A nice clean, arched set of eyebrows is what frames the face. They are very pleasing to see when they are thick, tamed, and evenly filled in. There are numerous ways to maintain your brows-waxing, tweezing, plucking, threading, sugaring, razoring and the list continues. While these commonly used modalities are completed in a 10-minute session and scheduled religiously, over time you may notice your appointments can be spaced out a little longer, or worse, less hair is regrowing and you are developing thinning eyebrows.
Thinning eyebrows and their hygienic patterns can be compared to a type of hair loss that occurs on the scalp. There is a concept where the hair is placed under such tension (bun, hair bands) that the hair root is pulled from the scalp resulting scar tissue that replaces the follicle. Scar tissue doesn’t grow hair and the result is thinned hair edges. You see this in ballerinas, and man buns and anyone who constantly wear tight updos or heavy extensions and tight braids. Now apply this concept to your eyebrows. Waxing, threading, plucking and anything that forcefully pulls that hair out at the root causes damage to that follicle. If not too much damage, the hair grows back but finer and shorter with each hair cycle. If too much damage is caused by the traumatic removal then the follicle is completely replaced by scar tissue and no hair will grow from that pore leading to thinning eyebrows.
So how can you avoid thinning eyebrows? I counsel my patients to first try to stay with the same brow technician if possible. That person should be familiar with the arch and style of your eyebrow and not cause too much collateral damage to the remaining eyebrow hairs. Going to multiple grooming facilities allows different technicians who have a different opinion where your arch should be to create thinner eyebrows. Everyone wants a clean crisp line which over time, the eyebrow shape changes and becomes thinner. Those follicles can only take so much trauma.
Next, I counsel my patients to make sure they aren’t rubbing the eyebrows too vigorously when removing any brow shading pigments. This vigorous rubbing can lead to breakage and possible tension on those fine hairs. Additionally, we all have ideal images in our mind about how we want our eyebrows to look. We also know from experience that threading and waxing lasts longer. If I’m working with someone to grow their eyebrows back and discuss treatment modalities, I ask that they commit to undergoing razor modalities to clean up the brows. Cutting the hairs at the level of the skin does not affect the follicle. It also does not last as long because that hair is just barely below the surface of the skin; However, the trauma on the follicles is less and helps prevent eyebrow thinning and allows follicles that may be producing tiny hairs to be stimulated into growing thicker hairs with treatment.
Treatment of thinning eyebrows can be as simple as removing the trigger to topical oils or solutions to surgical interventions or diagnosing an inflammatory eyebrow condition. Call our office today to find out which eyebrow thinning treatment is right for you.