All you grey haired beauties, can we talk Eyebrows? - YouLookFab Forum

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All you grey haired beauties, can we talk Eyebrows?

shiny

Veteran

Having a FB convo with a friend of mine and we are on the topic of eyebrows, and how they change with age, and hence my post here.

The question for you grey/white/silver haired beauties is what is going on with your eyebrows? Have they thinned? Have they greyed and whitened? Do you use brow pencil or powder to darken? What are your thoughts about your eyebrows, not just your hair?

I stopped dyeing my hair back in February and I'm getting re-acquainted with my natural hair color, which was dark and mousey blonde with red undertones when I first started dyeing it many years ago. It's growing in to be silvery but not obviously grey/white (at least to anyone but me! I can definitely see the white growing in, lots of it is underneath, including a serious shock near my forehead). I am 53.

I look back at my photos and oh those eyebrows... I miss my eyebrows! My eyebrows just keep getting thinner and lighter. I stopped getting them shaped a few years ago because there wasn't much left to shape, not because of over-shaping; because they are just getting so sparse, light. And yet LONG. Those freaking long hairs. Yet, I hate using eyebrow pencils or powders, as it just looks fake or contrived or I wipe and make a smear. Heh.

Eyebrows through the years:

Pic 1: when my kids were toddlers (they're in their mid-20s now). No shaping, nothing here. This pic was before I ever had it highlighted. First time I had it highlighted was in CA visiting my sister, who was appalled that I was no longer as blonde as my daughter on the left there... as that's how my hair had been growing up.
Pic 2: only 2011. Hair highlighted here. Eyebrows were threaded, no powder, no pencils. All natural.
Pic 3: eyebrows today. Also a good 20 lbs weight gain thank you menopause. (I'm actually okay with the weight gain -- it hides the wrinkles!!!). I do pluck every few weeks when I get these errant dark hairs growing ON my eyelid, like, below the eyelid crease. What's up with that. Shouldn't you be an eyelash??

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30 replies

Latest reply was from sinead

shiny

Veteran

LOL... just realized that last pic may not be the best example as you might confuse a forehead wrinkle with my actual eyebrow. But you get what I am saying... ha!!!

Maybe it's the best example... can't tell which is eyebrow vs wrinkle shadow these days.

Firecracker (Sharan)

Veteran

I used to have very thick, dark eyebrows, which I used to pluck into narrow arches. Then Brooke Shields made thick dark eyebrows popular and saved me some plucking for a lot of years. About 10 years ago, I realized my eyebrows were lightening, just as my hair was, and I started shaping my brows and using powder to give them more definition. I am happy with the change and feel it improves my look a lot. Here I am (photo 1) without glasses about 10 years ago. And (photos 2 and 3), today, with and without glasses.

I went to the Anastasia artist at Nordstrom to have my eyebrows done, and I've stuck with the system I bought then--a template, brush, and powder duo, plus tweezers and brush. I've been happy with it!

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Joy

Veteran

Eyebrows. It's one of the things no one warns you about. Mine, which had always been dark and thick, sort of stopped growing and got thinner before getting sparse but those long unruly hairs and dark ones coming in in odd places. At the same time hair gets thicker on the upper lip and long stiff chin hairs. Yuk. I don't dare pluck even the long thick eyebrow hairs but every so often have to brush them straight up and use a small blunt scissors to trim off the tops and shorten them. I have not found the perfect color eye brow pencil. It needs to be ash blond, but even blond pencils can be very dark or brown or have too much red. eyebrow pencil goes on before I show my face each morning..

JAileen

Veteran

Mine are disappearing, too. Some of the hairs are white. I was admiring the brows of Angie’s grey haired model. What I really wondered was how old do you think she is? BTW, I’m over 60.

Irina

Veteran

My eyebrows didn’t change the color yet but got considerably thinner. I’m 53 and noticed the change turning 50. Not enough that everything is dropping, now hair and eyebrows/eyelashes are thinner! Was not ready for it! I’m using a bit of a dark eye shadow to fill in or blending dark grey pencil strokes.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

So, I always had fair eyebrows -- lighter than my hair. In my teens, people used to say they were "perfect" because I didn't have to tweeze them.

As I have aged, they have become even more sparse, and that is not a good thing! I like the definition a darker brow gives. Sometimes I dye them. This is fine but it doesn't seem to last long. I have considered the permanent tattoos -- Lisa P has them, I believe, and my very blonde former hairdresser got them, too, and they looked great on her -- very natural.

For now, I just use pencil in a soft ashy brown that is close to their natural colour. It doesn't look completely real but it does provide needed definition.

