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We’ve spent more hours than we care to admit putting together Pinterest boards, picking the brains of stylists, and thumbing through celebrity Instagram feeds all to land on the perfect haircut. But in our pursuit, we’ve overlooked another way to make us look our best, all through an entirely different type of hair cut that's far simpler — and definitely less expensive — than messing with the strands on our head: brow shaping.
“The brow shape has a major influence over other facial features,” says Joey Healy, a New York-based celebrity brow specialist. His rule of thumb for landing on the brow shape most likely to draw out your best features? “Play against the natural angles of your face,” he says, by looking to angled brow shapes to balance more rounded faces and more flowing brow shapes to soften faces with sharper features. “It's all about balance and overall facial harmony."
Of course, this is the 21st century, and we can have any brow shape we're after — no matter how our natural brows grow. For this, Benefit Cosmetics global brow expert Jared Bailey suggests a three-step method called brow mapping for the most flattering results when carving out your optimum shape.
First, find the perfect starting point for your brows by aligning it straight up from the sides of your nose. (Using a ruler helps.) To zero in on the arch, point a ruler from the corner of your nose to the centre of the eye. Finally, land on your brows’ end by tilting that ruler from the corner of the nose to the outer corner of the eye. “Following these three measurements helps keep your brows in the right proportion with the rest of your face and features,” Bailey says.
Not sure which brow shape you want to tackle? Find both pros' breakdowns of what each can do to bring out your best side, ahead.
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