Eyebrows Frame Your Face, Never Neglect Them

Keep Color In Brows For a Balanced Appearance

When you think of the important points of the face, what do you think of ? Most people say the “eyes”. Then nose, then mouth. Me….I say eyebrows. Eyebrows are front & center and seen as soon as you look into someone’s eyes, I feel they ‘frame’ the face and both the shape and color of them can completely change your look. Spend some time learning how to groom them properly, if you do not have an eyebrow specialist in your town – become your own. I will teach you how……….. I have spent years going to and being the best in eyebrow care.

I challenge you to compare photos of celebs before they became famous versus now. Oprah is a perfect example. Her brows before she became famous were completely different…its amazing what $$ does to the look of the face and I am only talking brows. I will keep my eyes open for comparison photos and will post and bring this subject back up once I find them. I have them its just in my files of 50,000 photos which are not organized/labeled and I can’t find them. But soon – soon. I’m not a fan of using celeb photos . . . as I’m sure you’ve noticed. People use celeb photos to get people to come to their website under false pretenses – something I try not to do. Besides, with a daughter who shoots celebrity photos I know how little of those photos are real, and feel it is an unfair photo to put in front of you, they Photo Shop the hair in every photo now . . . how can you ever hope to compare to CGI especially as we age?

One of the more annoying problems of aging is not only losing the color in the hair on our heads, but losing the color in the hair around our eyes, brows and lashes more specifically. You know what the biggest mistake is on this photo above of the aging model ? ? ( which btw she would FAIL – BIG TIME - as a make-up ‘Aging’ test ) -- she forgot to change the brows….to be faded and barely there ! As a natural born redhead, I’ve never known the wonders of pigmented hair around the eyes, we have next to none since birth…so color-less is a way of life for me . I have been tinting my brows and lashes since I was 16 and could drive myself to a Salon.

Melanin is the pigment that gives hair and skin its natural color. How light or dark it is and its natural tone, depend on how much and what kind of melanin it contains and how that melanin is arranged in the hairs. I feel the part of hair coloring that most people get confused on is understanding what actually affects the color change. Many seem to think if you apply color “A”, your result should look exactly like color “A” when you are finished and unfortunately that is just not how it works. High Dollar Colorists and fancy Beverly Hills Salons would not exist if it was that simple, everyone would be walking around as Jennifer Anniston hair clones.

The color result depends as much on the natural pigmentation (DURP) of the hair as it does on the ‘artificial pigmentation’ used. In other words, if I was to mix up a batch of Level 8 Ash with 30 Volume and applied it to 5 different people with the exact same color of virgin Level 6 hair……..EVERY single one of them would have a completely different result.

With a few Eyebrow Coloring Kits leaving this week & a couple new brow shaping products arriving, I re-priced the kits and added options in my never-ending attempt to make things as easy as possible for you.

After the age of about 40 – 50 the color begins to drain out of the eyebrow hairs along with everything else and being as gray truly is pigment-less hair not actually gray – it looks so much better if once 1-2X a month you tint those brows. I want you to feel better about your situation – For the last 15 years every Sunday I have had to tint my eyebrows and every 4th would tint my albino lashes…it has SUCKED…big time. 96% of people have pigment in their brows, and lashes, so remember how lucky you are.

I have been tinting my own and all my clients eyebrows for years, what do the rest of you do? I know there are the stubborn grays on brows which many time begin in the early 20’s, but from the 30’s on… most people deal with squirrely grays, flailing whites and generally misshapen fence-like burley brows. I’ve always taught the brows are the most important part of the face. They are front & center … and seen as soon as you look into someone’s eyes, I feel they ‘frame’ the face and both the shape and color of them can completely change your look. I urge you to spend some time learning how to groom them properly, if you do not have an eyebrow specialist in your town, learning the art ‘of’ is not really that hard and will start with tinting and trimming.

For humor I thought I would relay to you that the clients that elected to go to the big eyebrow specialist here in our hot-shot Salon (Anastasia) would spend anywhere between $300. - $600. per shape & color appointment. Funny….huh? Plus a round trip of at least 4 hours to accomplish. That’s life in Malibu / L.A., we’re a million miles from anything & everything.

