I need more eyebrow hair!

June 6, 2007 9:53 AM

Should I get an eyebrow hair transplant?

After several years of gratuitous plucking and bad wax job experiences, it appears that there are a few spots on one of my eyebrows that just WILL NOT FILL IN. With the help of a skilled threader, one eyebrow is arched perfectly, but the other remains too sparse to be attractive, even after about 2 years of leaving it completely alone. It has bald spots =(

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do to fix this? Makeup is not enough, I want real hair there again! I have heard mixed reviews about Rogaine. I am quite vain, honestly - I want them to look perfect again so should I go ahead and look into an eyebrow hair transplant/restoration? Please let me know if you have any information about this procedure or recommendations for it in NYC. Thank you so much - this has been bothering me for a long time!

Throwaway email is [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

Wow, I had no idea such a thing was possible. It's sort of hard to give advice without knowing what's holding you back from doing it. Are you worried it's going to hurt, or that it might look bad?

But if you have a good doctor doing it, and it really bothers you that much, do it. For what it's worth, I have a bald spot in one eyebrow that I use Chanel's Forme Sourcils to do a sort of comb-over.
posted by astruc at 10:27 AM on June 6, 2007

Wow, it'd be nice to have eyebrows as thick as some of those "before" photos. Do you have any idea how much this costs? Oh, damn, you're anonymous.

To throw in my 2 cents, I've considered this in general, but just don't know if I have enough trust. I've never had my brows professionally taken care of at all for the same reason. I don't have enough eyebrow hair to risk anybody f*cking them up.

Also, having sparse, blond brows my entire life, I don't know if Sudden Thick Brows would really do me, ya know? These are where my personal hesitations come from.
posted by iguanapolitico at 10:55 AM on June 6, 2007

Would you be willing to wait longer? When I was maybe 15, I got a little too enthusiastic about plucking one of mine. I'm just starting to be happy with it now -- at 20.
posted by booksandlibretti at 12:44 PM on June 6, 2007

There is one big consideration here, remember, head hair keeps growing, so if you do a transplant you will have to trim your eyebrows pretty regularly. The featured this on the Tyra show recently and her results were pretty awesome.
posted by stormygrey at 12:44 PM on June 6, 2007

Wow, I never knew this existed either... but from what I just read based on a quick google search, it seems verrry expensive ($3,500??).

Booksandlibretti - it actually took 5 years for the hair to grow in?
posted by infinityjinx at 1:17 PM on June 6, 2007

I really don't know if the transplant is the way to go. The after photos aren't that impressive. Some of them have nasty sasquatch brows, some of them still have uneven or weird looking brows, and it just seems like an expensive procedure that might not even make you feel better about how you look. I would personally not risk the remainder of my eyebrows to Dr. Frankenbrow.

I would seriously consider trying Rogaine first, and also waiting it out even longer.

I do know how you feel - I'm psychotic about my eyebrows and spent about 6 months filling in my "oops" spots with brow powder. However, even someone as psychotic as me realizes that most normal people don't care about your eyebrows. As long as you don't have a unibrow or the above mentioned 4" high sasquatch brows, you most likely look fantastic.
posted by tastybrains at 1:57 PM on June 6, 2007

well, if that's what you want to spend your money on, go for it. i would worry about applying rogaine to your face--it seems really drippy and hard to apply that precisely. you don't want to accidentally start sprouting hair on your forehead, or eyelid, or something weird like that.
posted by thinkingwoman at 5:21 PM on June 6, 2007

I have a friend who has black hair and therefore dark brows, but they we very sparse. She actually had the skin under them tattooed, and I would have no idea had she not told me. I know there are places that do these types of "permanent makeup" tattoos that are different from standard tattoo parlors.

I naturally have sparse areas in my brows, and I use MAC brow shader to fill them in. Using a powder and angled brush gives a very natural look, and I often get compliments on them.
posted by thejanna at 7:10 AM on June 7, 2007