The Painful Truth About Microblading Your Eyebrows
Yahoo Beauty welcomes Veronica Webb as our celebrity columnist. Known for being one of the first black supermodels to break barriers in the beauty and fashion industries, Veronica uses her experiences as a model, health and fitness enthusiast, lifestyle blogger (Webb on the Fly), mother, and wife to exclusively report on what’s trending in beauty.
For those of us who are challenged with eyebrows that are skimpy, scanty, possibly graying, or even eyebrows that are just simply falling out, microblading is the buzziest treatment on the beauty scene to help create fuller, healthier-looking brows.
If you’re like me, suffering from a combination of having overplucked brows in your 20s and 30s, and now graying brows in your 50s, which leave me feeling as though my face looks as smooth and as bald as an egg when I wake up, then microoblading could be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Microblading is a form of semi-permanent makeup that originated in Asia over 20 years ago and has spread rapidly around the globe because of the incredibly natural-looking results that can be achieved when in the hands of a talented microblading artist.
I went to the absolute best in the business, a charming young woman named Piret Aaava, aka the Eyebrow Doctor, to get my eyebrows done. No one can even tell — that’s how they good they look. So, let me tell you what need to know if you’re considering microblading.
The procedure is costly (roughly $600) and semi-permanent, lasting up to three years in some cases. So the first thing you need to do is pencil in your eyebrows and wear them night and day, in what you think your dream shape would be, before consulting a microblading artist. Once you’re ready, the artist will work with you during your initial consultation to refine the shape of your brows in order to make your eyes look bigger and your forehead appear more lifted, before beginning the semi-permanent “tattooing” process.
I’m an old hand at my eyebrow shape, so the Eyebrow Doctor and I got straight to business. I filled out the medical questionnaire, and established that I was not pregnant, breastfeeding, had no sensitive skin conditions on my face like eczema, and even though I’m prone to keloids when I scar, I do not get keloids on my face.
The Eyebrow Doctor numbed and sterilized the area around my brows and drew a diagram with pinpoint markings outlining the shape of the eyebrow area to be filled with ink in my choice of shade. We agreed on the shape. I lay down on the table. Closed my eyes and put myself in her highly capable hands.
The procedure is somewhat painful. I’ll be honest. It’s about as uncomfortable as having a cavity filled or a getting teeth cleaning after you’ve been on a six-month coffee-drinking binge. The sensation feels like when you accidentally scrape yourself with a stick, but it’s over in about 90 minutes.
The way the process works is by making hair-thin slices among the eyebrow hairs with a micro-thin triple blade attached to a handle; in the Eyebrow Doctor’s case, the handle she uses is a glittering wand to work her magic. The triple blades are dipped in a nontoxic semi-permanent ink that deposits beneath the skin once the blade is lifted away. Each stroke is the exact width of an eyebrow hair and placed in the direction that the hair naturally grows.
The results are clean and immediate. No bleeding. No downtime. There is some aftercare involved. I did have imperceptible scabbing on the skin under my eyebrows, which everyone experiences as a normal result of the procedure. An antiseptic ointment needs to be applied to the brows for seven days, during which time the eyebrows need to remain dry. A follow-up visit is recommended after 30 days for touchup and additional color matching if necessary.
The beautiful thing about microblading is that it makes your face look like you’re always perfectly naturally made up because your eyebrows are groomed and in perfect order. The best compliment I’ve received is “You look so rested… Did you go away for the weekend?”
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