Eyebrows.
They make or break you.
They are the curtains to the windows of the soul.
As such, they really should be treated with caution and a wonderful editing eye.
So, what about eyebrow colors?! Not all of us are blessed with blossoming brows that flourish onto our neighboring nose, temples or ears ( I kid I kid)...kind of.
Some of us have scarce brows that all but disappear when we take our "face" off. Others have brows Frieda would envy.
Today's pin addresses those of us that wish we could have more color in our brows. This pin is all about DIY eyebrow dyeing.
Check it out!
The Original
The Pinstrosity
Here's what Natalie had to say:
"I have been dying my hair for 10 years. I've been penciling in my eyebrows forever because they are thin and very light...you can barely see them! Yep, my hair is naturally brown and my eyebrows are basically invisible! As I was dying my hair today a brilliant thought came to me: Why not dye my eyebrows as well? DUH!
Since I am an expert at Loreal, Garnier, and Clairol hair coloring brands...I did not bother to see if the instructions said anything about applying dye to the eyebrow. I still have no idea! LOL! Obviously, I went for it! I remember thinking to myself, "Woah! I hope this washes completely out! It doesn't look right!" I was trying to use the plastic "gloves" to smear the dye on each eyebrow. I also was trying to make sure I got all my eyebrow hairs covered, too! After a few minutes they began to itch. BAD!
Of course I could only find a clean white washcloth to scrub my eyebrows in the shower! haha! I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed. The skin around my brows was so red and puffy after scrubbing that I couldn't tell if I got it all off! Nope! After exfoliating, using different soaps, rubbing alcohol, etc...I gave up. "
She ended up getting the color off of her skin, but she didn't find the original pin until after this whole mess. One thing that scares me is that Natalie didn't know all the warnings before attempting something like this!! As a professional beautician that is one of the major things that worries me about DIY beauty pins, that some of these projects can end very badly! Let me explain.
For those of you new to the blog, I am a licensed cosmetologist. I learned all the typical cosmetology stuff including hair coloring, cutting, waxing (which includes all sorts of fun eyebrow stuff), along with facials among other things. So when I give this advice I'm not just pulling this out of a hat, I am properly educated and licensed in the beauty industry.
Just covering my butt, moving on.
The original pin is teaching you how to dye your own eyebrows at home with a at home hair dye kit. I won't even go into the 8 million things that can go wrong when dying your own hair (although many people are very good at it), but dyeing your eyebrows!!!
AHH! Scary!
May I add that the original blogger has all the FDA warnings I am about to give you on her blog. She knows the hazards and warns her readers as well. I am in no way trying to be mean or put anyone down, BUT I have seen BAD things come from people who dye their own brows because they didn't know the hazards so I am letting you all know now.
Dyeing your eyebrows with hair dye can potentially MAKE YOU GO BLIND if you get it in your eyes. Now, if I knew something I was putting over my eyes, that was liquid, and could potentially drip into my eye very easily, could blind me forever I would probably skip out on that. But not everyone feels the same, some argue that hair dye doesn't drip. I beg to differ.
Another hazard, as if BLINDNESS wasn't enough, this can cause severe skin and eye irritation. Have you ever gotten your hair colored and the fumes were a little much for you and your eyes watered? What if the dye was, oh I don't know, RIGHT over your eye! Also, many people have bad skin reactions to hair color because it is a chemical.
Please be properly warned before attempting beauty DIY. If you choose to try this technique after reading all of this that is fine, as long as you knew the risks!!
Did I mention that this will for sure, stain your skin around your eyebrow??? For like days???Or weeks...cause it will. And if you bleach your eyebrows, which I also wouldn't recommend DIY-ing, it can bleach and irritate your skin?
There is a reason people go to school for stuff like this, these are chemicals near and potentially on your skin.
Enough with the heavy, here is the fun part!
There are other options!!!!
Personally I have had my eyebrows tinted with specific eyebrow tint by a professional and that is a viable option, usually for people with darker hair. Unfortunately I had an allergic reaction to the stuff, had eye irritation, swelling, and a migraine lol ( figures) but that was a rare case apparently because this stuff is mild enough to be near your eyes so apparently I'm a wimp.
Another option...drum roll please...
Makeup!
I know, a little anti climatic but most of us put makeup on everyday anyways so I don't feel like an extra 30 seconds for eyebrows is too bad considering the other options...
