It’s a typical Tuesday night, and you’re just out of the shower. You’re washing your face when you notice a few stray hairs around your eyebrows. What’s the harm in tweezing them, it’s only a couple of hairs, right? As you pluck them, you see a couple more, and you pluck those too. Eventually, you step back and take a look at yourself in the mirror, and realize you’ve made a terrible mistake.
You were too close to the problem.
You didn’t have proper perspective.
You over-tweezed your eyebrows.
Now what?!
Inessa Mendoza, Professional Makeup Artist (Instagram)
Weird Tip #1: Put Down The Tweezers, and Pick Up An Onion!
There are 3 steps in the hair growth cycle; the anagen phase (active growing), the catagen phase (growth stops), and the telogen phase (the hair is at rest). When the cycle is complete, the hair falls out, and another grows in its place. When you rip out the hair by plucking or waxing, you disrupt this cycle. Repeatedly removing the hair this way can stop the growth cycle semi-permanently, or cause traction alopecia (a type of hair loss), making it hard to regrow over-plucked brows. (Into The Gloss)
So instead of spending each evening plucking out stray hairs, use that time to apply onion juice to your eyebrows. Yes.Onion juice. It seems crazy, but hear me out. In a 2002 Journal of Dermatology article, it was determined that “the use of crude onion juice gave significantly higher results with regard to hair re-growth than did tap water, and that it can be an effective topical therapy” (source) While applying onion juice won’t make your eyebrows grow over night, you should see results in about 2 months with continued use (if you can stand it).
Be careful when applying onion juice to your eye area! As anyone who has ever made guacamole will tell you, onions can irritate your eyes and cause them to water. Instead of rubbing an onion on your eyebrows (as some beauty bloggers have suggested) you should instead squeeze the juice onto a q-tip for a more precise application. Leave the juice on your eyebrows for 15 minutes, then rinse off with a gentle cleanser.
Weird Tip #2: Exfoliate! (but not too hard)
Given how much we say “don’t bother them!” and “don’t rub too hard!” when talking about getting eyelashes to grow again (read more here), it seems weird that we would say “rub a bunch of abrasive stuff on your eyebrows” to make them grow again. Well, that’s not exactly what we’re saying. We want you to lightly exfoliate the area with a physical exfoliating brush, not a rough salt scrub or a chemical exfoliating peel.
While you are waiting for your eyebrows to grow back, you can stimulate the area to encourage hair growth. Using your favorite exfoliator or cleansing brush, gently massage your eyebrows to remove dead skin cells and stimulate growth. This can also help clear dandruff from the eyebrows which has been shown to cause eye infections (!). Be careful not to scrub too hard, and avoid getting any cleanser in your eyes (hopefully that part goes without saying. (Source)
Weird Tip #3: Avoid Lotions + Creams
Did you know that moisturizers and lotions meant for the face and body can sometimes clog hair follicles in the eyebrows and prevent them from growing out? You should avoid applying these products around the eye and eyebrow area. Give your eyebrows what they need: be sure to use an eyebrow serum and conditioner for this area instead(Treat Cure Fast).
+1 Not-So-Weird Tip for Making Eyebrows Grow
Be sure to incorporate a hair growth serum into your routine for optimal results. Use a serum (like WINK) that contains castor oil, alongside other ingredients, to get the optimal mix of essential fatty acids that your eyebrows need in order to return to their pre-tweezed glory days (ahh… those were the days, if only we knew it then).
The most important things you will need for eyebrow growth are time and patience. While the above steps will definitely speed up the process, it is not something that is going to happen over night. It can be really frustrating, but keep with it and you’ll have Cara Delevingne’s brows before you know it!
There are tons of amazing eyebrow products at Sephora, Ulta, and your local drugstore that will help make the process of growing out your eyebrows much easier. Stop in and speak with an associate and they will be able to point you in the right direction. There are also resources online (like this blog, for example! just check the left side bar for all our recent blogs) that can provide tips and tricks for filling in your eyebrows as you wait for them to grow.
More brow-sources for brow-ducation and brow-spiration:
1. How long does it take for eyebrows to grow back?
2. How to Grow Brows Out (a Day by Day guide)
3. Quick Tips for Regrowing Brows
