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How to Lift One Eyebrow Download Article Co-authored by Thomas G. Waites
Last Updated: August 3, 2025 Fact Checked
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Using Your Hands to Train Your Eyebrows
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Practicing Without Hand Assistance
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This article was co-authored by Thomas G. Waites. Thomas G. Waites is an actor, director, and acting instructor based in New York, New York. He is also the lead singer and songwriter of the band Heartbreak Waites. He has been a part of the entertainment industry since the 1970s, where he has performed on Broadway and appeared on film and television projects. He has appeared in over 30 television and film productions. Some of his credits as a television actor include NYPD Blue, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oz, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Jury. In film, he appeared in Unwed Father, State of Grace, ...And Justice for All, Gangland, An American Affair, The Warriors, and the John Carpenter film The Thing. He has been a member of the Actor's Studio since 1984. He runs TGW Acting Studio, where he seeks to enhance the development of his students by offering the tools and support necessary for them to reach their full potential. He received a B.A. degree in Writing from The New School and a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the University of Iowa. He is a graduate of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,322,139 times.
Animating the face by raising an eyebrow may not be worth a thousand words, but it’s worth several. With just the lift of one brow, you can drop hints about what’s on your mind without saying a word. Raise a brow to indicate surprise or do it for attention. Lower it to express annoyance or displeasure with something, but remember this task may take a bit of an effort. It doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Animating only one side of the face takes a little bit of work and a few facial exercises to get the hang of it.
Ways to Lift One Eyebrow
Use your fingers to hold one eyebrow up and the other eyebrow down to get used to the feeling of lifting just one.
Practice lifting and lowering both brows in front of a mirror without your hands, then try lifting one at a time.
Work on lifting your dominant eyebrow first, then train your other brow once you get the hang of it.[1]XResearch source
Steps
Part 1 Part 1 of 2:
Using Your Hands to Train Your Eyebrows
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1 Determine which eyebrow is more dominant. Before beginning your training, you will want to figure out which eyebrow will be most easily trained. Typically, this will be your dominant eyebrow.
Stand in front of a mirror, and try to lift your right eyebrow. Then try to lift only your left eyebrow. Which one do you feel that you have better control over? This is likely your dominant eyebrow, and the one you should try to focus on.[2]XResearch source
Don't worry if you feel you don't have control over either, just pick one and go from there.
Make a note of which eyebrow you will focus on. This way you won't get mixed up and waste time trying to train both eyebrows at the same time.
2 Push and hold the dominant eyebrow up with your hand. If the other eyebrow comes with it, use the other hand to hold the other eyebrow down. This will help you learn what it feels like when just one of your eyebrows is raised. Keep practicing this in the mirror so you can detect the correct muscle movement to move one eyebrow up.
Place tape over the raised brow instead of using your hand if this feels more comfortable. Doing this gives you more muscle control since you're not relying on your hand to lift the brow. It also forces you to assist in the process of holding the brow up by straining those muscles. [3]XResearch source
With your eyebrow still raised, trace your finger over the muscles along the brow bone. They should feel taut. These are the muscles you want to focus on when you're lifting the brow. Even if you are primarily using your hand to practice, this is a good exercise to help you remember where the brow muscles are located.[4]XResearch source
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3 Hold only the lower eyebrow down. After you understand how it should feel to raise your eyebrow, release the brow you want to raise while holding the one you want to lower.
Practice this for 2-5 minutes each day.
4 Hold only the upper eyebrow. After you have practiced raising one brow, you’ll want to practice lowering the other.[5]XResearch source Do this by holding the raised brow in place with your hand. Practice lowering the other eyebrow.
Again, do this for 2-5 minutes each day.
It is conceivable that some people simply may not be able to individually lift a brow without using the hand as a guide. However, you'll probably need more practice to be able to tell if this is the case. Even people that eventually are able to do it usually require some form of training, so you won't know until you give it a try for a little while.
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Practicing Without Hand Assistance
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1 Stand in front of a mirror. When practicing, it is important to stand in front of a mirror. Sometimes we may feel like we are doing the correct movements, but when you look in the mirror you may find that you are not doing what you intended.
2 Practice raising and lowering both brows. Spend about a minute raising and lowering both brows. This helps you get in the right frame of mind, and helps to get your eyebrow muscles warmed up.
3 Focus on raising one eyebrow. Spend five minutes focusing on raising the brow you have chosen without the use of your hands. Don’t worry about the other eyebrow right now, just focus on raising it as high as you can.
4 Focus on lowering the other eyebrow. Spend another five minutes where you focus solely on lowering the other eyebrow. Again, don’t worry too much about what the opposite eyebrow is doing.
5 Spend five more minutes trying to raise one eyebrow while lowering the other. Hopefully, by this point, you have gotten the hang of it. Take some time trying to simultaneously raise one brow, while lowering the other.
6 Practice every single day. You don’t need to practice for hours, but you do have to practice every day. You will not be able to get good at doing this if you do not practice consistently.[6]XResearch source
7 Try raising the other eyebrow. Once you get good at raising your dominant eyebrow, you can switch to trying to raise the other one, if you wish.[7]XResearch source Hopefully, spending time strengthening your eyebrow muscles will make the process go faster, but don’t give up if it takes longer (which it may, since it is your non-dominant brow).
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Tips
Practice in a mirror. You may feel silly and strange at first, but it’s the best way to learn this skill.[8]XResearch sourceThanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 2
Be patient! This may take a long time to get right, but it is a skill that can come in very handy sometimes. Thanks Helpful 68 Not Helpful 12
Tilt your head to make the illusion greater. If you are trying to raise your right eyebrow, tilt your head to the left. This will create the illusion that you are raising your eyebrow higher. Thanks Helpful 54 Not Helpful 17
Show More Tips
Tips from our Readers
The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.
