Tips for Plucking Eyebrows

Preparation

Remove your makeup before tweezing your brows. Tweeze after showering or apply a hot washcloth to your brows to loosen hairs and reduce pain. Soak a cotton pad in astringent and gently clean your eyebrows. Mark the desired boundaries of your eyebrows with an eyeliner pencil before you begin plucking. Your eyebrows should be wider on the arch and become thinner at the edge of your eyes. However, don't pluck your brows too thin; pencil-thin brows make you look older.

Plucking Tips

Grip each hair near its root, holding the tweezers at a 45 degree angle. Gently pull out each hair, plucking hairs in the opposite direction from their root. Wipe your brows with a wet washcloth to remove stray hairs and to soothe your skin. Make sure you don't pull on the skin while you pluck. Pluck stray hairs between your brows and underneath your brows, but don't pluck too much above your brow. Don't pluck immediately before a big event, because your brows may appear reddened after plucking.

Considerations

If you're not sure what shape your eyebrows should be, consider getting your eyebrows professionally waxed. Professional estheticians have training in shaping brows to suit your face. You can then maintain the shape of your brows by plucking stray hairs every few days. You can also get ideas for eyebrow shapes by looking through fashion magazines.

Fixing Mistakes

If you plucked too much or if your eyebrows look uneven, fill in or lengthen your brows with powdered eye shadow or an eyebrow pencil that matches your hair. You can also tame unruly eyebrows with a small amount of eyebrow gel.