Beauty fix: My eyebrows seem to be disappearing. What can I do to bring them back?

My eyebrows seem to be disappearing. What can I do to bring them back? There was a time when brows were simply a case of pluck and run. There was no tinting, no waxing, no laminating, threading, microblading or tattooing.

You let them roam free or you plucked and, until recently, the greatest crime against eyebrows was overplucking. “Five years ago, I’d have said that the impact of brows was overlooked,” says Kim O’Sullivan, owner of the Dublin Make-up Academy and the Brow Aid brand, who opened her first brow bar in Brown Thomas Dublin in 2017. “Now they’ve become as much a part of the self-care routine as getting your hair or nails done.



“The overplucked brow isn’t so much a thing now and I’d say tweezer sales have gone down, but while the fuller brow is definitely more youthful, there’s a fine line between going fuller and going too far. “The brow should never be a feature themselves. They should enhance your features, but they should not be the first thing you notice.

” What are the most common brow complaints? “The biggest issues people have are thinning, greying and lack of definition,” says Jill Keogh, beauty therapist and founder of Sadie’s Secrets and creator of its bestselling Brow Lift eyebrow-tint product. “Many people who overplucked their brows find they don’t grow back fully, while others struggle with greying or lightening hairs, leaving brows looking patchy and less defined. Thinning brows are due to factors like ageing or hormonal changes, but with the right care, you can restore definition and confidence.

” Thinning and greying of eyebrow hairs starts surprisingly early, compared to other obvious signs of ageing. From the mid-20s, the hairs will start to thin, by the mid-30s growth spurts are over and most people in their 40s will see a significant thinning. Do growth serums actually work? “There’s only so much you can do when growth has slowed down, whether it be from overplucking, menopause or even just stress,” says O’Sullivan, who will launch a new brow and lash growth product this month.

“And often when that growth declines it’s hard to jolt or reactivate it back into a growth space.” This is not to say that growth serums don’t work, she adds. She describes her own product as “like hair fertiliser” and that’s how most good, well-tested and -trialled serums will perform, prompting the follicles to work harder and making even even the finest hairs fuller and stronger.

However, in the case of a sparse brow, where perhaps no follicle exists, the chances of regrowth may be slim, and that’s where cosmetic eyebrow products come in. What about treatments like laminating, microblading or Phibrows? The laminated brow – where hairs are chemically treated so that they can be manipulated into a smoother, neater, fixed shape that lasts up to eight weeks – is less popular than it was, as trends move towards a full but natural look. Phibrows and microblading is a semi-permanent tattoo procedure using a tiny blade tool to create hyper-realistic hairs.

It’s very delicate and excellent for anyone going through hair loss or with eyesight issues or who just can’t do with putting on product. The key, however, is to go to someone very experienced and very good at choosing the correct colour. What products are the best and easiest to use? A good brow mascara is foolproof addition to your make-up bag that it will improve both colour and shape in a single stroke.

The spoolie wand means that product catches and coats even the finest, shortest hairs, making them denser and more visible, and Keogh’s Brow Lift gives buildable tint with no need to rinse off. In terms of choosing the correct colour, O’Sullivan says the rule of thumb is that brunettes should go one shade lighter than their hair colour and blondes should go one shade darker. Powdery brow pomades are good for creating a bold, more blocked-out brow, while eyebrow pens, which deliver a product not unlike liquid eyeliner are great, even for those with minimal skills, for drawing strokes that mimic short, fine brow hairs, filling in gaps and giving the illusion of density.

BrowAid Browtox Lift & Lock, €23, Dunnes Stores; Planet Beauty, D2; Brown Thomas Dundrum; Arnotts, D1, or see browaid.com Brow Aid Browtox Lift & Lock, €23, Dunnes Stores; Planet Beauty, D2; Brown Thomas Dundrum; Arnotts, D1, or see browaid.com Launched late last year, Brow Aid’s latest innovation is a clear, waterproof, non-sticky gel with an applicator that has stiff bristles on one side to comb, brows into the desired shape, and a microfibre sponge on the other side, to set them into place.

This applicator double act means dial up or down the brow impact – from a feathered, laminated look to simply your natural shape but nicely set. Augustinus Bader The Eyebrow and Lash Enhancing Serum, €145, brownthomas.com Augustinus Bader The Eyebrow and Lash Enhancing Serum, €145, Brown Thomas As with all products from this brand, it contains TFC8, which is a blend of amino acids, peptides and vitamins that their studies show operates as a base booster for the formulations they put with it.

In this case, there’s biotin to strengthen hair follicles, red winter algae, roselle and safflower extracts, which they claim work on the oxidative stress that causes hair loss. Committed and daily use is highly recommended if you want to see results, and Bader, as always, has a raft of studies to back up its claims. Sadie’s Secrets Eyebrow Tint, €29, Brown Thomas; Arnotts; Avoca; or see sadies-secrets.

com Sadie’s Secrets Eyebrow Tint, €29, Brown Thomas; Arnotts; Avoca; or see sadies-secrets.com This at-home tint product is ideal for anyone with greying, pale or thinning brows who doesn’t aspire to a high-impact look. It can be used daily and doesn’t need to be rinsed off, and over time the colour intensity of the brow hairs will build.

One of the best features of this product, however, is the fact that it comes in four shades, from lightest through lighter to darker and darkest. Read more.