Sometimes, it helps to push both eyebrows together to make something like a worried face and then raise the eyebrow you’re focusing on.
Try pulling the eyebrow you want to raise up with a finger while also tugging the other one down.
Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published Name Please provide your name and last initial Submit Thanks for submitting a tip for review! Advertisement
Warnings
Be aware of when you use this expression. While in certain situations it can be useful and entertaining, there are certain situations (e.g. in front of your boss), where it is not appropriate. Thanks Helpful 130 Not Helpful 43
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References
↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eV4C_2hrq_M
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NIrAVEoVo
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NIrAVEoVo
↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eV4C_2hrq_M
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NIrAVEoVo
↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eV4C_2hrq_M
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NIrAVEoVo
↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eV4C_2hrq_M
About This Article
Co-authored by: Thomas G. Waites Acting Instructor This article was co-authored by Thomas G. Waites. Thomas G. Waites is an actor, director, and acting instructor based in New York, New York. He is also the lead singer and songwriter of the band Heartbreak Waites. He has been a part of the entertainment industry since the 1970s, where he has performed on Broadway and appeared on film and television projects. He has appeared in over 30 television and film productions. Some of his credits as a television actor include NYPD Blue, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oz, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Jury. In film, he appeared in Unwed Father, State of Grace, ...And Justice for All, Gangland, An American Affair, The Warriors, and the John Carpenter film The Thing. He has been a member of the Actor's Studio since 1984. He runs TGW Acting Studio, where he seeks to enhance the development of his students by offering the tools and support necessary for them to reach their full potential. He received a B.A. degree in Writing from The New School and a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the University of Iowa. He is a graduate of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School. This article has been viewed 1,322,139 times. 7 votes - 86% Co-authors: 74Updated: August 3, 2025 Views: 1,322,139 Categories: Body Tricks In other languages Spanish Italian Portuguese Russian German French Dutch Thai Arabic Indonesian Hindi Turkish Japanese
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Reader Success Stories
Nidhi Jain
Oct 23, 2016
"There is something I feel about people who can raise their eyebrows perfectly. I love it personally. And without a proper guide, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Your tutorial may work for me. Will report to you soon once I an able to do it. Thanks. "..." more
More reader stories Hide reader stories Share your story
Did this article help you?
Yes No Did this article help you? Say thanks with a small tip. $1 $3 $5 Leave a Tip Support our mission to help everyone in the world learn how to do anything. Advertisement Cookies make wikiHow better. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Co-authored by: Thomas G. Waites Acting Instructor Co-authors: 74Updated: August 3, 2025 Views: 1,322,13986% of readers found this article helpful. 7 votes - 86% Click a star to add your vote
Nidhi Jain
Oct 23, 2016
"There is something I feel about people who can raise their eyebrows perfectly. I love it personally. And without a proper guide, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Your tutorial may work for me. Will report to you soon once I an able to do it. Thanks. "..." more
Swag Master
Apr 24, 2022
"Saw Mac on its always sunny raising his eyebrow. Wanted to steal it for my own personality but was unable to do it. Still not that good but I am actually doing it perfectly and its God's fault that I wasn't born with this ability, not mine. So this works."..." more
First Last
Oct 12, 2020
"Was in AP Enviromental and bored as hell. So I started messing around and found out how to raise my eyebrows. Bros asked me how I did it but I didn't know since I was messing around. Sent them this article and they still strugglin. Good stuff though."..." more
Anu A.
Dec 22, 2017
"I couldn't animate my right brow before, though my left was perfect. So I thought of correcting this up. I wasn't sure of all these in the beginning, but over time it actually worked!"..." more
Anonymous
Aug 13, 2016
"When I started this training, I could lift my right eyebrow individually a very tiny bit. Now I can fully lift both individually."..." more Share yours! More success stories Hide success stories
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Download Article Co-authored by Thomas G. Waites 
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Co-authored by: Thomas G. Waites Acting Instructor This article was co-authored by Thomas G. Waites. Thomas G. Waites is an actor, director, and acting instructor based in New York, New York. He is also the lead singer and songwriter of the band Heartbreak Waites. He has been a part of the entertainment industry since the 1970s, where he has performed on Broadway and appeared on film and television projects. He has appeared in over 30 television and film productions. Some of his credits as a television actor include NYPD Blue, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oz, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Jury. In film, he appeared in Unwed Father, State of Grace, ...And Justice for All, Gangland, An American Affair, The Warriors, and the John Carpenter film The Thing. He has been a member of the Actor's Studio since 1984. He runs TGW Acting Studio, where he seeks to enhance the development of his students by offering the tools and support necessary for them to reach their full potential. He received a B.A. degree in Writing from The New School and a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the University of Iowa. He is a graduate of the Drama Division of The Juilliard School. This article has been viewed 1,322,139 times. 7 votes - 86% Co-authors: 74 Updated: August 3, 2025 Views: 1,322,139 Categories: Body Tricks In other languages Spanish Italian Portuguese Russian German French Dutch Thai Arabic Indonesian Hindi Turkish Japanese 
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1 Determine which eyebrow is more dominant. Before beginning your training, you will want to figure out which eyebrow will be most easily trained. Typically, this will be your dominant eyebrow. 
3 Focus on raising one eyebrow. Spend five minutes focusing on raising the brow you have chosen without the use of your hands. Don’t worry about the other eyebrow right now, just focus on raising it as high as you can. 
4 Focus on lowering the other eyebrow. Spend another five minutes where you focus solely on lowering the other eyebrow. Again, don’t worry too much about what the opposite eyebrow is doing. 