I Got My Mom Eyebrows for Christmas
Eyebrows pull a disappearing act as we age.
In our younger years, we tend to go at them aggressively — tweezing, waxing, threading arches into the submission of the latest trend. Then eventually, bald spots and thinning tails emerge. Powders, pencils, and gels then become a go-to, but now a semi-permanent technique known as microblading is taking the beauty world by storm.
Basically, microblading is today’s way-more-natural version of a yesterday’s stamped-on eyebrow tattoo. It uses a micropigmentation process that semi-permanently marries ink to skin’s top layer through careful strokes that mimic the look of individual hairs. It can fill in sparse spots seamlessly and even bring back brows that have long since peaced out after the hormonal shifts that come from having kids and experiencing the not-so-kind hands of time.
My mom practically has no eyebrows left. After graduating the Catholic convent school, where girls weren’t allowed to shape their eyebrows, she became a joyously overzealous tweezer in her 20s. The thinning began to surface in her 30s. By 50, she was almost entirely penciling them on. At 60, I knew it was time to stage an intervention when my dad quietly took me aside and asked with perplexed curiosity, “Hey kid, what happened to your mother’s eyebrows?”
Mom asked Santa for the best new brow products this year, but I had a better idea: I made an appointment with Hibba Kapil, a browologist and founder of New York City’s Hibba Beauty, which specializes in what she terms “brow reformation” — a gentler, less scary-sounding spin on the microblading term.
When we arrived at her Columbus Circle location, I warned the stylish Indian-born expert, “We’re not giving you a lot to work with.” Glancing unfazed at my mom’s barely there brows, she replied, “Not to worry, I can handle it.”
The first step was the most unsettling part of the whole experience; Kapil used a marker to draw on what looked like dark, shocking “Instagram brows” to create an outline for the hairs she was about to needle in. Mom looked in the mirror and nearly jumped out of her chair, down the elevator, and back across the state line to New Jersey. This is the part where having done your research so you can trust your chosen expert comes into play.
A numbing cream was then applied on top of the crazy stenciling for 10 minutes to fully activate, while Kapil custom-blended black and dark-brown shades of vegan inks to get just the right authentic-looking brow shade to match mom’s hair color.
As she set up, we chatted and laughed about Kapil’s frazzled morning with her 10-month-old son before coming in to work, and I complimented her own flawless brows. “We get so many moms like myself coming in for this,” said Kapil. “We just don’t have the time to draw on body parts before running out the door in the morning!”
Soon, Kapil went to work. First, she smothered the brow area in the ink, and then used the microblading needle (which looks like a slanted calligraphy pen) to meticulously etch strokes of “hair” into the top dermis layer of skin. How much or little it hurts depends on your personal pain tolerance level, but mom — who is self-admittedly “a total weenie!” — said it prickled sharply like a constant tweezing.
After the first pass, Kapil wiped off the marker and dye, and we were already completely enamored with the look of eyebrows resurrected on mom’s face. It looked even more natural than using a pencil or powder! Kapil then reapplied the dye over both brows and went to work again, repeating this process three times total to fill in more — which took about 20 minutes overall.
After three passes, she had maxed out on the eyebrow “hairs” she could draw, since you don’t want to inscribe into the same line twice. Wielding a futuristic-looking eye magnification headpiece to clearly see her etchings so as not to double over, she warned, “No one should be microblading with just the naked eye — you’ll never be able to really see what you’re doing.”
When it was all done, there was much fawning over mom’s miraculous new eyebrows. An antibacterial cream was applied over both brows. Aftercare instructions were to keep brows moist with Vaseline for a few days as they healed, and to not get eyebrows wet so as not to degrade the intensity of the ink as it sets into skin for about five days afterward. Some experts even insist on sponge baths only, lest shower steam erase any of the color.
Brows look on point about a week after the procedure, so you shouldn’t plan microblading right before a big event or photograph-taking. While mom’s brows honestly looked ready to go right away, many people’s brows will appear much darker than you want the first few days (especially if you have a fair complexion), and flaking or light scabbing may occur.
There are also a couple drawbacks to consider.
As with all good things, nothing lasts forever — and it sure isn’t cheap. Microblading lasts anywhere from six months (if you’re a bare skin case like mom) to over a year (if you have brows but are filling in sparse areas) and requires touch-ups in accordance to maintain the look.
Kapil charges $50 for a consultation and between $400 to $650 for the procedure. Touch-ups can vary from $250 to $400 depending on how much needs to be done and cost less when you come back sooner, since less color will be gone.
Is it worth it? If you would pay that kind of money to not have to put your eyebrows on every morning, it’s definitely worth consideration.
What does mom advise, based on her experience? “Start saving your pennies now.”
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