This is a Personal Grooming Post: How To Sculpt Eyebrows Using Hard Wax and Tweezers.

Brace yourself Steemians, I'm going to share a few Aesthetic techniques that we utilize in my shop every single day. I have agreed to be the model because I am the "squatchiest" of everyone on my whole team. (Yeah, the Boss never spends the time on herself that she should and squatchy is my slang for Sasquatch, Bigfoot or Yeti when hair growth reaches OUT of CONTROL proportions.) 

I've owned a Day Spa business for 12 years, worked in the industry for 26 years and have personally been involved in hair removal for 35 years. I started really young due to my ethnicity. I'm a mix of Irish and Italian which makes for a stubborn coarser hair. Plus, I have lots of double follicles which means that one pore can have 2 hairs growing from it. (People who teach hair-removal techniques love this because it's a challenge...me not so much, but put plainly and simply, you take the cards that are dealt to you in life.)

This is my "BEFORE" Picture. No make-up and you can see my oil-rich skin. We undertook this exercise at 3:15 pm and I definitely had my afternoon shine on. So, first of all, if you have an oily skin or a combination of oily and dry skin, all the excess oil must be removed before we attempt to wax or the wax will not adhere properly to the hair that we want to remove. I could give an 8 hour lecture on the intricacies of different waxing techniques and protocols but I won't bore you. 

At first glance you might think that my eyebrows aren't that bad

Trust me, they are. This will make more sense to you, once I show you what they can and should look like.

Before I do that, I want to draw your attention to a few areas of my brows:

• the areas on both sides just above my nose;
• the space directly above my nose, between my brows;
• and the space between my lower brow and my upper eye lid;

(I'll give you a second to examine these areas.)

Before                                                                       After

Brow sculpting is like carving-out beautiful brows with the perfect arch from an existing rugged canvas. It's the quickest way to lift the face and turn back the hands of time. It's also important to note that your eyebrows are not exactly the same.

They are sisters, (or brothers) that aren't twins

The sooner you accept this fact, the easier the process will be for you because you can actually stop driving yourself crazy trying to make them match. 

A well-groomed man looks very debonair with his brows shaped. It finishes his look and lifts his face just as much as it does for a lady.

So let's look at how this is done:

• Start by measuring and marking. (Once you get good at this, you can do it without marking but I'm going to show you this because it is a critical step to determining where the natural arch of the brow should be.)

The first measurement happens from the flare of the nostril, intersecting the tear duct to the outside of the brow. Place your first line here with an eyeliner pencil.

• The second marking guide is taken from the flare of the nostril, intersecting the middle of the pupil to the middle of the brow. This is where the natural arch of the brow is actually located.

• The third and final measurement is taken from the flare of the nostril, intersecting the outside corner of the eye to the outside edge of the brow.

• Mark both right and left brows.

We use different types and kinds of waxes for different areas of the body

On the face, we predominantly use what's known as hard wax. Hard wax is applied when it's very warm. This makes it the consistency of a very soft taffy and it's quite malleable. It hardens in approximately 30 seconds into a solid and is then briskly (and I mean fast) removed in the opposite direction that the hair was growing. Years ago, before hard waxes, everyone just used soft wax, then applied a muslin strip of fabric over top and that's what was briskly pulled off. This is not the best for the face because it's very traumatizing to the underlying skin. Also, the wax migrates under the muslin when a technician applies it, because you have to push down on the fabric to make sure that it's adhered properly to the wax. This makes getting tight precision next to impossible.

• Apply the wax to the centre, between the brows.
• While the wax sets up, brush the brows into position, then remove the wax by pulling it off in the opposite direction that the hair is growing and as close to the body as you can. You DO NOT want to pull up or away from the body because this tears the skin and breaks the hair. 

• Apply the wax to the area just above the brow and remove it once it sets up.

This whole process normally takes about 12 minutes from start to finish.

• Apply the wax to the area just under the brow and remove it once it sets up.

• Let the tweezing begin. Tweeze any stray hairs that did not adhere to the wax.
• Remove the marking guides, disinfect the skin and apply a calming serum.

Most people are a little red right after being waxed. This generally lasts for about 20 minutes.

Here's another look at the transformation:

A big "thank you" is extended to @dianelyndon who took the pictures and @purplemagic who did all the waxing and tweezing.

I'd really love to see some hair removal techniques from other Steemians. For example, I'd love to see a tutorial on both threading and sugaring. If anyone decides to do this, please comment here with the link to your post. ;)

I welcome your comments and invite you to follow me on my journey...as I try to be a little less squatchy.

~ Rebecca Ryan