Eyebrow Grooming Tips: How To Properly Tame Your Brows - Birchbox

There are two practices that are central of keeping your eyebrows in check: plucking and trimming. Done properly, they will help you achieve an optimal, natural-looking brow.

The Tools Youll Need

Sharp, lightweight, steel tweezers A small comb or brush (borrowing a dry mascara wand from a lady friend works too) Little scissors with a slight slant

###The 4 Eyebrow Geometry PrinciplesUse the image above as reference.Line A: Defining the inside edge of the brow is perhaps the most important maintenance a guy can do. (Goodbye, unibrow.) Here's an easy trick: Draw an imaginary line straight up from the middle of your nostril, and pluck (dont shave!) along that edge. Line B: This arch is called the peak, and it's the highest point of the brow. You don't want to create a severe arch artificially by plucking, but identifying and preserving the high point of the brow is helpful, because it shouldn't be flat on top.Line C: This outermost point is known as the "tail" of the brow. When you draw a straight line from the tail to the outer edge of your nostril, it should intersect with the outer part of the eye.Line D: This is the length" of the brow. One good principle is to have the bottom of the front align horizontally with the end of the tail.

Eyebrow Plucking and Trimming Tips

Here are a few eyebrow grooming pointers from Santiago Garay, a brow specialist at Browhaus in New York City. 1. [Mens] eyebrows grow long and fast. Simply comb the hair up and snip the ends. Then comb the hair down and snip the ends. Do it once a month. If you trim too much, the hair will stick out like stubble."2. "It's best to do your brow cleanup after you get out of the shower because the hair is removed that much easier." (Its the same as shaving; the pores are more opened up, the follicles are softened, and the skin will be less irritated from the plucking.)3. "When tweezing, close the tweezers at the base of the hair and pull in the direction that the hair grows to ensure you remove from the root and don't break the folliclethat will cause ingrown hairs."4. "Never tweeze right before you go out because the skin will be red. Skin needs some time to recover."5. "It always helps to exfoliate around the brow area beforehand."