For the most part I’m pretty happy I turned 20 in the mid 90s, as opposed to the mid-noughties, or the mid whatever we’re calling this decade.
I went to the Haçienda when it was still a club, left university with minimal debt, and started working at a time when the magazine industry was reasonably buoyant, getting a job on a new launch after three months of work experience. So, all good, right? There’s just one teeny tiny not-really-that-important thing that I’d change, given the chance…
Like everyone (female) in the 1990s Kate Moss was my style icon. Thanks to La Moss I doused myself liberally in cK one on a daily basis (which it turns out you can still buy, here – definitely going to have a down-memory-lane sniff next time I’m in a department store), sported Adidas Gazelles with floor-grazing dresses and, to my regret, plucked my eyebrows into oblivion.
Throughout the noughties, as well as plucking my brows, I tried having them threaded (made my eyes water and hurt so much I had to have regular breaks during each session) and waxed (ditto plus made the area surrounding my brows an angry shade of red that lasted well into the next day – for reals).
Everyone else was so busy plucking/waxing/threading their brows too we didn’t realise that, for the most part, they looked better in their natural state, with just minimimal tidying. Then Cara Delevigne turned up and natural-albeit-groomed brows became, more than acceptable, actually coveted (see the My Burberry fragrance campaign featuring Kate and Cara above for evidence of the 90s brow versus the natural brow). But it turns out that after years of plucking, threading and waxing brows don’t grow back. Believe me, I’ve been trying.
So what’s a girl who’d like a better brow to do? I’ve heard of products that encourage growth. Beauty sites recommend using brow gels and liners. I’ve had my lashes dyed pre-holiday in the past and I know brow dying is a thing but I remember reading a feature in which a make-up artist said don’t do it, because it was aging, I think. There are so many more beauty treatments and procedures now-a-days that I’m honestly very curious about. I want to try anal bleaching for example but I don’t know, is it safe to anal bleach? I have no one to ask! No one but you lovelies.
I need help. What’s your brow maintenance regime? Have you used, and would you recommend, any of the products that promote growth? And what are your make-up must-haves when it comes to your brows? Or any other beauty tricks a 90’s girl like me needs to know? Do leave a comment below. My brows need you!
Oh this is sooo true of me too! Ugh! And they never have returned back to natural brows either! I love the Charlotte Tilbury eye brow pencil. It’s a brush, pencil & highlighter in 1. The pencil is angled so it’s really easy to use to get a nice shape. Oh & it comes in a range of colours to match your brows. Definitely worth a try I’d say!
Ooh, thanks for the recommendation Carys, big fan of Charlotte Tilbury’s line so will definitely be investing next time I’m in central London!
agh! I am having the exact same dilemma. Having also plucked my eyebrows to death in the ’90s (because that’s how my mum had hers!) I am now on the slow path to growing them back for my wedding in August. I am greatful for my full fringe everyday as it hides the atrocities that are my eyebrows right now. It seems they are growing back in tram lines with a not so convenient gap between old eyebrow and new.
I would be also very grateful for some help. The lady who threads my brows suggested ginger paste or petroleum jelly, applied daily. I’m not convinced! Any tips to help them grow faster or more consistently would be great!!
Hoping to have some sort of decent shape by my wedding, but if not, the fringe is my saviour!!
Yay for fringes! Hmm, I’ve never even heard of ginger paste, but I’m happy to try anything!
Oh this is sooo true of me also! Urggggh! And the never did grow back to give me natural brows. I use the Charlotte Tilbury Eye Brow Pencil, it’s brilliant! It’s a pencil, brush & highlighter in 1. It comes in a range of colours to suit your brow & the pencil is angled so it’s really quick & easy to get a nice shape. Definitely worth a try I’d say!
Gosh Miranda I feel your pain! I remember vividly the first time I plucked my brows (which now when I look back weren’t even that bushy!). I was at my Nan’s house (you could totes do anything there that you didn’t want to try and get away with at home!) and she went to the shops so I legged it up the stairs, got her tweezers and went to town. She returned from the shops calling me in a muffled tone… I took my time to carefully tweeze out the remaining few ‘stray’ (aka perfectly fine) hairs and went downstairs to find her with tissue over mouth, blood dripping because she’d tripped on the curb! I have severely hated my brows ever since.
