There are many ways to keep your eyebrows shaped and neatly groomed. One of the more popular methods is waxing. But how often do eyebrows need to be waxed?
In general, you should wax your eyebrows every three to four weeks. If you have very fast-growing hair, you may need to wax your eyebrows every two weeks. If you have slow-growing hair, waxing your eyebrows every six to eight weeks should be sufficient.
Is Waxing Good Or Bad For Eyebrows?
In general, waxing is neither good nor bad for eyebrows. In the short term, waxing may irritate the skin.
However, unless your skin is particularly sensitive, the irritation will only be temporary and will generally fade within a few hours.
Long term, some people may find that waxing slows down the rate of eyebrow hair growth. When the eyebrows do regrow, they may be lighter and/or finer than they used to be.
They will, however, still be perfectly healthy and not damaged. Some people may not notice any difference in the growth of their eyebrow hair after waxing.
How Often Do You Need To Wax Your Eyebrows?
On average, you will need to wax your eyebrows every four weeks. If your hair grows very quickly, expect to wax every couple of weeks. If your hair grows very slowly, expect six to eight weeks between eyebrow waxes.
Understanding hair growth
All hair grows from a follicle. The hair then makes its way through your skin until it becomes visible on your body.
Once the has completed its growth, it will detach from the follicle and fall off your body naturally.
This is the hair that you see on your hairbrush or eyebrow brush.
When you wax your eyebrows, you pull the hair out from the follicle.
This sends your hair right back to the very beginning of its growth cycle.
Waxing does not, however, remove hairs that are still below the skin. In fact, it doesn’t usually remove hairs that are just above the surface of your skin.
This means that you can see fresh growth literally the day after having your eyebrows waxed.
The effect will, however, be minimal. If it bothers you, then you can deal with it by plucking.
For most people, it takes about three weeks before the hair is long enough to wax again. It takes about four weeks before it starts to become really noticeable.
Is Eyebrow Waxing Painful?
Eyebrow waxing is somewhat painful. Having your eyebrows waxed feels very much like pulling a sticking plaster off an old cut.
It’s virtually impossible to remove a waxing strip (or a plaster) without taking off the skin as well.
The pain is, however, fairly mild.
Also, one of the great benefits of eyebrow waxing is that it’s quick.
By contrast, while threading and plucking may cause less pain, they both take a lot longer than waxing. This means that you may end up experiencing more discomfort overall.
What Happens If You Wax Your Eyebrows Too Often?
If you wax your eyebrows too often, you may damage the follicle to the point where the hair will not grow back.
The same goes for threading and plucking too often. These also pull the hair out from the follicle and hence have the potential to damage it.
You may also cause damage to your skin. This is unlikely to be serious however waxing could cause your skin to become increasingly sensitive.
The drier your skin is, the more vulnerable you are to the effects of over-waxing your eyebrows.
How To Care For Waxed Eyebrows
When you have your eyebrows waxed, your first priority should be to care for your skin.
Once your skin has calmed and is no longer red, you can focus on caring for your waxed eyebrows.
Here’s what to do:
1. Treat your skin very gently
After you have your eyebrows waxed, it’s important to avoid heat.
If you must go out in the sun, make sure your eyebrows are shaded by a visor, cap, or hat (with a brim).
It’s helpful to use sunscreen but it needs to be a lightweight and fragrance-free formula.
If you have your eyebrows waxed in a salon, the beautician will apply a product to soothe your brows.
At home, you can use fragrance-free aloe vera gel, fragrance-free face mists, and/or cold compresses.
Wait until your skin has completely healed before applying anything else, including skin-care products.
It may seem tempting to put on moisturizer but a thick moisturizer may penetrate too far into your skin, worsening the irritation.
The same goes for makeup, fragrances, and fragranced products.
2. Leave your eyebrows to grow back
In principle, it’s fine to pluck the occasional, random hair.
In practice, it’s very easy to go overboard. If you pluck too much, you can end up making your eyebrows look much thinner than intended.
If you do feel the urge to groom, make a point of checking twice before you pluck any hair.
Firstly, stand two feet from a regular mirror (not a magnifying one). See if the hair is noticeable there. If it’s not, ignore it.
Secondly, apply some transparent cream to your brows (e.g. cocoa butter).
Then comb them in place and check in the mirror again. If your hair still bothers you, then consider plucking it.
With that said, trimming would still be the safer option.
3. Feel free to use makeup and dye/bleach
Once your skin has healed, you can go ahead and use makeup and dye/bleach on your eyebrows.
This can be useful for dealing with regrowth between appointments.
If your hair is naturally light, then a little bit of foundation and powder may be all it takes to hide them effectively. If your hair is darker, then you’re probably going to need dye or bleach.
Never use permanent hair dye on your eyebrows. You can, however, safely use semi-permanent hair dye and beard/mustache dye as alternatives to eyebrow dye.