Thanks to Microblading, I Finally Have My Pre-Tweezer Eyebrows Back
I have ’90s brows. My mom warned me not to over-pluck. But the look back then was more inchworm than fuzzy caterpillar, and I tweezed with impunity. Over time, the hair on the underside of my brows essentially gave up — permanently. I was left with sparse, thin, misshapen arches.
I let them run rogue for many years, not knowing how to properly fill them in. Thankfully, today, there are a wealth of great pencils, pots, and powders. And I’ve experimented enough that I can work some magic with a skinny Sigma brow pencil or Anastasia Beverly Hills pomade. But it takes time and effort every morning.
So when Piret Aava, aka the Eyebrow Doctor, reached out recently, I was already teetering on the edge of wanting to try something more extreme. For years, I’ve said that microblading, or semipermanent eyebrow tattooing, scared me. I had seen the horror stories and photos of procedures gone wrong. I didn’t want to go in hoping for Lily Collins and come out looking like Groucho Marx.
As Aava explains, microblading is as much an art as a science. Unfortunately, the required training and certification is not a difficult hurdle to clear, so there are some unprepared amateurs out there masquerading as professionals.
The best pro brow groomers analyze the angles of your face to pick the proper brow shape. Microblading is no different. The idea behind each stroke is that it should mimic an individual brow hair.
I’ve never gotten a tattoo, so I can’t compare the pain level. But microblading is more uncomfortable than it is painful. After numbing cream is applied, you feel a faint sensation of a very fine needle scratching your skin’s surface. Some practitioners use a machine, but Aava does it with a handheld blade made up of a bunch of tiny needles that she dips in pigment. She likes to err on the side of caution, using a lighter touch and then doing a touch-up after a month. The results last between one and three years, depending on your skin type and your skin-care regimen.
Aftercare is relatively simple. The only downside is that you can’t get your brows wet for a week. Aava hands me some adhesive bang-trim face shields she found online that I’ll use in the shower to keep that area dry.
One day in and I’m thrilled with the results. In one hour, I reversed the damage of years of bad tweezing. And if ’90s beauty comes back any time soon, I’ll stick to brown lip liner and butterfly clips.
Michelle Lee before and after microblading brows
More on microblading:
Now check out this statement eyebrow makeup tutorial:
Originally Appeared on Allure