I tried to grow them out for my wedding and I was quite happy… then I went to get them threaded to neaten them up for the big day. Worst mistake of my life. They are barely there on my photos. It makes me really sad.
However, since that fateful day I haven’t been for another threading session (I like you end up in a horrendous amount of pain and teary eyed. Ergh.) but I have been very carefully preening them myself and I am SO happy with the results. I have actual eyebrows! They are still a little bit patchy in places from the years of over plucking but they are mainly looking… good.
So here’s what I do:
I try to make sure they are an even length else they just look a bit odd, nothing worse than a comb-over brow. So I use a comb and brush the upwards, I then carefully take hair scissors and trim any access… but only the tiny ends that are higher than my brow line. I find then that when I brush them back into place they sit really nicely and look very neat. I then only pluck out the hairs that are way a way from the natural line that is left… I often find I have small hairs right under the brow line but I always leave these until they become more prominent because you never know which direction they are going to grow in (another downfall of the over-pluck!) sometimes they join the brow perfectly, other times they grown downwards (?!!) and so then it’s ok to pull them out. and it’s simply a case of keeping them in check with this routine every couple of weeks. I actually don’t even look at them for the couple of weeks because the temptation to pluck is too much otherwise.
Old habits die hard.
To sort the odd few gaps that I have I use a simple brow pencil (I currently use a Rimmel one as it’s very light and not overbearing at all) but I don’t apply the pencil directly. A make-up artist once showed be to colour on the little brush that comes attached to the pencil lid and then use the brush to fill in the gaps. It leaves you with a much more natural finish.
I am not beautician but this seems to work for me and I’m getting to a point of being happy with them… even if I do see my poor Nan’s face every time I reach for the tweezers.
A brow combover, haha! Great tip on the adding colour to the brush and then using the brush, always worried that applying directly to the brow can look a bit harsh with my colouring.
I am a YSL make up girl. End of. Apart from when it comes to my brows – Benefit’s Brow-zing is just amazing, so much so that all my gaggle of girls use it!
In terms of mainteance, I go and get HS brows done once every three to four weeks – more in summer, less in winter (apparently the sunshine means that your brows grow quicker) but I DO NOT PLUCK OR MESS INBETWEEN.
Admittedly there are some rogue hairs that sprout here and there but I have learnt I am better to ignore them then mess – leave it to the pros!
Definitely trying Brow-zing, thanks for the recommendation Pamela! Agreed, shaping is best left to the professionals.
P.S. If nothing works, get a fringe.
Fringes really are fab, aren’t they?!
Oh Miranda I definitely feel your pain! I have tried to grow mine for the past 2 years with limited results! I find Benefits brow gel to be quite good as it tints the hairs and looks quite natural. Or mac eyebrow pencils are fab.
I get my eyebrows threaded occasionally and find it really good and not that painful, I’d go to someone recommended though and tell them you’re trying to grow out your eyebrows though.
So jealous of Cara’s brows, damn you 1990s!
Thank you so much for the recommendations Fran. Another vote for Benefit! Yes, last time I had my brows shaped (years ago) I told them I was growing them out, they still took more off than I would have liked…
OK so from the other side of the fence…
I never plucked my eyebrows in the 90’s and, although I’m pretty happy with them now, I can’t say that the grass is particularly greener given the number of ‘beetlebrow’ related comments I remember from that time!!
People are so mean, beetlebrow, I mean seriously…
I have to say, I really don’t get the hype about Cara’s eyebrows… I think they are too much! Though I do agree a thin line of barely-there is also not ideal but I think there’s a happy medium. I’m pretty rubbish with mine & pluck as and when I look in a mirror & they look horrific. I do use a Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in cement with an angled brush to fill in any gaps & neaten on the odd occasion. A good eyebrow does frame the face. Funnily enough we had this discussion at work the other week and someone was saying about tattooed on eyebrows and when they go wrong – so Miranda it could be worse!
Oh my goodness eyebrow tattooing, just, no!
