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Shaping your eyebrows can change your entire look and you don’t need a professional wax every few weeks to keep them looking sharp. In this guide, you’ll learn how to map, shape, and maintain your eyebrows at home, plus how to choose the eyebrow shape that best complements your face.
What Is Eyebrow Mapping (And Why It Matters)
Before you pick up your tweezers, eyebrow mapping helps you find your ideal brow shape using your own facial features as a guide. You’ll need a spoolie brush, a brow pencil (or a thin, rigid object like a chopstick), and a mirror.
To map your brows: Hold your pencil vertically against the side of your nose – where it meets your brow bone marks your starting point. Next, angle the pencil from the outer edge of your nose through the center of your iris (looking straight ahead) – where it crosses your brow bone marks the highest point of your arch. Finally, angle the pencil from the outer edge of your nose past the outer corner of your eye – where it crosses your brow bone marks where your eyebrow should end.
Mark each point lightly with a pencil, then connect them to create your natural guide before you tweeze, wax, or fill anything in.
Step 1: Mark Your Starting Point
The first step is to determine where your eyebrows will start and draw a line as a marker. Use the eyebrow mapping method above to find this starting point precisely.
Step 2: Find and Mark Your Arch
Next, find and mark your arc. This is your arch point from the mapping steps above, usually the highest point of your brow, lined up with the center of your iris.
Step 3: Mark Where Your Eyebrows End
Mark, with a line, where your eyebrows will end. This should align with your ending point from the mapping method above.
Step 4: Outline Your Brows
Outline your eyebrows by connecting the lines you’ve created. This will determine the shape of your brows.
Step 5: Prep to Tweeze
Now that your outline is set, you’re ready to tweeze! Before you get started, apply brow gel and comb your hairs to catch any that are out of place.
Step 6: Tweeze With the Grain
Alright, now you can start tweezing. Be sure to always tweeze in the direction your hair naturally grows in (this is a rule of thumb to follow for all hair removal). If your hair is pointing upwards, angle your hand downwards in order to properly tweeze it. If tweezing feels tedious or you have coarse, dense brow hair, waxing or threading may be faster options. Always tweeze with clean, sanitized tools to avoid irritation.
Step 7: Fill In With an Eyebrow Pencil
Fill in your brows with an eyebrow pencil. Fill your brows in a gradient – light at the beginning, darker near the end. For lighter hair, do light, wispy strokes. Choose a shade that matches your natural hair color, or go one shade lighter if you’re unsure, just know it’s easier to build up color than to fix brows that are too dark.
Step 8: Blend
Once you have finished filling in your brows, brush the hair in order to spread the color evenly. (The last thing you want are Muppet brows!)
Choosing the Best Eyebrow Shape for Your Face
There’s no single “perfect” eyebrow shape. The best eyebrow shape is the one that complements your natural face structure and features. As general starting points: round faces often look balanced with a higher, more angled arch; square faces tend to suit a softer, rounded arch; oval faces can work with most shapes, especially a soft arch that follows the natural brow bone; heart-shaped faces are often softened by a curved, lower arch; and longer faces can benefit from a flatter, straighter brow shape.
These are general starting points, not hard rules as your natural brow shape, hair growth pattern, and personal style all play a role too.
Tweezing vs. Waxing vs. Threading
All three methods can achieve a similar shape, but they differ in speed, precision, and feel. Tweezing is best for touch-ups and precision work between appointments, but removes hair one at a time, so it’s slower for larger areas. Waxing removes larger sections of hair at once and creates crisp, defined lines, but can be more irritating for sensitive skin. Threading uses twisted cotton thread to remove hair from the follicle with precision, often with less irritation than waxing.
Most people benefit from a professional shape every 3-4 weeks, with light tweezing in between to maintain the line. If you have sensitive skin or are new to eyebrow shaping, consider starting with a professional service before maintaining the shape at home.
Conclusion
And you’ve just shaped your own eyebrows! Wasn’t that easy? Shaping your eyebrows will produce a look that’s more natural and flattering. Remember that when it comes to shaping your eyebrows at home, practice makes for perfectly beautiful brows! If you love learning the techniques behind a perfect brow, that same attention to detail is at the heart of Ogle School’s esthetics program, where you’ll get hands-on training in brow shaping, tinting, and other facial treatments.
FAQ
Map your brow’s natural start, arch, and end points using your nose and eye as landmarks, then tweeze or trim outside that outline and fill in sparse areas with a brow pencil.
Eyebrow mapping is a technique that uses the alignment of your nose and eyes to find your brow’s ideal starting point, arch, and ending point before you shape.
Most people benefit from professional shaping every 3-4 weeks, with light tweezing in between to maintain the shape.
Both can achieve similar results. Threading tends to be gentler on sensitive skin, while waxing is faster for larger areas.
It depends on your face shape and features. For example, rounder faces often look balanced with a higher arch, while square faces may suit a softer, rounded arch.