Eyebrow Tinting

STEP 1 Tinting

If you begin the process by tinting the brows, all the little hairs have color in them so you don’t miss them - - I’ve made it easy – all you have to do is to pick the “Level” Kit you want -- providing you are not wanting any ‘red’ in the end result -- you will receive 2 tubes of color that you need to mix 50 - 50 plus the appropriate developer for Brows comes with. You receive the 2 best brushes I’ve found for applying that color, as you want the color to saturate the wiry hair strands…the color needs to be heavily lopped on, yet painted on precisely in the shape of the brow. Getting the color on the skin will stain, and I have never even tested it, as I can’t imagine anyone wanting the Tint stained right smack on the front of the face…so cleaning the color off the face right after applying it, is just as important as the application. Hair color itself -always “expands”as it processes . . so color just “INSIDE” the lines of your brow with the color product, the liquid will expand/swell and cover the entire brow once you get it brushed on. Clean up around the shape of the brow “after” 15 minutes and swelling subsides with Q-Tips and water, toner or alcohol. At this point the color should be on the brow crisp and cleanly shaped ; the exact shape of the brow. Now, go make yourself lunch . . . leave the brows alone, while the color fully develops… at least 45 minutes – 55 is better.

In the Kit you receive 1 tube of an “N” series color and that is the tube that you will vary according to the amount of gray or the stubbornness in your hairs. A good general rule is to use the percentage comparable to the percentage of gray you have. 50% Gray? Use 50% “N” series. . . and then just add the opposing color until you get to 100%. 40% N use 60% “B” color or whatever we’ve sent. Its actually pretty straight up.

The color is done processing you grab a paper towel or tissue, run under warm water….and wipe the color off with just water. Keep rubbing till all the color is off and the tissue is clean. Use a little muscle! Poof you are done that part!

Eyebrow Trimming

The next important part of eyebrow care is the tweezer/scissor part. The first step to trimming the brow is to “COMB”….(yes, comb) the brow hair straight up toward the forehead as you see in my half-assed renderings here. . . .

Comb the hairs straight up with a cutting comb, then trim along the line of the existing brow as shown in #5 & #6 …holding the scissors perpendicular to the floor. Continue to comb straight up with comb and trim a little at a time, watching result and be sure to NOT overdue.

Once trimmed, begin tweezing. Again – start and continue process by combing brow upwards ( which is where the hair in your brows should be heading - - always upward ).

Tweezing should be in the middle above the nose and as little under the brow and on top of the brow as is possible – too THIN of an eyebrow never looks right, I promise you. Shaping the brow will be a while other post. I have to get a couple stencils in order to do that one justice. . . but we won’t be through with brows until we have another 5-6 Posts on the subject.

I’m really excited about the new tweezers and scissors I have come across, I’ve always known they can make the same quality for a decent price…they are on their way here, check them out in the store along with the Eyebrow kits.

I happened to find both that are Stainless Steel and work as fine as the super pricey ones. I KNEW THIS COULD BE DONE. That is the problem with “good finds” they are so damn hard to ‘find ;-) .

Just trim and groom your eyebrows once. . . give it a chance. . when I’m waiting in lines I notice so many people who never touch their eyebrows ( yet, they really need to ) . . I cannot imagine what I would look like if I didn’t do my own.