I get my eyebrows threaded every couple of weeks or so. I hate having the straggly hairs underneath the line, I think I look like a small furry animal and I look more groomed with them done. I try and leave them as full as possible and not go too thin as I hate that look. I’ve got more brow conscious just lately after reading Sali Hughes on the topic of brows. I’m going to invest in a brow brush (no idea why I haven’t got one already) and I’ve been filling in slightly with a mac dark eyeshadow as and when needed. Loving Carys’s suggestion of the Charlotte Tilbury Ey Brow Pencil, may have to look at that.
I don’t have a brow brush either Krysia (I’m not sure if I’ve ever had one?) but liking the sound of the Charlotte Tilbury three-in-one pencil!
I first got mine plucked at college at the beauty school – BIG mistake, hardly any brow remaining 🙁 I left them alone for a while, and now they are slim but not as bad as they were. I do get them threaded to tidy them up (can’t beat it for only £2.50 at Superdrug!), I make sure to ask specifically for just a “trim” otherwise I find they do get abit excited and I am back to the browless look. I get them done during my lunch hour, the looks I get are very funny as I’m walking through town afterwards, my brows and eyes are bright red with mascara smudges from all the tears!
My brows are quite fair so I have to use a brow pencil – the best one I’ve found is Maybelline Master Brow Dark Blonde. The texture is lovely and applies really well.
Wow, £2.50, that’s a blimmin’ bargain Sarah! Great suggestion to ask for a trim – love it! It’s good to hear I’m not the only one that gets teary (although I’m sorry you do of course), the reactions I’ve had in the past I thought I was particularly sensitive or something. My brows are fair-ish too, will be stopping by the Maybelline counter stat!
I am really lucky in that I have really good eyebrows. I spent a lot of my teenage years wishing they weren’t as big as they are, but never had the courage to do anything about them. Then the big brow came back and I started getting compliments on how Cara-esque mine are. I have to say my regime is pretty basic. I had a good shape anyway and just pluck stray hairs as and when they need it. I think it’s tempting to over pluck so I only touch them when the hairs have properly grown back. I do have a few sparse bits so I fill them in with a MAC eyebrow pencil (in Spiked) and that is it.
I have lots of friends who have HD brows done and they swear by it, but you have to be prepared to spends months not touching your brows to get the best out of it.
Alex you are indeed very lucky! HD brows do look amazing, didn’t know about having to spend months not touching them for the best results though.
I’ve been doing the HD brows thing for a while, would totally recommend it! It’s made a massive difference to mine – I know they say you should not touch them for a while for best results, but I probably only did that for a month and still saw a huge difference.
I hear you on this loud and clear. I’ve been trying to grow mine for the last 2 years! I get them tinted and tidied professionally and use a bobbi brown wax pot with an angled brush to make them look thicker. Its a slow process but im getting there slowly!
It’s been at least two years that I’ve been leaving my brows to pretty much do their thing in the hope that they’ll grow back too Jules. Good to hear you’re getting there!
L’oreal brow gel works a treat – not as heavy as some pencils but gives brows a bit of oomph and you can build it up as much or as little as you’d like. I haven’t really touched my eyebrows for years – mum told me not to (!) and I’m glad I listened!
Ooh, another product to try – thanks Beth!
You have to try rapid lash! It’s about £41 from boots. I had lash extensions a couple of years ago that absolutely ruined my lashes when they were removed. I was left with patches and what was remaining were short and stubby and a friend recommended this. You use it for 8 weeks, it worked absolute miracles on my lashes and I still had a lot left so I used it on my brows and it had similar results, previously patchy parts had hairs growing after years of trying Vaseline etc with no results.
It’s definitely worth a go (I promise I don’t work for them!) as are HD brows, even if you’re super fair with sparse brows it makes a big difference
I think that’s what a friend of mine used Emily, will hunt it down next time I’m in Boots!
I get mine threaded every four weeks or so in a little shop in my local shopping centre for the princely sum of £1 – I’m not joking! I’m totally the wrong ethnicity for it, as all the customers are Asian or African-Caribbean, but they do a fab job, and the atmosphere is amazing! It’s like we’re all doing this together as women, and our men don’t have the first idea about what goes on! Width-wise, I don’t get it with the Cara D look; I prefer a more classical vibe.
Crikey, £1, that is a total bargain Denise!
