If you’ve ever attempted tweezing your eyebrows even once you know how painful it can be. While many of us prefer to thread, wax or even laser them, our brows usually require a few plucks in between appointments. With the pandemic this past year forcing us to miss salon appointments and have fewer visits, I found myself using my pair of tweezers more often. TBH no matter what anyone says it still hurts and you don’t quite get used to the feeling. However, learning to tweeze your brows at home is a great skill to have as long as you don’t go overboard with the plucking. It’s all about care, patience and having the right tools. While tweezing can be more time-consuming it does allow you more control and ability to create a precise look. Also, it’s totally more affordable to do at home! But don’t worry, there are a few ways to tweeze those brows without cringing. And I will say this from personal experience it gets easier once you get into the rhythm.
Before we get into the methods there are a few things to keep in mind during your brow grooming process. If you’re tweezing for the first time keep it to a minimum. Observe your brows carefully and mark the hairs you want to remove with a pencil beforehand. Also, measure how long your brows need to be so you don’t end up over-tweezing the gap and tail end. As long as you tweezing your brows about once or twice a month depending on the growth, it will maintain the shape and keep you aware of which hairs to remove as they grow in.
Here are a few tips and tricks to make plucking your eyebrows a less painful experience:
1. Use warm water
It’s best to do your eyebrows after a hot shower as the heat helps relax and open the hair follicles for easier removal. Alternatively, you can just wash your face with warm water or use a warm compress on the brows before tweezing them. Since the pores are open and relaxed it helps ease any discomfort that comes from the plucking or tugging process.
2. Dry off your brows
It’s essential to ensure that your brows aren’t wet or oily before tweezing. Dab off any moisture before beginning. The tweezers need to be able to grasp and grip the hairs well without sliding around. To be extra careful apply some talc powder to the brows to ensure they’re not slippery.
3. Use ice
Holding ice or a compress of cold water against your brows after tweezing helps reduce some of the pain and inflammation. However, you could also use ice before plucking to slightly numb the area.
4. Pick the right tweezers.
If you do a search for tweezers you’ll realise how many different kinds they are available to us. Each with its own specific purpose but for at-home eyebrow maintenance, you just need a good pair of basic tweezers that are freshly sharpened. Use one that is wide and sharp with a straight, flat end. This better grasps each hair preventing it from sliding or breaking hair follicles. You really don’t want to try to tweeze the same hair twice as it hurts much worse and takes more time. Plus, it should do the job of yanking out the thickest or the finest hair on your brow area.
5. Hold the skin taut
Remember when the beautician at the salon would tell you to stretch the skin and hold tight as she threaded them. Well, the same applies here for good reason. Holding the skin tight and plucking hair quickly makes it easier to grab the hair. This causes less likelihood of tugging or scratching the skin when tweezing your eyebrows.
6. Pluck the right way
Once you are ready to begin you have to make sure you’re tweezing the hair correctly. First, you’ll want to hold the tweezer with your fingers at the lowest part, closer to the blades. This will allow you to have more control while plucking. Always grip the hair at the base rather than from the tip and pull it in the natural direction of the growth. This makes the hair easier to come out in one go. If not done properly the hair can could split or break making you go in for another shot which can be more painful.
7. Soothe the skin
Finally at the end its always a good idea to calm the skin. You can do this by using ice or a cold compress as we mentioned before or applying a soothing facial moisturiser. If your skin is inflamed, it’s highly recommended to use aloe vera to calm down any redness and soothe the pain.
Check out this video for all the tools you need for your at-home eyebrow tweezing starter kit:
Do you have a painless method for tweezing your eyebrows? Let us know in the comments below.
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