Killer Chemist

Gray Eyebrows: the Solution comes in a Killer Strands Kit

Brow Gray Hair / Color-less brows Now Have a Solution

Getting up in years truly brings out some of the weirdest phenomenon's I  have yet to become used to ... with gray hair popping out of every orifice - probably the most eery of them all.  But when those weird twinkle-y - wire-y - corkscrew-y gray buggers start piercing through my eyebrows, and making us look like a female version of Andy Rooney, that - is when the line is drawn !
Gray hair is determined in percentages ... (for ex.) 30% of the hair is gray . . and so on - do your best to ball park it. It takes quite a while to get all the way to a 100% gray eyebrow, so for the purpose of this post we will deal with those of you with partial gray brows and what to do about them. Yes, this is a mild take-off on my other post about eyebrows, although I didn't address the grays. Eyebrow hair is unlike any other hair on the body, have you noticed? Check out Andy's in the above photo    ! ! !
Gray hair in eyebrows are unflattering, horrific and if you have them, start thinking about getting rid of them - nobody likes to look at them I promise you. With the gray hair comes the inevitable resistant hair. What is resistant hair ? ?  Probably the opposite of what you think, in hair color it means:  it "RESISTS" absorbing color easily. The resistance is strong by this weird 'wirey' hair, -- to get new hair color in-SIDE the hair strand to cover up the gray, and is very difficult to eliminate. You will start to notice one gray and end up plucking it, then the 2nd one - with a another tug. There comes another slight problem that goes head-to-head with this one... the thinning of our hair, not only on the head but in the BROW (for those of you not there yet!) . Therefore,  plucking starts to become a problem, if you pluck all the grays there won't be any eyebrows left. . . . do I want Gray hair that is at least on my face ? ?  or no hairs in my brows and go for that whole  "hairless - eyebrow-less look as we see on our dear Madonna here" look that works on very few ?? The decision, as I have experienced and I would also recommend, should land in keeping the hairs intact and learning how to trim them properly - dealing with the twirls and tinting them the professional method.
Here is where we run into a huge problem. In all 50 states that I know of, (California is known for being the toughest of them all - so to go off of my own state, is the safest bet), tinting eyebrows is illegal !! I find that sentence hilarious, all the crap going on in the world and tinting gray eyebrows is illegal. Whatever, I know I've complained about "lack of regulation" in the Cosmetic Industry...now look at me. Guess that's what's so fun about being a critic, you can just tell people where to go and 'why'!  But seriously, I am not sure truly how this is taken care of, but my theory is . . . you are going to do it anyway - in the privacy of your bathrooms and homes throughout the land. I'm sure you all have been attempting it right along, but the results have been less than stellar. It happens all the time and I can guarantee you that Laura Bush gets her eyebrows tinted in the exact manner I am going to preach to you. You know why I know that?  NO....wrong answer - - -You don't want to know!
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The Disclaimer is here, in no way do I endorse the tinting of eyebrows as it is deemed dangerous in the state of California. So if you embark on tinting your own eyebrows you are doing it under your own, you are also completely responsible for the outcome, having absolutely nothing to do with the writer of this POST or Killer strands. Please leave this site immediately, if you think that you may come into any danger at all.
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If you are to order this kit you will be asked to sign a DISLCLAIMER, Lordie knows , but I want to look like the good citizen....just in case I happen to survive - you just never know these days.
So now....off to the point of all this.
I suppose there are many of you that have not gone through my lessons on hair color and all the theories - rules and regulations, so I don't think it's appropriate to review all of that now. There is lots of room in the COMMENTS section - ask away.
1st Basic Question: What is Gray hair? Its not gray hair at all, its truly 'white' hair that "appears gray". It is Pigment-free hair, that's it - as you & your hair aged, the pigment no longer wanted to make that journey up into the hair strand, it is tired. So much of life is just common sense, I love that about even science!
So if its hair with NO pigment, what must we give it, to make it appear back to normal?
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPigment                 Pigment = Color = Tint
What Pigment out of all the tones fills in the pigment-free hair  ? ?  There is ONLY ONE! ?!!!!?!?!?                                     "N" Series
2nd Basic question...What volume Developer is the one and only Volume that works to COVER GRAY HAIR ? ?
2222222222222220 VOLUME        (there is a new addition to this category - but lets KISS > Keep It Simple STUPID
What you will need is  2 tubes of professional hair color, the rinky-dink colors that pass for hair color in the beauty supplies will not tackle this strong "resistant" hair in the eyebrows - I promise you.
The rules, for COVERING GRAY HAIR ? ? 

• Use a percentage of "N" Series to cover Gray hair - depending on amount of gray - I will give percentages with order
• Then add a color/tone to make the Brow - your color...the exact amount comes with your kit-
• Use 20 volume developer
• let process full 55 minutes - Its Resistant remember?
• lay down when processing so - no DRIPS happen - here is where you can do one of your weekly De-Stress naps I speak of - while deep conditioning your hair.

For YOUR exact formula and kit please order here.

• 2 custom chosen pro hair colors- See charts in GROUP ( join the Group boys & girls)
• 20 volume Developer =  ( 1-2 year supply)
• short brush for application
• q-tips for shaping
• Gleam oil for eyebrow health
• brow trimming diagram - priceless - keep those twirlies in line!

Eyebrow Kit $31.00  + $9.00 shipping

I have drawn a  fantastic diagram with directions  on how exactly to trim the brow, for those of you that order the eyebrow tinting kit.
We will run into the same problem here - similar to the problem we run into about hair coloring and my helping my readers with the solutions...
EVERYONE is different, and we each have our own variables . . . such as:

• how much gray is in the brow?
• what level is the hair (not gray) in the brow ?
• do you have full brow or sporadic 1/2 ?
• what level is your hair presently ?
• have you ever tinted them previously ?
• do brows need trimming?

When placing order please note any of these points you think need to be taken into account. Its funny when most people remark about a Celebrities hair, half of what they love is their eyebrows. I used to treat the eyebrow as its own project using just as much care with the brow as I did with the hair. The eyebrow really sets off the face, and highlights the hair with the makeup - - please spend the time getting the eyebrow as perfect as you get the hair, I promise you the compliments will fly in.

Eyebrow Tinting & Dye those Brows

When even Oprah thinks dark's not better than light...




For those of you wondering how those damn celebrities have such Kick Ass Brows....I'm going to let you in on a secret used for many years on every set from here to Vancouver....& a product that's been around almost as long as the movies.