I was for a while a fan of threading, always going back to my local debenhams ladies, they knew what they were doing and tydied them whilst still leaving them bold enough and no need for pencil. Then, i was in a different shopping centre one day with overgrown brows that needed some work, i went to the debenhams ladies of this different branch, they got to follow the same rules right? or not, she scalped me, it was scary thin brows for me, after warning a few people they replied with “oh no, you didnt go to that one did you?!!” it seems its common knowledge in Edinburgh. great. They never did grow back as full as i like and with near black eyebrows, its pretty depressing to have thin brows! After a few unsucessful penicl attempts i now swear daily by Benefit’s Brow-zing, my minimal make up look is this, mascara and concealer and i’m ready to go!
Oh no, nightmare Rachel, the standard should be the same across all branches. Another vote for Brow-zing, sounds like a gotta try!
Oh my goodness this article and the comments are brilliant! I’ve always had incredibly fair … almost none existent eyebrows and even though my hair colour got darker my eyebrows didn’t. For the last 10 years I’ve dyed my hair red so have pencilled my eyebrows in as they look very silly otherwise! I’m loving the suggestions of an alternative to a pencil that have been left in the comments though … I’ll definitely be heading to the benefit counter!
I know so many great recommendations here Nikki, you can always rely on the RMS community!
I would definitely recommend finding a good HD brow salon- they can work miracles! I have mind done every two months. I use Diego Dalla Palma brow eyebrow pencil & eyebrow gel mascara – you can get it as a kit and it’s lovely and lasts for a good amount of time.
Ooh, thanks for the recommendations Becky. Definitely investigating HD brows!
I suddenly realised eyebrows were back about a year ago. I was shocked-I too had been trying to tame ridiculously hairy eyebrows for years and suddenly they were cool, a bit like my naturally wavy hair. Thing was, they were looking a bit patchy. Benefit’s brow gel stuff works perfectly-under control and not too dark.gone back and bought it again-which I only do v rarely as I love to try new things.
I carry out semi permanent makeup procedures, the most popular one at the moment that I do a lot of is microblading alson know as eyebrow embroidery. It’s a form of tattooing but gives an extremely natural look. I also use softap to create beautiful natural looking brows and I can use softap to create heavier block brows when truly desired by a client.
Please google microblading, the results are gorgeous when done by a pro. When choosing an artist always look throw their portfolio of work and attend several consultations before making your choice. I have made a YouTube film of shaping brows and how to pencil brows in the hope ladies will stop over plucking, sadly I see it every day in my salon.
Look at red photon light for rejuvenating the eyebrows, it kick starts the cell so as long as the follicle is still alive, even if it’s weak, photon light can thicken it
Aah eyebrows. I too over plucked mine for years (they were wonky to boot!), but decided to grow them back about 2 years ago. Brow pencils/make up don’t really work for me as my eyebrows are very dark to begin with but my hair is much fairer, and putting any sort of make up on them makes them stand out way too much. I didn’t touch them at all for about 6 weeks, tried putting castor oil on them at night (bit of an old wives tale but some people swear by it), then once they had grown back enough I went to see a professional and got HD brows done. Can’t recommend it enough! I had it done every 6 weeks or so for the first whilr, but now I have regained control of the shape and can mostly tame them myself. I still have one or two gaps where the follicles are being very stubborn so I just use a little vaseline and comb them into place. So happy I decided to stop overplucking, I love my eyebrows now! Good luck 🙂
Brow infills!!! I am recently trained in this relatively unheard of treatment! Inails can lengthen, thicken and fill any patches of the brow where hair doesn’t grow. If you happen to be based in south devon and are interested in this treatment please find my page on Facebook. ‘Brows by Cara’. Free consultation and I’m currently offering 15% off to New clients!
I use a combination of MAC or Bobbi Brown pencil, MAC eyeshadow and Illamasqua gel brow liner depending on what I’m aiming for!
I’m also a teenager of the 90’s, and to this day cannot grow my brows back, so totally feel for everyone on this! I’ve tried rapid brow and another gel that I forget the name of, but NOTHING. Actually I say nothing, rapid brow did make the hairs grow longer, but not thicker. And as someone has already pointed out, no-one wants a comb-over brow! I use a mac eyebrow pencil (which are great) but with my make-up skills that just results in me looking like a drag queen, so it seems I’m going to have to just live with it!