently forgot about it until a confused acquaintance asked why there was a metal dot on my sternum.
Even more than others' friendly reactions to my bright brows, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. In fact, it was actually easier for me to fill them in this way because I didn't have to worry about them looking natural. After all, under no circumstance can blue eyebrows look natural outside of a cartoon. No short, thin strokes or endless blending — just bold eyebrows to coordinate with my peacock-blue hair.
The verdict: My weekend brows are about to get a whole lot more colorful.
This story originally appeared on Allure.
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