How to Get Bold Brows
With many models and celebrities rocking a fuller brow, it’s no surprise that a bolder, thicker brow is in style. Whether you love the look or think it makes a gal look like Groucho Marx, there’s no denying that eyebrows are an essential fashion accessory.
Well-defined, well-groomed brows frame your face, make your eyes look more prominent, and give you instant polish. Fabulous After 40 celebrity makeup artist Sana Young has these tips for how to beef up and beautify your brows, even if it’s just a little.
1) Oil Your Brows
Our brows become lighter, thinner, and dull as we age, losing their shape and thickness. Olive oil can help stimulate growth. Just dip a cotton swab into some lukewarm olive oil and massage it over your brow area. It’s best to do this every night. If you’re all out of olive oil, you can substitute with Castor oil or Vaseline, as they speed up hair growth as well.
2) Fill In Your Brows
Most of us don’t even notice that our eyebrows are fading away, but if you pull out a picture from 10 years earlier, you’ll see what I mean. The key to looking youthful is to start filling in your brows. You can either use a pencil or powder and an angled brush.
Use a shade close to your brow color and fill it in using feathery strokes where the hairs are sparse. It’s best to follow your brow shape, and instantly you’ll notice a difference. I think one of the best eyebrow pencils out there is the Anastasia eyebrow pencil and pencil sharpener.
Here’s a video from Fabulous After 40 makeup artist Sana Young that shows you how to fill in your brows:
3) Brush your Brows
We all have a brow brush in our makeup kit, but how many of us use them? If you don’t, you better start brushing those brows from now. Brush your eyebrows for two minutes daily to help speed up hair growth. When brushing your brows, remember to clean them in the direction they grow, up and out towards the side of your face. This works!
4) Try Eyebrow Hair Growth Products
On average, our eyebrows take six to eight weeks to grow back and even longer when we’re older. Instead of waiting to get a fuller brow, you can purchase hair growth products to help you out. These products contain protein, which speeds up hair growth and strengthens the brow. My favorites are Mary Kay Brow Building Serum, Anastasia Brow Enhancing Serum, and Latisse. For Latisse, you will need a prescription from a dermatologist.
5) Avoid Shaping your Eyebrows
What??? I know this goes against all you have been told. The problem is with age, our eyebrows become naturally thin because of years of waxing, threading, and plucking. At this stage of the game, it’s best to avoid shaping our brows because it ruins our natural shape and makes our eyebrows thinner.
Stick with what you have now and learn how to work with it. If you must pluck your brows, try not to mess with the shape and width. Use this time to apply either castor or olive oil to your eyebrows and watch them get fuller and healthier within time.
6) Use a Brow Resurrection Treatment
This treatment is done in hair or nail salons and can last up to two years. It’s a semi-permanent treatment that involves making tiny incisions in your scalp while using vegetable-based dyed to fill in the gaps. It gives the illusion of a natural look and a fuller brow. Don’t try this one at home!
Get started with these tips, and you’ll have those thicker brows in no time. And please let us know about any other eyebrow tips you may have. We love hearing from you!
*If you have a question for Sana from Message makeup, shoot us an email at questions@fabulousafter 40.com, and I’ll get her to answer it.
brow effect work for me really it’s awesome.
What do you do when you have eyebrow hair that grows really long? I have hairs that are an inch or longer and usually trim them with nail scissors. Should I leave them alone?
Hi Alison,
This is a great question. Grooming brows- our brows can grow at different paces and lengths, what I recommend is first get the right tools. You will need a brow brush, or comb that’s up to your personal preference, and small grooming scissors.Once you have tweezed your brows, and followed the steps to shaping them, you will now trim the hair, just like a hair cut, on a much smaller scale.
Step 1- brush through your brows, up and out, away from the center of your face.
Step 2- using the tiny grooming scissors trim the hairs that stand higher than the rest, or stand higher than the brow outline.
To determine your brow outline consider where you would like the edges of your brows to start and stop. With these two easy steps you are sure to looked polished and prepped!
So to answer your question Alison, yes trim that hair!! Cheers, Sana Young
I have never plucked, shaped or waxed my eyebrows since I always preferred fuller brows.
Now I just use a medium brown soft pencil and a brush to fill small gaps. But thanks for the recommendation of growth products, I will try one of them!
Annette | Lady of Style
Hi Annette,
Please let me know how you do with the growth product or take before and after photos. I’d love to see if it works for you.