The brow beat

We bargain-savvy women love playing doctor to our beauty woes, self-medicating problem skin and dry hair with love and advice from glossy magazines (and their airbrushed models).  We yo-yo diet our way into skinny jeans, then pack a few pounds and then some back when it’s declared that diamonds are out, and that Spanx are now a girl’s best friend.  And on the topic of yo-yo dieting, I know there are more than a few of you out there – myself included – who have, like a moth to a flame, played with her eyebrows to the point of, “Oh my God, what happened to your face?” 

You know the drill.  It starts with the tweezing of a simple stray or two; then, you notice that your left brow starts in slightly higher than your right one, and so you compensate by ever-so-lightly elevating your right brow by whittling away those problem hairs.  Then you notice your arches look a little flat, and boom – there go your pesky hands and faithful tweezers into no man’s land.  When all is said and done, you’re left with a hot mess of what used to be eyebrows that would leave Marlene Dietrich shaking in her nighty.  If this sounds like you, and you’ve got the bucks to spend, high end medispas and specialty waxers (think Anastasia) offer eyebrow extensions and permanent makeup (read: tattooed brows) for upwards of $500 to $2,000.  And, truth be told, it can look just as good as the real thing, if not better, and can be worth every penny to those truly haunted by preternaturally pert brows.

If, though, you’d rather spend the money on, say, handcuffs to hold your hands back the next time you feel the urge to purge your brow hair, the best thing to do is 100% free, and is so simple that anyone can follow:  Keep your hands away from the tweezers and leave your brows alone.

There, I said it.  No magic wand or fairy dust will deliver perfect brows overnight, but time – and patience – will.  I recommend checking in with a professional groomer every 3 months for shape ups (total cost:  $15 to $25) during the first 9 months, and every 6 months for maintenance after that, using a brow pencil ($5 at a drugstore) and grooming comb ($5 at any beauty supply store) in the interim. 

A “hands-off” approach to beauty:  the lazy girl’s way to gorgeous or tough love for the tweezer fanatic?