I got Microbladed

My eyebrows have been an issue for me for a very long time.

I originated with very thick, slightly uneven brows.  When I was 13 the kids on the school bus called me “bushy eyebrow lady”.  I was not allowed to pluck until high school and my mom always warned me about over-plucking and getting stuck with half an eyebrow. It was the late 90’s and pencil-thin brows were all the rage, I really didn’t care about ye old legend of half-brow, I was desperate to pluck.  Oh how stupid I was…

Once I got a hold of a pair of tweezers it was pretty much game over.  I had NO KNOWLEDGE of eyebrow structure whatsoever.  I desperately wanted a high arch and the thinner the better seemed to be my motto.  I recall plucking them particularly terribly in 10th grade, I literally plucked myself a new arch and in doing so pretty much took off most of the tail end of both of my brows.  It looked HORRIBLE but I thought I had it GOIN’ ON!. Ugh. It almost makes me shudder.

Over the years I managed to do all the things you are not supposed to do whilst trying to shape a beautiful brow.  I tried with no avail to get them even – one brow always seemed higher then the other and this drove me INSANE.  I wanted them EVEN! This desire for evenness led me to pluck MORE.  I over plucked the inner AND outer areas and always seemed to have that “sperm” look.  So not hot.

In college I discovered I could “draw them on”.  AHA!  A solution to my problems.  Or so I thought.  Again, I still had no legitimate eyebrow knowledge, this was loooooong before the days of YouTube tutorials and what not.  I overdrew the inners, I overdrew the outers, and again thought I was rockin’ it.  Good grief no.

In my mid-20’s I finally gave up and ditched the tweezers for awhile.  Sick of looking at uneven eyebrows and hearing my mom yell “YOUR GONNA END UP WITH NO EYEBROWS!!!” I figured I had nothing to lose.  It took a good 2 years and a few tubes of Billion Dollar Brows (I don’t even know if that stuff worked but it gave me hope) to get some brows back.  By this time I had become so paranoid of over plucking that my eyebrows HAD actually become overgrown.  Going to Beauty School I learned about eyebrow mapping and proper structure.  My teacher actually told me one day that I could “use a pluck”.

Well.

That was all I needed.

Within a few weeks I was back to my super-thin brows only this time there was a little more evenness to them and nothing was too over or under plucked.  For a brief moment there my natural brows were looking pretty good.  I could add a little brow powder or gel and I was good to go.

And then I just kept plucking.

And plucking.  I could not just LEAVE THEM ALONE.

Before I knew it I was back in sparse-town.  Before I knew it I was buying and trying every brow powder, pencil, wax, and mascara on the market.  There was a wrinkle in time where I thought that penciling them on was just my lot in life.  I was just destined to have bad brows.  I became VERY good at filling them in.  For a good year I was obsessed with M.A.C.’s “quite natural” paint pot, with a good angled brush I could give myself brows I only dreamed of having.  Even my teachers in Beauty School would compliment me on how good my brows looked.

The paint pot had a good run but after a couple of years I was getting weary.  Filling in my eyebrows was not quite the fun beauty ritual it once was.  It was tedious and as good as I once was at doing them, after becoming lazy with it I began to lose my ability to beautify my brows.  Could have also been my complete loss in faith for the upper region of my face. I had begun to look back at my 13 year old eyebrows with sorrow.  I started with such a good base, my brows could have been great but I ruined them.  Not just once either.  Enough times over the course of almost 20 years that they were to the point of no return.

Ohmygawd. The legend of half-brow is TRUE.

For awhile I totally gave up on my eyebrows.  I stopped plucking but they weren’t growing back.  I didn’t want to fill them in.  I just wanted them to be naturally pretty but I had let it sink it that that would most likely never happen.

And then I heard about Microblading.  It sounded too good to be true.  It looked too good to be true.  What is this sorcercy? Natural looking semi-permanent brows? WHAAAAT?!?!?! Long before I ever found a Brow Artist or ever made an appointment, I made up my mind that this is what I needed. This is what I wanted.  SO BAD.

It took me another 2-3 years of research, scrolling before and after photos, and watching YT videos before I made the actual call.  Once I found an Eyebrow Artist that I was confident in I contacted her immediately.  I want to say it was May/June when I called.  I got a consultation for the end of July.  I was both super excited and a little disappointed.  Super excited to obviously address this problem but bummed that I had to wait over a month.  I wanted new brows, like, YESTERDAY.

Before I knew it July was here and it was consult day.  I was in and out in literally 10 minutes.  We talked about what I dislike about my brows (haha. EVERYTHING.), and what the procedure entails.  I put down $100.00 and scheduled my first Microblading appointment.  Then I found out I’d be waiting until the end of October.  Again, I was bummed but I wanted this particular Artist to do my brows, her work is stunning and I figured I’ve waited almost 2 decades, what’s another 2 (errr 3-ish…) months?

I almost literally counted the days since July.  It was like knowing Christmas is coming when your a kid only 100X MORE EXCITING.  Again, before I knew it October was here and it was *BROW DAY* YaY!!!

It has been almost one week since I had the Microblading done and I LOVE IT.  It was totally worth the wait… and the itchiness that I am dealing with at the moment.  I’m not going to go into detail about the procedure itself, there is a ton of info about that if you search for it.  I will tell you that the numbing cream works for the most part.  For most of the procedure I could not feel a thing aside from her pulling on my face a bit. There was some spots in my arch that must not have taken to the numbing cream because it HURT. A LOT.  Luckily it was only for a few strokes on each side but oh my.  I could feel a tear coming to my eye.

Once finished she handed me a mirror.  I looked at myself and immediately felt on top of the world.  I HAVE EYEBROWS! AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL! I was assured that they would look even better when healed and after my touch up appointment but even so, I am BLOWN AWAY.  I (now) know how important eyebrows are in terms of framing one’s face but seeing it, WOW.  I feel so much better about myself.  What a difference.  I will never go back to those bad brows EVER.

I cannot say enough good things about this experience.  I can’t wait to go forth with my beautiful brows.  I feel pretty and more confident.  I don’t feel like people are looking at my uneven, barley there eyebrows.  They are looking at me (and my beautiful eyebrows).

My only advice aside from PUT THE TWEEZERS DOWN is to do your research (if Microblading is something that interests you).  Find a reputable Artist whom you trust with your face.  Also, start saving.  Prices vary by location but regardless this is not cheap (nor should it be).

Be prepared to not wash your face/ get your eyebrows wet for 24 hours – 5 days, don’t sleep on or touch them, and the itching, oh lawd the itching.  The desire to scratch is real my friends. Not unbearable. But real.

Below are my before and after pictures that I took myself.  The before photos are from the day before I had the procedure done (October 25, 2016), and the after photos are from 1 hour following the procedure (October 26, 2016).

COMING SOON : Days 1 – 7 blogs & vlogs.