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cindysmith

Veteran

I actually just started experimenting with brow makeup. Thus far, I've only tried a brow mascara, but I'm getting pretty good at it. I use a taupe so that it doesn't come out too dark. I'm really fair, with white hair, so I didn't like the eyebrow tinting. This brow mascara works well; now that I've got the hang of that one, I'm going to try a brow pencil and see how I like that one.

DonnaF

Veteran

I'm not big on the gray in my eyebrows and lashes; wish I'd been warned! My brows and lashes have thinned as well. Putting a bit of castor oil on a Q-tip and then swabbing my brows every night has made them grow thicker. I still use a bit of brow pencil (the kind with a mascara type spooly at the end).

Two months ago, I started to use Revitalash on my lashes, and now they are noticeably longer and thicker but sometimes grow in places they shouldn't, probably because watering eyes spread the stuff a bit. Bought it at NAS so it was half price. The same stuff (I believe) can be used for eyebrows and can be purchased with an applicator made for brows, also at NAS. I tried castor oil on my lashes, but it clogged my pores and interfered with my eyesight, making everything blurry, so I gave it up.

RevitaLash RevitaLash ADVANCED Duo ($196 Value) | Nordstrom

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RevitaLash RevitaLash ADVANCED Duo ($196 Value) | Nordstrom

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shiny

Veteran

Cindy I've tried brow mascara but my brows are just too sparse now, so the effect seems even more patchy. Brow pencil could fill it in but that's what I'm apt to smear.

Also, and probably more critically, my sight up close isn't very good these days. It's good without my contacts in, but I always put the contacts in before doing my make-up. I've also just generally never been that all skilled with make-up and doubt I'm going to become skilled now.

Joy, yes... stiff chin hairs! I have been shaving my chin for years. Takes just a gentle swipe with the razor every morning. Mustache wise is a little better, though lately I've been getting a couple of stiff hairs on the left side of my upper lip. And YES I also have to brush my eyebrows up and cut across. If I don't do this and let it go within a month it's pretty bizarre and the longer hairs start to curl. My friend who's Japanese says these long curly and white brows are a sign of wisdom. Mine aren't white -- yet. But long and curly, yes. When I first got my brows shaped I think they spent more time cutting than plucking.

shiny

Veteran

Donna that's great info, would've never have thought to put castor oil on my brows.

My eyelashes are also sparse but they've been that way all my life so I've just learned to not care about it all that much. I don't know if you remember this, I think I posted about it here years ago: my oldest daughter for Halloween one year tried to apply fake lashes on me, and they didn't work, they were too long as I guess my eyes are deep set or something. Anyway I concluded I'm meant to have sparse eyelashes! Similarly I gave up eye make up in my early 30s. Just makes my eyes recede even further, and/or cakes on my eyelid skin and doesn't look all that great.

Brows on the other hand are so great at defining and I guess I'm just bummed out that they are getting so UN defining as I age.

Anonymous

Not qualified to really get to into this , being neither a beauty nor grey - haired but ....notice the model in the blog post pics has dark and well-defined brows . As Janet suggested , I suspect she’s a lot younger than we think , but regardless , brows frame and define the face , as every makeup artist will tell you .....and yes , Suz is right in that I had mine microbladed several years ago . There isn’t much of that left now , but I’m ok with my current system for making them look good .

Classically Casual

Veteran

It's so nice to read that my sparse eyebrows and lashes are not an outlier. I think this falls into the misery loves category for me. I use eyebrow pencil and mascara with limited results. My eyeglass frames are fairly distinctive, so I harbor the delusion that people are distracted from my increasingly sparse brows. I was on an estrogen suppressing drug for 5 years, and think that probably contributed. My dog on the other hand is VERY hairy, especially his face. I'll identify with him. I'm happy to have such a minor complaint, all things considered. It's all good.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

My eyebrows are still hanging in there - I immediately identified with Firecracker's comment about Brooke Shields because she has been my eyebrow icon forever. I always had thick brows, they may have thinned a bit and there I have lately noticed a white hair or two, but I won't complain (about that I mean). I think I will dye them if and when they go completely white.

shiny

Veteran

Shevia, way back when I wanted Brooke Shields eyebrows and now that I look at this pics my brows way back when were practically that-- yet I thought they weren't acceptable to beauty standards then either!

Classically Casual, I love your comment the most. Thank you so much for it. I think I just need to be happy this is my minor complaint too! And yes I've been thinking maybe eyeglasses would offset, if I could find the right pair. I do wear eyeglasses when I'm at home, just not out of the house, as I never feel like I can see as well in them as with contacts. But in the house? It's like taking the bra off when you get home: that comes off, as do the contacts! My eyes are also increasingly more dry and fussy so it'd be really nice to find a pair of specs I like to wear outside the house too.