Just to show you how much I encourage NOT dyeing your own eyebrows with hair dye...here are some pictures of me with and without makeup.I love you guys.
I use an angled makeup brush:
Here is an example of that...
And I use a bronzer that I have had for probably 7ish years for my eyebrows, I'm a Ginger.
I wet the angled brush, get the angle nice and tight, and fill in my brows, 30 seconds later tada! I'm done!
Without Brows...P.S. My husband said that my nose really isn't that crooked in real life lol Thanks a lot funky bathroom lighting for accentuated wierd facial features lol
But no really...in the buff!
Half and Half..
Full Brows
So there you have it, you CAN have nice eyebrows without the potential hazards of hair dye.
Those of you who liked the idea of coloring your eyebrows with a brush, I use a bronzer but you can use an eye shadow that matches the eyebrow color of your choice. The only thing I would watch for there is shimmer vs. matte, unless you want the shimmer than by all means, go for it!! :)
I hope you all don' think I was being too harsh here...apparently I feel very passionately about eyebrows haha
Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!
Doing anything weird to my eyebrows is...well, it's not something I aspire to do. I rather like my eyes to be in working order so anything I do involving color will be done by a professional.
ReplyDeleteIt was always problematic when I was a kid because I had this sun-bleached blonde hair and dark eyebrows. Now that my hair has darkened, it doesn't look so strange but I got made fun of a lot in my early teen years. People thought I bleached my hair or dyed my eyebrows.
The only thing I really do is shaping. I think I'll keep it that way :)
Oh my goodness! Poor Natalie!!!! She was very lucky she wasn't badly hurt or suffered a severe reaction to it. I use the OTC hair colours at home but I try to go with Natural Instincts or Garnier, as they seem less stinky and caustic. I tried the one that is allegedly an easy to use foam and I found it extremely difficult and watery, and it left dark stains on my skin because it was so hard to control that it slopped all over.
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine using hair dye on the eyebrows. My mom has hers tinted at a salon where she gets her nails done. It's $20 and lasts for 60 days. Well worth it in my opinion! Unfortunately I don't get to try any fun eyebrow tecnhiques. My brows are so plush that anything I try would be too much!
ReplyDeleteYou're not being harsh, it's the truth. When I home dye my hair, my head's tipped back the WHOLE TIME because I've gotten bleach in my eye before and was in the ER from 2 AM to 6 AM. It was horrible. Everytime my eyes are bugging me and I think any chemicals got in my eye, I'm in the shower rinsing for 15-30 mins because that's what I DIDN'T do before, and I paid for it, physically and financially. Although I have dark hair and dyed my hair red, I just use concealer because I'm too afraid to put chemicals by my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI dye my eyebrows when I dye my hair. I do it at home but with professional products (L'Oreal for Dark Color) not the box color from the store. I exfoliate after with St. Ives apricot scrub and that seems to do the trick. Mind you I go from dark brown/soft black to red so that might be the reason it works for me.
ReplyDeleteI confess I'm on the dark side here. I do dye my eyebrows with hair dye. I am allergic to lots of stuff, I know the risks, I test the dye every time. Granted, it's ammonia-free and doesn't drip, ever, or else I wouldn't have tried. I soak a q-tip in mild soap, apply the dye with another q-tip, then wipe the surrounding skin immediately with the soapy one. I leave it for a couple of minutes (it doesn't take as long as the hair), wipe and wash.
ReplyDeleteI think Natalie should switch to ammonia-free or at least follow the label regardless if she's used the same product for years.
Benefit makes a great product called Brow Zings that has a wax, a powder, two brushes and a mini tweezer. The wax tames the brows while the powder colors them and you don't have to worry about going blind.
ReplyDeleteI've been dyeing my hair at home for years. I use it to do my brows also, because they are very pale. I use a qtip to apply it so it doesn't get all over my face. It can itch and burn sometimes. After I get all my dye on, I use a rag with Sea Breeze on it to get the dye off of my skin. It doesn't take long for any left on the skin around the brows to fade away.
ReplyDeleteI recently dyed my hair red at home using henna. I carefully layered some into my eyebrows so they'd have a reddish tint under my usual brow makeup routine. I left the dye on for only about 10 min, and I was very careful not to 'color outside the lines' so to speak, since henna stains skin very easily. I had pretty good results.
ReplyDelete