Eyebrow maintenance doesn’t have to be intimidating. Whether you shape your brows or let them do their thing, knowing how to trim your eyebrows is an essential part of eyebrow grooming for everyone. With the right tools and a careful approach, trimming eyebrows and shaping eyebrows yourself can be simple. This step-by-step tutorial will guide you to the eyebrows you desire.
Eyebrows play a key role in enhancing your natural beauty. Well-groomed brows can define your face, giving you a polished, put-together look - even without makeup. The right eyebrow shaping can help complement your features, bringing balance and subtle definition.
If you frequently get your eyebrows done professionally, trimming your eyebrows in between appointments can help you extend the polished look that trimmed brows give. The occasional trim can also help prevent stray eyebrow hairs from sticking up in random directions throughout the day - and no one wants that. Properly groomed eyebrows can make a big difference in your overall appearance, helping to frame your face and balance your overall features.
“Most people aren’t completely symmetrical,” says Benefit Cosmetics global brow expert Jared Bailey. “But properly looked-after brows can actually create the illusion of evenness.” Not to mention the fact that our brows naturally thin with age, so maintaining them can feel like a little drop in the fountain of youth.
As a general rule of thumb, you should aim to trim your eyebrows about once per week. That being said, if you have an event coming up, you may want to treat your eyebrows to a quick trim beforehand.
Read also: Home Eyebrow Trimming
The right tools are the foundation of every good eyebrow shape-both in a salon and at home. Before you begin, it's best going in knowing that you're only going to maintain between appointments. It's best to leave any big transformation to the experts. “I wouldn’t recommend attempting a complete brow overhaul,” Bailey says. Also, don’t rush. “This isn’t something you want to do if you only have 10 minutes before a Zoom meeting,” adds brow specialist Joey Healy, owner of the New York City-based Joey Healy Brow Studio. Set aside about a half hour.
Here’s what you’ll need:
When it comes to lighting, natural is best. One surprising spot Bailey suggests: your car. “You’ll get plenty of natural light, and there’s a mirror already in there,” he says.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get to our tutorial. Follow the steps below to become an eyebrow trimming pro.
Map Out Your Brow Shape:
Read also: Perfect Eyebrows: Step-by-Step
Before you begin, it's essential to understand your natural brow shape. Bailey and Healy stress that you must start by identifying three key parts of your eyebrow: the head (the part closest to your nose), the arch (where your brow is naturally the highest), and the end of the tail (the part nearest to the outer corner of your eye).
Bailey relies on Benefit’s brow-mapping technique, which pinpoints those key areas using your nose as the point of origin. “This is how you customize your brow shape for your face and create balance and symmetry,” he says.
Start by resting a thin pencil (Healy recommends a closed brow tweezer) vertically against your nose-where it touches your brow is the head. “That’s where your brows should start,” says Bailey. Mark this spot with a microliner. We like the Benefit Precisely, My Brow pencil.
Rotate the pencil outward (like it’s one of the hands-on a clock), stopping at the outer edge of your iris. This is where the brow would naturally arch-Healy says it’s typically two-thirds of the way from the head to the end of the tail. Mark that spot and move the pencil further, stopping at the outer corner of your eye. This is the end of the tail; mark this spot.
Once you’ve repeated this process on both eyebrows, connect the three markings with straight lines both just above and just below your brow-this creates a map that shows you which hairs to tweeze (anything outside the lines) and which to leave alone (anything inside).
Read also: When to Trim Your Hair
Prepare Your Eyebrows:
Pull any hair away from your face to improve visibility, giving you a clear view of your brows. Trim in natural light to ensure you don’t make any mistakes-bright, even lighting is key to precision.
Brush Your Eyebrows Upward:
First things first, use an eyebrow comb to brush the front area of your eyebrows. Wondering if you should brush brows up or down? For best results, brush hairs upward toward your hairline. Examine the hairs you brushed up. See which ones tend to fall in line with the top of your eyebrow and which ones stand out in length.
Trim the Hairs:
Use a pair of angled eyebrow scissors to carefully trim any outstanding hairs. Cut one hair at a time, at an angle, to avoid a choppy look. Remember-you can always trim more later, but you can’t add more hair if you take away too much. Take your time and trim hair by hair.
Move on to the middle section of your eyebrows and brush the hairs upward once again. Trim where necessary.
Brush Your Eyebrows into Shape:
Use a spoolie to brush your brows in the direction that you would shape them. This will give you a better idea of how your newly trimmed brow hairs will fall normally. Editor’s tip: If you don’t have a spoolie on hand, check your eyebrow pencil. Most eyebrow products, including the L’Oréal Paris Brow Stylist Definer Waterproof Eyebrow Mechanical Pencil, come with a built-in spoolie on one end.
Brush Downward and Trim:
While brushing your hairs upward is an easy way to bring long, unruly hairs into the limelight, brushing them downward is also important when trimming your brows.
Tweeze with Care:
If you’re using Bailey’s technique, the hairs outside your “map” can go. He recommends using two hands to tweeze properly-hold the skin taut with one and gently remove a hair at a time by tweezing in the direction of growth. “This protects the follicle so the hair will grow back,” Bailey explains. There will be some hairs you’ll question-leave them be. Now’s not the time to take them.
Healy recommends setting a timer for 15 minutes-and putting the tweezers down the minute your alarm pings. “You’d be surprised how many people start tweezing and can’t stop,” he says. “It becomes a compulsion.” His key cleanup areas include the space between the heads of both eyebrows, the forehead area just above the temples, and just below the arches-but groom with caution. “You just want to tidy up underneath the outer one-third of your brow,” he says. “There will be some hairs you’ll question-leave them be. Now is not the time to take them.”
Oh, and remember those cold compresses? This is when you’d want to apply them to the area to help calm any redness or irritation from the plucking. “Make it a little spa moment,” Bailey suggests.
Final Touches:
After you’ve trimmed your brows to your liking, you’ll want them to hold in place all day.
Now that you’ve tidied up the brows, it’s time for a little enhancement. Once you’ve cleaned up the area-dusted away any snippets of hair, cleaned your skin to remove any markings-fill any sparse spots with short, hair-like strokes. Keep the natural eyebrow shape in mind-thicker at the head, thinner by the tail. A sharp pencil is the gateway to the most natural-looking fill, but there are loads of eyebrow products to help you achieve your dream shape. Another important step, according to Healy, is to run a spoolie through your brows after you’ve filled them in to blend the pencil. This, again, will help make the finished look appear as natural as possible.
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