It tends to be pretty obvious when women have the wrong eyebrow shape. There are classically over arched eyebrows, over plucked eyebrows and shapeless eyebrows. There are overly slanted eyebrows, slightly shaggy eyebrows and eternally surprised eyebrows. At times, it can seem that the perfectly shaped eyebrow is an elusive, if not mythical ideal that regular women are unable to reach. However, finding your own ideal eyebrow shape is easier than you think. All you need is a mirror, a regular pencil, a set of tweezers and eyebrow scissors. The premise to finding your ideal shape is simple: look at your face and the proportions of it will help guide you to perfection.
There is a common feeling among most women that eyebrow shaping needs to be done by a professional. Most of us are not afraid of maintaining a given shape, but the beauty industry has intimidated us into thinking we cannot create that shape. It is true: going to a professional is a bit easier than doing it all yourself. However, creating your shape at home is less expensive and it truly is not difficult. If you want the pampering of a day at the salon, by all means go ahead – but know that you could do the shaping if you wanted to.
The key to eyebrow shaping is following the proportions of your face. There is no general “ideal eyebrow” that every woman should attempt to have; all of our faces are different and therefore all of our ideal eyebrow shapes are slightly different too. Finding the right proportions for your eyebrows is as simple as using a regular pencil as a measuring aid while looking in the mirror.
Let’s start with a simple measurement: the distance between the two eyebrows. Beauticians agree that the space between your two eyebrows should be the same as the size of one of your eyes. Hold the pencil in front of your face in front of one eye, placing the tip in line with the inside corner of the eye and using your thumbnail to mark the outer edge; you now have the ideal spacing for your eyebrows. Make sure to hold the pencil at a set distance from your face and the mirror; bringing it closer in or further away from your face will make your measurements inaccurate. For most, the inner edge of their eyebrow lines up roughly with their nostril. You can use the pencil to help determine exactly where the boundary should be. Use your tweezers to start defining the shape.
The outer edge of your ideally shaped eyebrow is in a line with your nostril and the outer edge of your eye. Use the pencil to line up the edge of the nostril, the outside of the eye and tweeze any hairs on the outside of the intersection between the pencil and the eyebrow.
Finding your ideal arch is a bit harder, but relies on the same principle of proportion. Again, use the nostril as the first point, but this time line the pencil up with the outer edge of the iris of the eye. The peak of the eyebrow’s arch is defined by where this line intersects with the eyebrow.
When starting to find your ideal eyebrow shape, take things slowly. Alternate eyebrows, working on both bit by bit to tweeze away unwanted hair. Remember that natural looking eyebrows are best; the thickness of the eyebrow is up to you and your fashion sense. Start your tweezing conservatively as well, it is easier to decide later that you want a more defined arch or thinner brows, but far harder to wait for them to grow in again. With a little patience though, creating your own ideal eyebrow shape is simple; just follow the clues in the proportions of your own face.