Niki Lea

Veteran

Has anyone tried microblading for their brows? It's something I'm considering. My brows are really blonde, so I've been tinting them for five or six years to make them show up on my face. I still have to use pencil though to fill in the sparse areas.

I wonder though about microblading blonde brows...is there any point?

Runcarla

Veteran

My eyebrows are a very light red blonde, but bleach out completely after even the slightest exposure to sun. The only time my natural brows were in fashion was when Kirsten McMenamy and alt beauty was in fashion for a minute! I did get them shaped though, because they met in the middle for the infamous mono-brow and were pretty thick.

Current maintenance is shaping and tinting at 3 month intervals and trimming of long stragglers on an 'as needed' basis. They seem 'shorter' so I started using a pencil to extend the ends this year. The pencil I bought came with nifty stencils in 3 brow shapes!

Cardiff girl

Veteran

Yep one of the joys of age,thinning hair where you do want it and it sprouting where you don’t want it.My hair colour is probably very similar to yours (well it would be if it wasn’t purple at the moment). and I ve noticed longer blonde hairs now grow out of my eyebrows.There are 2 forms of attack,One is to yank them out mercilessly,not good if you are are thinning.The other is to tint them.Dont go too dark or being blonde it will look weird ,this will add the definition that you feel you have lost.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Not grey haired here (well, not that I let show at least!), but at 53, the eyebrow struggle is real here too.

I had serious thick, verging on unibrow brows when I was young — I plucked and shaped them a bit too much in the 90s, so I kinda wish I had a little of the fullness back. But I also notice they are thinning, especially at the outer ends, and the hairs get long and curly if I don’t groom them weekly. I’ll get a stray white hair in there too, which so far I can pluck without fearing they will thin too much.

I do use a brow pencil every day — always the darkest brown or even black because my brows are very dark. In fact, a couple of times a helpful SA or makeup person has tried to put a lighter brown on me only to realize that nope, I need the dark one in order to blend in with my real brows. I like the Anastasia pencils because the result is quite fine and subtle. Some of them are too crayon-like for me.

shiny

Veteran

Niki -- I think Lisa said above she'd microbladed. I have no idea what that even is. Hope Lisa can reply here.

Runcarla -- I cannot even imagine extending brow line with pencil! Extending is definitely not my problem. My brows get really long, fast. And curl or stick straight up. But they are just too sparse.

Cardiff -- I do have a lot of blonde/white/light hairs and sometimes they grow into darker brow hairs. But often they just don't. And these lighter hairs are basically growing out of my eyelid, not my brow. I also get thick coarse dark hairs growing out of my dang eyelid. You are correct, I often worry plucking them is just exacerbating the thinning, maybe they'll eventually catch up. But reality is my skin is sagging there, so probably not. And it's just weird to have these hairs on my frigging eyelid! So yes I pluck! I am not sure there's enough to tint. Brow pencil when I've had it done professionally... looks fake to me. Like obviously that's not a hair, it's pencil. Plus the aforementioned accidental smearing issue.

Janet -- yes I have also worried that I overplucked/overthreaded/overthreaded/ etc. But I haven't haven't had my brows threaded in several years now. I do pluck the errant dark hairs growing on the frigging eyelid cuz they are just weird and shouldn't be there. And YES my eyebrows are thinning most noticeably at the outer ends. One eyebrow is practically just a half brow now. Nothing grows on the outer end, except maybe one or two hairs. Grrr.

My MIL (RIP), also a blonde, used to draw hers in every day, very obviously drawn. I don't want to do that. So maybe the darker spec frames might be a solution. Or just gracious acceptance that forehead wrinkles are the new eyebrows? LOL

Joy

Veteran

Shiny. I hope Lisa will correct me, but I think micro landing brows is basically shaving them off. I saw a grandmother and her 13- year-old granddaughter after they had both had their eyebrows tattooed on. If looked not at all natural because there was no hair at all. The granddaughter looked especially awful. Her parents must have been livid with the grandmother for allowing this atrocity. I would ask a lot of questions before ever having this done...like does the hair grow back. If you do it, be extra sure of the color you choose. This lady and child had a reddish brown, which added to the unnatural look.

Anonymous

Im still mostly brunette, but my brows have been thinning, and they seem lighter. So im using dark brown mineral powder, same as my eyeliner, to have definition. Guessing id use dark taupe when i go grey.

