Full, healthy looking, and well-defined eyebrows can make a big impression. But sometimes tweezing, waxing, plucking, and other activities meant to enhance the way your eyebrows look can leave them patchy and uneven.
Cosmetic procedures and fillers, like Botox, can also make brows look less even. We’ll review some of the causes of patchy or uneven eyebrows. We’ll also provide tips on how to measure your brows and how to make them look more symmetrical.
Here are some common causes of patchy or uneven eyebrows.
Overplucking
When you groom your eyebrows by waxing, tweezing, and plucking, it can make them look uneven. Sometimes, in the process of trying to make your brows even, you might keep plucking hairs from each side alternatively, and still end up frustrated with the finished result.
Hair loss
Frontal fibrosing alopecia is hair loss that affects your scalp as well as your eyebrows. This type of hair loss affects men and women, and it can make your brows appear patchy.
Botox (Botulinum Toxin)
Underneath your eyebrows are fan-shaped muscles called corrugators and muscles in the forehead,
Sometimes, a side effect of these kinds of injections is that one muscle is more impacted by the procedure than the other. This can make your eyebrows look uneven.
To groom your eyebrows so that they’re in the ideal proportion to your face, you’ll need to take some measurements. These measurements will help you determine where your eyebrows should begin, where your natural arch is, and where your brows should come to a point or end.
Brows should be aligned, more or less, with the outer bridge of your nose. You can find this edge by holding an eyebrow pencil against the outer edge of the top of your nose and pointing it straight up. Plucking inward beyond that point could make your eyes look farther apart than they are.
To make sure you’re following the natural arch of your brows, look carefully at your brows to try to find the highest point where hair is coming in.
Overplucking, waxing, or Botox might make it hard to find your natural arch. If this is the case, use an eyebrow pencil to trace the bottoms of your eyebrows, then the top of your eyebrows, and see if you can find there the two peaks of these tracings line up.
Find where your brows should come to a point by using your eyebrow pencil once again. Position at the end of your nostrils and tilt the pencil until it makes a 45-degree angle while touching your brow. This marks where the “tail” of your brow should end.
Patience
If your brows look uneven because of overplucking, the best cure is a little bit of patience. Letting your brows grow back in can take anywhere from four weeks to a year, depending on how much of your brow hair has been removed.
You may also consider herbal gels and creams, like gooseberry and holy basil. These herbal salves are believed to make hair grow back thicker and faster.
Medication
Eyebrow hair loss due to alopecia is a little less straightforward. You may need to consider a gel, foam, or oral treatment to stop the process of your hair falling out.
Once you’ve found a treatment that works for you, you’ll have the same waiting process until your brows are full enough to sculpt again.
Cosmetic procedures
Botox may cause your eyebrows to look slightly uneven for as long as the treatment lasts. It’s also possible that the “frozen” appearance of the muscle will slightly relax a couple of days or weeks after you first get the injections.
If you’re unhappy with the results of a cosmetic procedure, speak with the health professional who did the procedure. They may recommend getting an additional injection on the side of your face where the eyebrow appears higher. This may help to relax your muscle and make the brow line look more even.
In cases where one eyebrow is noticeably lower than another, some people have plastic surgery to correct the mismatch. This surgery is called a brow lift.
Makeup magic
Makeup, when artfully applied, can give your brows the illusion of fullness and make them appear even. An eyebrow pencil can fill in and even out eyebrows that aren’t completely symmetrical.
If you’re not a big fan of the eyebrow pencil, there are plenty of other products for you to try. Brow powder, pomade, color wands, brow mascara, and highlighter pencils are all easy to find at any cosmetics counter.
Check out a couple of YouTube tutorials for guidance on how to fill in your brows with makeup techniques.
Remember, nearly everyone’s eyebrows are asymmetrical in some way. In fact, if your brows were perfectly aligned, it could be a bit distracting as they would be the most symmetrical thing on your face.
If you have any concerns about muscle weakness in your forehead or unexplained hair loss, don’t hesitate to speak to your doctor.