The Dos and Don’ts of At-Home Brow Maintenance

A local brow expert offers up her best practices for caring for eyebrows while in quarantine.

Going to a salon for your regular wax, threading, tinting — whatever your brow-shaping fix — session is a far-fetched dream during this isolation period. And with more weeks of being cooped up at home in sight, many of us may feel the need to resort to taking at-home brow maintenance into our own hands.

The last thing we want is for you to come out of quarantine with botched, over-plucked brows, so we’ve tapped local eyebrow groomer and makeup expert Haley Bogaert, who’s also the founder of Toronto beauty salon studio Haley Bogaert Face, for her top need-to-knows before you go pruning any hairs with tweezers yourself. And note: If you’re already dealing with too-thin eyebrows, this current WFH reality is a prime opportunity to let your brows grow. Read Bogaert’s tips for acing your at-home brow maintenance below:

Set a guide and don’t go overboard:

“The most common mistake is when you take too much hair off on your own and try to create a shape. My recommendation is that when doing brows yourself, only lightly tweak as opposed to over grooming. I find that people tend to go too far into the front and tale of the brow, which are the two most important areas. I always suggest staying one finger away from all parts of the brow when tweezing. Whether you are tweezing the top, bottom, front or tail of the brow, always ensure that you are one finger away from the brow itself — and only clean up around those areas. The Tweezerman mini tweezers do the trick. And always remember to have your tweezers set on an angle in order to pull the hair directly from the root as opposed to breaking the hair and creating damage.”

To trim or not to trim, that is the question:

“The most crucial step when trimming the brows is to ensure that the hairs are brushed up when doing so. If you are personally able to create a straight diagonal line in your cut, then I would suggest going very slowly. If you don’t think you can make a clean cut, then I would suggest waiting to trim at home and only tweeze necessary areas.”

Facilitate eyebrow growth:

“The best piece of advice I can give is growth serum. GrandeLash is my current favourite and is packed with vitamins, peptides and amino acids to help grow both the lashes and brows. Use the product in the evening after cleansing the skin. And be patient: You should start to see results within 6-8 weeks.”

Practice your brow-filling technique like a pro:

“My go-to product for filling in the brows is my HBFace Brow Kit. It comes with a creamy Angled Brow Pencil, which is available in 3 shades (light, medium, dark), as well as our Hyaluronic Brow Gel, which helps set the brows in place. I start by drawing a line both below the brow and above, and finish by filling in the middle to create hair-like strokes. Once I have filled them in, I use the brow gel to set hairs in place and keep them hydrated.”

Biggest at-home no-no:

“Do not try to dye your brow hairs at home! Leave it to the professionals.”