Men’s Eyebrow Grooming Basics

Although big bushy brows – which are prevalent among men – seem to come off as natural, they in fact require some form of care and upkeep to maintain that natural and neat look.

4 minute read

I love eyebrows!!! It’s one of my absolute favourite features to see on a face! For dudes, I really love classic, thick and full brows. Shoot! I even love a unibrow (on certain faces). Many men think that brow grooming is exclusively for females but I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although big bushy brows – which are prevalent among men – seem to come off as natural, they in fact  require some form of care and upkeep to maintain that natural and neat look. I’ve been doing my brows since high school – was I doing it correct, is another discussion, but when puberty hit I noticed my brows started looking really crazy. Picture Bert from Sesame Street – it was that bad and I wasn’t having that look for me at all! I only ever got my eyebrows “professionally” done once, believe it or not. The spa I went to however, waxed them and made them look ridiculously thin and way too sculpted and from since that bad experience, I never let anyone touch my eyebrows (or go to that spa) ever again! In the beginning, it was really a process of trial and error to achieve what I believe to be the most well-groomed brows based on utilising its natural shape. I’ve never looked at a tutorial or read an article pertaining to “brow development” but based on my experience over the years, I feel as though I could provide some basic and useful guidelines for guys who are now considering grooming their brows. Now enough with all the old talk, let’s get into it!

Understand your brows in its natural state

A popular notion of brow grooming is to shape it according to the shape of your face – or whatever that means! Understand and study your brows in isolation before you look at the bigger picture. Do you have full or sparse brows? Are they naturally shaped with an arch or are they one straight line (unibrow included)? Are the hairs straight or curly; long or short? Really take the time to assess your brows before you begin any of kind of shaping. As a guy, more often than not, you’d find that 1. You don’t need much work on your brows and 2. (in some really unique circumstances) that they’re already perfect and need only a little trim. The fundamental philosophy of men’s brows is this: keep a natural and classic look. Don’t do anything too excessive or adventurous as you’re beginning your eyebrow grooming journey.

Stay away from waxing

Waxing may give you the ultra-defined arch and save you some time but consider using a tweezer instead, as its your first time. You don’t want a situation like mine where you get your brows waxed and absolutely hate the look of it after. With a tweezer, you have way more control of determining the look of the brows as it progresses and could stop at anytime if you feel like you’ve done enough. Similarly, the person waxing your brows might have an idea of what your brows should look like, which may not be a look you particularly like. This is obviously very subjective and the only way to avoid those of kind of aesthetic mishaps is to do it yourself. Also, don’t use a razor blade or brow blade. Start from the inside and work your way in gradually with a tweezer.

Shaping

When you first assessed your brows you most likely would have noticed some sparse hairs, above below and around the body of your brows. Get those out of the way with the tweezer. If you have a unibrow, my suggestion is to leave it alone. There’s nothing worse than looking at someone whose eyebrows are too far apart or too close together. You haven’t mastered the unibrow yet and I would advise tackling that until you feel more comfortable and have a better picture in your mind of where you want to take your brows. On the other hand, if you have really sparse brows then id also suggest you not do too much. You may have some loose hairs around the brow but be careful in removing those because if you take off too much hair from an already thinning brow, you’d look like Lord Voldemort. The other benefit of using the tweezer as opposed to a blade is that you can do your brows every two weeks or so, as opposed to almost every four or five days when the hairs grow back. The final word of advice pertains to long-haired eyebrows. Take an eyebrow comb and comd the hair upwards and cut away the hair that extends out of the main body of the brows. Always brush up and never down. On that closing note, its always good to brush your brows and them laid neatly to your face.

A little goes a long way when it comes to men’s eyebrow grooming and provided that you follow these simple “steps”, you’ll have some really incredible brows!