Have you ever noticed that your brow hairs snap at the root when tweezing? Do you often break-out around your brows a day or two after tweezing? Then chances are you need to re-think your hair removal prep.
We can’t just tweeze them and expect them to behave themselves. They have to be cleaned deeply, moisturized, and each hair follicle needs to be open for business.
Prepping your brows before tweezing is just as vital as any other step in your beauty routine. Getting into the habit of taking care of the skin around your brows as well as the hair will not only help the tweezing process but also the hair growth process.
With that in mind, here’s a nifty guide to prepping your brows properly before tweezing:
Start off by exfoliating
Like any form of skin and hair care, cleansing is one of the most important steps to good eyebrows. Before you even think of going near the tweezers, make sure you take your favorite exfoliating face wash and gently scrub your brow area.
Be sure whichever exfoliant you use matches your skin type, as you don’t want to dry out your skin or irritate it. Not only will this be uncomfortable, but it’ll also directly affect the quality of your brows too. If your skin is too oily, then your hair follicles will become clogged, affecting the speed at which the hair grows, and causing risk of in-grown. Conversely, if the skin becomes dry and itchy, you’ll wind up scratching that area, risking hair loss and thinning.
Moisturize your brows
After cleansing your brow area, it’s time to hydrate. Pick a moisturizer that doesn’t clog pores and follicular openings, so coconut oil is of course out of the question. Alcohol-free toners, non-comedogenic oils, and serums are great ways to moisturize your brows.
Castor oil, in particular, promotes healthy hair growth, so it’s the beauty community’s go-to for brow care. Since it's made up of rich omega-6 fatty acids, vitamin E, and ricinoleic acid, it’s packed with nourishment. It helps hydrate hair follicles, as well as triggering hair growth. Though everyone can benefit from castor oil, it's especially useful for those with light and thin brows for these very reasons.
If you’re on a budget or want to cut down on so many steps in your skin care regime, then a water-based moisturizer will still work well.
Whichever product or products you choose to use, applying after exfoliating then after tweezing will keep your brows as healthy as possible.
Soften and warm up your skin
After your skin has had a couple of hours to calm down after exfoliation, it’ll nearly be time to start tweezing. Take a face cloth and run some warm water over it for a minute or two, then wipe off any remaining moisturizing product. Lay the cloth over your brow area the way you would when prepping your nose for a pore strip. Let the heat sink into your skin and slowly open up your hair follicles.
Dry off your brow area, and grab your tweezers.
Clean and sharpen your tweezers
If you have sticky and blunt tweezers, then nothing you do to prep your brows will matter. Not only do bacteria build up quickly on beauty tools such as tweezers and eyelash curlers, but creams and powders do too. Brow gels, moisturizing creams, pomades, dead skin, and anything that lives with your tweezers in your beauty bag; it’s all going to add up over time.
This build-up on your tweezers will cause many different problems. The first being that it’s unhygienic and any build-up that touches the skin may infect it over time. This will, in turn, lead to break-outs around the brows, and affect the quality of hair growth. The build-up may also dull the edges of the tweezer. Dead skin can attach itself to the hair while you’re trying to remove it, making the tweezer lose grip.
Worst case scenario your tweezers actually rust due to leaking micellar water or cleanser in your bag too. So keep them clean, and preferably in their own comfy case. However, with a pair of twice tempered Regine tweezers, rusting will never happen.
Unlike other brands, Regine tweezers never dull. This is due to the double tempering method used in their surgical grade stainless steel. You’ll also find yourself cleaning them less often due to the nifty rubber tip that protects the etched edges of the tweezers.
Once your tweezers are clean and sharp, all that’s left to do is tweeze!