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When I was young, I got my eyebrows waxed and they came back shitty. Since that fateful one-and-only time waxing, I’ve always been kind of disappointed with my eyebrows and their insolent refusal to grow–especially the left one because depending on how the hairs lay, it occasionally looks like I have a bald spot there. And not a cool, post-mugging eyebrow bald spot like Spike. No, just a regular old one, the kind that distracts you when you catch it in a mirror.
The first lesson that should be learned form this is don’t start waxing your kid’s eyebrows too young. Don’t. I don’t care how alienated they feel in school, it’s important to remind yourself that 1) kids feel alienated by fucking everything in school, 2) thick eyebrows look awesome (especially on girls) and 3) if your kid ever decides of her own volition that she really, really needs to take them down a size and/or sculpt, not waxing too early will mean she has something substantive to work with.
(Sidenote: I really can’t emphasize enough how great thick eyebrows look and if you need more reminding, consider Hilary Rhoda, Jennifer Connelly, Audrey Hepburn, Brooke Shields, etc).
So you’re in my situation and your eyebrows are a little sparse. Not only that, they’re sparse and if they’re not in exactly the right place, they can look pretty wonky. For this, I’ve historically padded them out with a simple dark brown pencil in addition to a tinted gel that will hold them in place, like Anastasia here (who didn’t finance this mention in any way nor have I ever gotten a sample from them, every tube of this stuff I’ve used I have purchased myself):
I read somewhere that Pat McGrath–probably the greatest makeup artist in history–said you should always double up on brow colors to “add dimension.” So I use a brow gel (in “brunette“) that’s slightly lighter than my natural brow color and kind of feather it all around, but I’ll also do some contour lines with a darker pencil (my brows are actually a lot darker than my hair, though, so I have to be careful about making them appear any darker). If you ever see me out at Fashion Week or something, though, don’t scrutinize my eyebrows, okay?
Like I said, my coloring system has worked well for years. But one night I was staying awake late, lost in some sort of Wikipedia k-hole. I think I was researching Latisse because I wanted to know if it can really change the color of your eyes without warning. Not that I’m interested in using Latisse, mostly just, “Holy shit, that would be terrible!” Anyway, I got sucked into a spiral of beauty forums and before I knew it, I’d come across a discussion about the benefits of putting Rogaine on your eyebrows.
It made sense. Rogaine makes your head hair grow, but probably not in the lush, Uncle Jesse way that some bald guys are hoping. I’d even seen some Rogaine before and after photos where the after reminded me of eyebrow hairs. I read through the whole thread and then figured I’d give it a shot.
And so…
Thanks SO much for this post!!! As a 46 year-old male, my head of hair has remained pretty thick and the hairline has only receded a 1/2 inch at the corners. Thank you genes.
BUT, my eyebrows have always been thin, and in just the last 6 months they have gotten thinner and more wirey. I think that the eyebrows can make or break one’s looks- I’ve always admired Tom Cruise’s and Charlie Sheen’s, as well as Brooke Shield’s. I always wondered if Rogaine would work; after all, it works just three inches to the north, and to my knowledge the setup is the same: skin against my skull. I can’t WAIT to try this!
I love the way you guys write, it really amuses me and I was tempted to run out and get some to fill in my dodgy eyebrows until I got to the exploding blood eyes bit.
Keep up the good work
I have tried the 5% minoxidil for 2 months twice a day. I dab a little on with my finger and let it dry. I am starting to see some growth in the eyebrow area, but sparse. It may take months if it is going to work. I am 55 and let me tell you ladies—stop over-waxing and over-plucking your eyebrows. They are probably going to thin out when you get older and you will be sorry. Take a look at the brows of older women. I hope it will give me some more growth. I did not get any bad reaction so far.
Thank to everybody for your priceless tuitorial
I`m a young looking 49 year old male. But I noticed my eyebrows were getting sparse where they had been thick before. So, I went and bought the men`s extra strenth Rogaine ( I felt a little wierd at chekout, because I have a full head of hair ). After two months, I started noticing fine hairs sprouting where there were no eyeybrows there before. Now I`m 2 weeks from 4 months of use, and this stuff really works. My brows are thick now, and I still see the fine hairs sprouting, so I will continue use probably forever. The only downside of it is using it twice a day and you HAVE to let it dry. My regimen was 7:30 in the morning, and again at 5:30 PM. plus I really didn`t like the greasy look on my brows, but you don`t need too much and that goes away within an hour. I highly recommend it. Just put some rogaine in the cap of the bottle, and dip a q-tip in there for about 5 seconds and start at the inward part ( above nose ), and I dip it one more time until lightly coated, making sure I press the Q-tip down on the brows from corner to corner to make sure the roots if the thickest part of brows gets the medication. Good Luck !!!!
