Most of us spend a decent amount of time looking in the mirror, inspecting our faces and doing away with any stray, unsightly hairs. We shear our beards, snip our nose hairs and clip our ear hairs. But despite being smack-dab in the middle of our faces, our eyebrows rarely, if ever, receive the same, consistent treatment. Instead, we normally just leave them to their own devices, content with how they look, afraid to botch them entirely or simply indifferent to their bushiness.
Furthermore, many of us, men in particular, know very little about what to actually look for in a good set of eyebrows, besides unibrows being generally frowned upon. Some of us might already be sporting amazing, truly outstanding eyebrows, but we have no idea. So, in an effort to promote eyebrow awareness, I asked Bob Plain, Chief Operating Officer at Billion Dollar Brows, what we can all do to ensure our brows are up to par, even if that just means knowing they naturally look great.
“I would definitely recommend that everyone take at least a passing interest in grooming their brows,” Plain explains, “especially in this era of Zoom meetings and FaceTime calls, where our eyebrows are now more noticeable than ever, since we sit so close to phone or computer cameras.”
Being so prominent on our faces, our eyebrows, of course, can have a huge impact on how we look. “They’re the frame for your face, and like a frame, you only really notice them when they look bad,” Plain explains. “When does a frame, or someone’s eyebrows, look bad? That’s really in the eye of the beholder, but here are a couple good rules of thumb: (1) When your unibrow starts to grow dangerously close to Anthony Davis territory. Man up and tweeze those things. Anthony Davis can get away with that look. You can’t. (2) When you have stray brow hairs that grow above or below your brow line. Simply brush your brow hairs up, and anything that falls above your brow line should be trimmed with a pair of cuticle scissors.”
If you have no unibrow and no extended strands, well, it looks like you have some great brows. And hey, if you dig the way your unibrow looks, that’s fine too — the above is just one guy’s opinion (although, he does know a lot about eyebrows). Otherwise, the real trick to eyebrow maintenance is not going overboard. “I would caution against over-tweezing,” Plain reiterates. “Try to avoid getting carried away with the tweezers, which can lead to the super skinny, over-tweezed brow look. Less is usually more with eyebrow grooming. A good set of eyebrows are ones you don’t notice.”
“And for Pete’s sake, do not go anywhere near your brows with a razor, especially in quarantine, when things can get weird,” Plain continues. “No one wants to look like Bob Geldof in Pink Floyd: The Wall.”
Now, none of this is to shame you if your brows are looking gnarly. In fact, even the most preened among us can fall victim to eyebrow issues here and there. “I should probably practice what I preach, as I currently have a one-inch hair growing out of the middle of my brow line that looks like a unicorn’s horn,” Plain admits.
But if you have a few extra minutes in quarantine, maybe give your brows a second look. Just do your best, and avoid the urge to go all pluck-crazy.