Tweeze Your Eyebrows If You Hate Waxing

@christopherjohnrogers

Tweezing has become a trauma-inducing nightmare from the past - it has a pretty bad rep. But if you’re still wary of close contact with your beloved eyebrow-waxing professional, we’re here to help you manage the strays - dare we say it - on your own. The good news is that you only need the right tools and the patience to use them.

WTF - the pain though

If you usually choose waxing or threading your eyebrows because it’s quicker than the slow one-by-one eye-watering pain of plucking individual hairs, have no fear. The best time to remove hair is after opening up the hair follicles, so enjoy a hot shower. If you’re in a time crunch, you can apply steam or a hot towel for a couple of minutes to each eyebrow. Start with a gentle exfoliating face scrub like The UnScrub to remove dead skin cells and help facial hair point up for easier removal.

Tools you already have

You will need a grip-friendly tweezer like any of these from Tweezerman – preferably a slanted tweezer which grabs hair at the root to avoid breakage and unpleasant friction. And yes, tweezers win awards too. If you usually trim your eyebrows, you will also need small trimming scissors (these are on sale for $7) that are easy to control and an eyebrow brush (most eyebrow pencils come with one or use disposable multi-purpose ones). Most importantly, you will need lots of lighting so opt for natural day light close to a window. Otherwise, use bright LED-light.

Don’t go rogue

Remember: don’t attempt a completely new shape on your first try. Stick to the current shape that you have, which you can fine-tune by using your eyebrow pencil or a brow gel (more on clear non-crunchy brow gels here). The trick is to clean around your natural shape so you don’t accidentally pluck the alpha hairs. A lesson we wished we knew in the early 2000s: be conservative with your tweezer by only tweezing every 2 weeks to prevent over-plucking but be liberal with your eyebrow accessories.

The right direction

Tweezing against the natural direction of hair growth can cause inflammation and irritation, especially for under-brow skin which is sensitive. That area also tends to be the most painful. You should pull the skin tight with one finger and firmly pluck in the direction that your hair is growing. For trimming long hairs, you can use a brow brush to brush upwards and cut hairs across. Don’t forget to zoom out of your up-close view and assess your eyebrows from a normal distance before continuing to tweeze.

Practice, practice, practice

When you’re finished, applying a pore minimizing toner will help prevent breakouts and irritation. You can follow this up with post hair removal care in the form of an ingrown eliminator serum like this one from Fur. And just remember – if your first time didn’t go as smoothly as planned, don’t worry - the strays will be back for Round 2.

By Team Unwind