While some people have lucked out with thick, bold and expressive brows due to the genetic lottery, others may have to work harder to get the same effect. Whether you’re losing eyebrow hair due to damage or plucked too much during the ’90s, there are tools, tricks and techniques to amp them all the way back up. We asked a dermatologist and a makeup artist for their favourite ways to build volume and body.
1) Tackle thinner brows by getting to the root of the issue
Some people have thinner brows genetically, but if your once-thick brows are loosing their natural fullness, it’s important to understand why. “Eyebrow hair can shed due to a number of reasons—fungal infections, allergic reactions or an autoimmune disorder called alopecia areata. People can also have allergies to eyebrow pencils and powders, which can lead to hair shedding. Of course, age, stress and smoking are also other causes.” explains Mumbai-based dermatologist, Dr Jaishree Sharad. “The first step is to determine the cause—whether it is an allergy that needs to be treated or a vitamin deficiency.”
2) Add a brow-thickening product to the mix
If you feel like your brows need a nudge in the right direction, brow conditioners and brow oils are definitely a good idea to try to help promote growth—they improve flexibility and strength of the hairs, preventing them from breaking. “You can apply castor oil twice a day,” says Dr Sharad. “Latisse is very helpful for brow thickening. It’s a prescription lotion that is applied on the brow for three-four months,” she says. Cosmetic brand brow-growth formulas with ingredients like biotin and peptides can also help.
3) Swap the tweezers for scissors
If you really want your brows to take centerstage, you’ll have to forgo the tweezers. If you keep your hands off for 10-15 weeks, all the new brow growth will allow you to re-shape. While the growth might be a little haywire at first, these are the hairs that were never allowed to grow their fullest, thanks to threading and tweezing. Using scissors just on the very top or tamping the hair with brow gel can help keep them tame through your growing-out phase.
4) Tint them in the interim
Take advantage of the tiny hairs and peach fuzz around the brows by tinting them darker. Using an at-home gel dye (or making it to a professional when you are able to), brush on a pigment to the area around your brow and find budge-proof colour that’ll leave your brows looking filled-in and bolder.
5) Try the soap-brow trick
If you have sparse spots between your hairs, you can use a bar of soap and a spoolie brush to tamp them down in the right place. Wet a spoolie brush and then create a lather against a bar of soap, and then comb it through the brows, sweeping across any blank spots with hair.
6) Make the most of what you’ve got
You can fill in any sparse spots by using makeup, and essentially faking it till you finally make it. Celebrity makeup artist Tanvi Chemburkar breaks it down into a few simple steps: “Simply draw out your desired shape with a soft, brow pencil and fill it in with the pencil or with a powder. Use a light concealer to draw a clean line just below the overdrawn eyebrow and blend it out well. Finish off with a foundation matching your skin tone perfectly and draw a line above the outdrawn eyebrows and buffer it into the skin.”
