Okay, you guys. This article is going to be personal. I’m going to show my innermost self to you, and by the end of it we’ll be best friends braiding each other’s hair and swooning over cuties in girly magazines. We’ll build up some trust, because… for this article, I grew out my eyebrows.That’s right; my brows, my pride and joy. I let them get raggedy and overgrown in the interests of showing you how to groom the crap out of them. Thank me later.

I haven’t always had such pride in my eyebrows; for the longest time, I let them grow bushy and natural and never really thought about it until I saw pictures of myself and wondered what it was that was making my face look… unkempt. I want to stress, here, that I have absolutely nothing against natural brows on anyone else. If you like ‘em how the big guy intended, more power to you. But for me and my hairy genes, it’s just not a good look.

So anyway, after realising that my brows were taking over my face, I started plucking. Being a teen in the naughties, it was kind of inevitable that I’d end up going too far the other way, as so many young girls are wont to do. I ended up with two very thin curved lines on my forehead. I show you these pictures as evidence that my eyebrow journey was something of a roller coaster, until I eventually found a happy middle.

I’m now at a place where I’m happy with my brows and their general size and shape. You can use this slightly creepy infographic, courtesy of eyebrowz.com, to figure out the general shape your brows should be according to your face. It’s not a hard and fast rule, though, and I think it’s actually more important to follow the general guideline of your brows rather than forcing them to be an entirely different shape. If you want to drastically alter them, it’s probably best to go to a beautician, at least at first. I can’t teach you how to reshape your babies, I don’t want that kind of responsibility on my hands!

Once you’re happy with the shape, the next stage is maintenance and filling because hair, like, grows. I’m about to take you through that, so first I gotta show you what my brows look like with roughly a week of regrowth. Here it is!

OK, before you do anything, if you’re not confident that you can freehand it, you can take a bright-coloured eye pencil and colour in the shape of your brows. That way, you’ll know which hairs need to be removed and which ones you need to leave alone. So take your tweezers (I find slanted ones are better. I have these), and just start plucking. It’s best if you do this just after you wash your face or come out of the shower, because then your pores are more open and it’ll hurt less. Make sure you stop and look at them periodically, just so you don’t go too far or make them drastically different or anything (but it’s okay if they’re not identical — remember, they’re sisters, not twins!).

Everything I’ve read on the subject says DO NOT PLUCK ABOVE THE BROW, because you’ll change the natural shape that you really don’t wanna mess with. Well, like I said, I’m hairy, so I shave just above mine. Sue me. If you’re anything like me, you’ll also need to pluck between the brows so you have two instead of one. You should now look like something resembling a human being. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to fill those puppies in. When I discovered brow powder, I’m not even joking, my life changed. If your brows aren’t thick and dense, and they have some sparse parts like mine, filling them in will make them look so much better. I use this powder duo from the Body Shop, and I use the brown for everyday and the black for going out, because I’m fancy. You can also use a brown/black eyeshadow with a small slanted brush, if you don’t want to spend money on brow powder. I mean, I guess you can use a pencil if you want. I’m not your mother.

You don’t want too much powder on the brush; it’s always better to put more on than try and take it off. Start from the highest point (the arch), and brush the powder downwards to the outside of the brow. Then, without dipping the brush back in, lightly fill in the inner parts of the brow and brush upwards and outwards towards the arch. It’s important that you don’t make the insides too dark, because otherwise you’ll look ridiculous, but you can go over the rest of your brows if you want them a bit darker. It’s cool.

I realise you probably can’t see much difference in the pictures, but I’m just gonna need you to trust me that there is a huge difference. You can trust me. We’re friends, right? Once they’re filled, you can go over them with a brow and lash gel to make sure they stay in place, and to stop the powder from coming off throughout the day. AND YOU’RE DONE. AREN’T YOU HAPPY? I SURE AM. Now go take some pictures of yourself and your awesome brows, because you deserve it.

Written by Kaya Harridge
Find her at her blog, floralinguist.com!