I always got called “unibrow” by the other kids in school. :( Now I get compliments on my brows, which is weird, because I’m like, “really? You like these bushy things that I am too lazy to pluck?” Time to OWN these bushy things that I am too lazy to pluck.
I would be interested to know if this is a proven remedy for old lady eyebrows. I have an elderly friend in her late 80′s who has not a single hair left in her brow area and so had gray brows tattoed. I’m 25 years younger than she but my brows are seriously thinning, I don’t like having to apply makeup daily, and Im certainly not ready for “permanent” brows. I did a search about using Rogaine several years ago and at the time found few results indicating women who had success. Your article gives me the courage to give it a try. Perhaps I’ll report back in a few months.
I think it’s amazing that you did this post! I also over-plucked in High School, which resulted in thin sparse brows, with a little tiny bald-patch on my right brow, which always catches my eye too!
Over the last year I also realized how beautiful full shaped eyebrows are on women, and I became a bit fixated and fraustrated with my thin brows… So a couple months ago I started researching rogaine for eyebrows too, and found the same results 5% minoxil, (I use Perfect Image Solutions with retinol from Amazon, no animal testing product).
I started using it in mid-December with some reservation (I q-tip each night, then q-tip ardell lash growth on brows and eye lashes in the morning. I have had no side-effects and my brows have been growing slow, but steady and fuller! I am very pleased. I think in a few months I am going to be even happier with the results since I just started just over a month ago.
I love that you did this. It seems like a terrible idea, and totally something I’d be too anxious to try on my own, but I’m def going to now. Thanks! And I’m ordering Latisse online from that PA spa. Thanks!
I overplucked my eyebrows about 20 years ago and have since then compensated with eyebrow pencil, which is kind of a hassle. My comment here is that I started using Latisse on my brows about 4 months ago, and IT WORKS. I would say about 2/3 of my brows have grown back. They’re darker than previously, but my friends say the color is good. I found a doctor in Pennsylvania who sells Latisse online for about $89. I apply it with an eyeliner-sized paint brush which I bought at Michael’s. You have to paint it on nightly for about 6 weeks, and then results become obvious.
um hello, can you forward the name of that doctor? I love latisse!
I’m glad you had luck with the Latisse on your brows; I’ve had none despite using it literally for a year. (Hey, maybe it just needs one more month) Latisse has worked MIRACLES on my lashes, no change of eye color or other ill effects, but as to brow growth, it’s been a total zero. Not sure why, but it is what it is.
I used to be an eye tech. The stuff that makes latisse work is also found in medication for glaucoma patients, and yes – if you have light colored eyes especially, it can change your eye color permanently. Saying that, I used to see little old men with lashes so long they’d beg us to trim them while they were there, so i’m sure it works, too.
That sounds kind of adorable.
I’ve had some luck with Urban Decay’s Lush Lash System. I saw how well it worked for my eyelashes and decided to try it on my brows with good results. It’s a bit pricey, but worth it in my opinion.
Whoa, this might be something I have to try. My eyebrows are nice until the arch– then it’s like all the hairs decided they didn’t want to form a line anymore, so they’re sparse and all over my browbone. I pluck what I need to & fill the rest in, but I’ve considered (not in a really serious manner) tatooing them.
Mine are pretty sparse and I want giant awesome brows, so I just started putting Latisse in them. A friend of my mom’s is going through chemo, and she asked her doctor if she could use Latisse while she was doing it, and he was like, “Yeah, sure. And rub the excess into your eyebrows, so they’ll grow more and you won’t lose as much.”
I just started a couple days ago, though. I put it on my lashes, and then whatever is left in the brush I rub onto my eyebrows. Right now my eyebrows are just really, really itchy.
I have done this and it freaking works. I was worried about putting those hormones and chemicals so close to my eyeballs, I guess it felt like they werere just a hop skip and jump away from my delicate squishy brain, but i had no problems with it after several months of use. I did the light q-tip dip nightly and my eyebrows definitely got fuller, and the hairs grew back more quickly after overplucking. I stopped after a while since they had grown back so nicely, and they’re a bit slower to grow now, but it’s not like the new hairs fell out after I discontinued use or anything like that.