AndiB

Veteran

If I were stranded in a desert island and had only one beauty product... yep, so I’d pick brow filler! There are so many good ones out there with staying power these days, Angie mentioned one in a recent post that she said was excellent. I tried to find the post and couldn’t (Angie if you read this please note that brand again!!!). I’m in mid 50’s, over plucked to the point of having only half a brow remaining on left side haha. Grew that back finally. If you do use other makeup I’d give a brow product another run. They get better and better. A defined brow just lifts your whole face up and creates a more youthful appearance (hence the desert island choice). I like a darker brow myself and even on blondes. Look at the color of Angie’s, that’s the kind of dark I mean. Agree Anastasia products very good. I use both their powder with a brush or a little pot of tacky color. Both stay in through very sweaty boot camp workouts, spin class even.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Hi Shiny, I have only learned about microblading this past NZ winter thanks to a 4-page magazine spread. I believe it is tattooing to fill in the gaps with very fine strokes that look like hairs. Advertisement pics in the spread were very impressive. Hope you can see the pics enough to get an idea.
I've never done anything to my eyebrows bar pluck tiny amounts of stray hairs and had decades where I didn't even do that. Sadly they are getting sparser now at 57

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Gretchen

Veteran

I started using Benefit brow products a few years ago. I'm not a fan of pencils (likely because I'm doing it wrong?) but I've used their Brow Zings for years as my travel set. Last month I tried their Foolproof brow powder. I'm still playing with it, but like the idea of using different colors to blend the brows.

Anonymous

Joy - microblading is most definitely not shaving . It’s depositing pigment (permanent ) into small “cuts” made into the skin with a scalpel . There is lots of info and photos you can see on line that help explain it .

I’ve had it done 2x now ( last time about 3 years ago ?) and am happy with how it looks and don’t feel the need to refresh it at the moment . Brows commonly disappear at the tail during menopause . I too had very thin and fine brow hair and felt I needed the definition . I love defined and groomed brows but understand not everyone does - just like bold lips or big earrings or whatever else you like or don’t like to wear .

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

I have very light eyebrows but interestingly they've darkened a little as I've aged. And yes, a few white hairs appear and some hairs need trimming. That said, they aren't as thick as I'd like and everyone seems to lose more on the outer edges (hormone related I think). I don't do anything involving cutting or injections so microblading is out for me, but I do use a light blonde brow pencil (Angie recommended - I think it is Laura Mercier) to shape and slightly fill in spots. I'm not overly careful and I don't have a smudging problem at all. I don't like "perfect" shaped eyebrows that look drawn on, so I use a very light touch and a big magnification mirror to see what I'm doing.

If you can't get the right color in a pencil, you could try an eyeshadow color as an option. I find that most brow colors don't have the blonde with reddish tones option that my natural coloring has, but I can get close enough.

Well shaped eyebrows can take years off of someone's facial appearance. It just takes some trial and error to get it right.

Vix

Veteran

Hi Shiny --

Yes, yes, yes yes yes to your Qs. May have added or missed a few there.

Man, you did have super-thick brows! I did too, but mine met in the middle...hence the journey began, tweezers on a chain around my neck.

All those stories about..."if you pluck, they won't come back!" Nope, not me. And then...TIME. Where did the tails go, sob!

However, long story slightly less so -- a spell of inflammation and dry eye (smokey air) really did a number on my lashes this summer. Rubbing, bad me.

Once I was all sorted out I decided to try RevitaLash since it was part of NAS. I also decided to use the same tube on my brows. [I wouldn't use the RevitaBrow on lashes in case they upped the strength when they realized they could start cashing in on brows too.]

Anyway, within 6 weeks I noticed a real difference in both. It does tend to make brow hair longer, but much like a comb-over it gives the illusion of hair there! After more like 10 weeks the nonexistent tails started coming in.

I'm pleased, though of course it's one more g-d expense. I've yet to pay full price but still.

I've tinted my brows (lasts 2 weeks max, big pain) and I've used the Anastasia brow powder duo in Medium Brown for...5 years, maybe? and with this I can do a quick brushing of the powder (doesn't completely cover the silver ones, but the darker ones have more presence) and go vs having to be more fiddly.

Bad selfie pics below...I'd say this is after 3.5 months of use. O for my perfect arches of yesteryear haha!

FYI for anyone using a duo powder -- FWIW I've been told to use the lighter color everywhere and the darker one only at the top of the arch. My pepper hair is a very dark brown and the duo is a dark taupe and medium brown -- both much lighter than my hair.

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Anonymous

Your brows are great, Vix.

Vix

Veteran

Thanks, Lisa! Selfie distortion on everything in these shots but the brows are pretty true, ha. They have *definitely* improved with the Revitalash and I do notice the overall "face difference."

[And for those intrigued, you can find some deals on Walgreens.com (I was recently able to apply a coupon as well as buying lower than list). And a reputable vendor, LovelySkin.com, currently has a deal on a larger-than-usual size that would probably last 6 months if used on just one area, more like 4 if used on brows + lashes.]

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