What happens when taking the Level 5 thru Level 1 eyebrow color up ( see why knowing the Level Colors help in a host of ways!!) to a softened beige is not an easy task to nail. For years part of every hair color service with me was an eyebrow tint at the same time...the "drapes MUST match the curtains!!" hee hee Even Oprah in all her glory and cash has found the secret to the beautiful brow when you are born with that dark brown to black brow. If you look at photos of her from the 80's when she began...she did not have the access to all the tricks of the trade. Now she OWNS THE TRADES.


The most poignant point about this bleach...is ...it does not get you where you want them to be in one step, for the majority . For a lucky few, it will....only after some practice. Its more than likely a 2 step process if you can believe that....which separates the Lions from the Lambs....who REALLY wants beautiful brows?


If you do, set aside an hour that first time. You have to play around with the timing as you will read in the instructions and everyone is different. Too light? and you will still have to use a nice beige eyebrow powder to fill them in, which is what I mean by a 2 step process. But at least you have killed those Jet black stripes across your brow, which is hell-acious on many people's complexion (personal preference abounds here). Too Dark and you can re-apply immediately, the directions are quite clear.


For the top starlets we bleach them very very light, then re-tint them as if we were coloring a head of hair so they are a beautiful beige, this way the color stays on all the time - we then give them some of the tint and instruct them how to re-tint if they need to before their next appointment. All that for the price of a small car! j/k.....but it is NOT cheap. {Do not try tinting them on your own, it is a tricky formulation which at some point in the near future will be a new post. They will end up orange or worse - the hair is such an odd texture it took a while to nail it}.


The product is Jolen Creme Bleach, now I have heard some use it for the "hair down there"... personally I use to do a small business on the side called PAINT BOX ( !! ) - we would bleach and then do shapes and bright colors - leopard prints....it was a blast....but I used the oil bleach....and still would I think it's safer.........the most important part? The masking off of the Private Parts ! ! ! Be very VERY careful!

If you have level 1 thru Level 5 Brow and your desire is a level 8 - 9 - 10 soft beige....
your product is JOLEN Bleach , it is made for the face and for the sensitive skin .
DO NOT US ANY OTHER TYPE OF BLEACH- PERIOD - or you will risk your brows.


This link shows several different sources, the $5.00 size is PLENTY if you only plan to do brows. The other size would last you, thru your grandchildren's... grandchildren!


2 sizes > 1 OZ & 4 OZ, price range from $4.00 - $10.00

Confessions of an Eyebrow Specialist: Secret Formula for Tinting Eyebrows Revealed

Random Grey Hairs Messing Up Eyebrow Shape?

Purchase :
BEST eyebrow Tint Kit : $31.00 - Professional tint; all the secrets revealed


One of the more coveted "trix of the trade": the formula for tinting eyebrows
A woman's eyebrows begin the trek downhill starting about age 20, sad but true. The thickness declines, the shape grows wildly out of control and soon those dreaded greys sprout.

Recently, a longtime client of mine relayed her woes of making an appointment with one of the famous Eyebrow shapers in Beverly Hills. The appointment took 4 months, the cost ? $100.00 for shape and $75.00 to tint a soft beige-brown ! That was the point I decided my long time secret formula was making its debut on Killer Strands - The BLOG! I could not believe the price had gotten that high, ridiculous utterly ridiculous. It still amazes me that she even went to the woman, because this girl does not have enough eyebrows to know whether the Eyebrow Queen from Bulgaria or the dog had shaped them....they are just too thin.

Tinting your brows at home is really something that should be taught in ghigh school health class. It is a necessity and its simple, although we who invented the art kind of treated it as though we had discovered the cure for cancer! Ridiculous again! Its handy little chore...i hope you all enjoy.

If you have been coloring in your brows with pencil or powder, this is permanent although not permanent like Tattoos. It lasts a month, you can change shades to match different hair colors...when you go lighter in the summer and darker in the fall. Tint your brows once a month at your convenience it fills-in where there are gaps because it dyes the tiny hairs on your face even if the brow hair is gone ( a common problem of the over 35 set).

For $31.00 you receive:
INCLUDING ( the best part) a detailed diagram of how to trim the brows SUCCESSFULLY.

1. 2 tubes of permanent PRO Hair Color, 1 tube will ALWAYS be a "N" Series- Neutral - we will decide the other after we exchange emails
   
2. 1 bottle of peroxide - 20 Volume
3. small brush
4. Q-Tips
5. Diagram & explanation > trick to trimming Brows
   

How peroxides work again:
10 Volume : Deposits color only
20Volume: Deposits Color and lifts 1 shade of color
30Volume: Lifts 2-3 shades of color then deposits
40 Volume: Lifts 3-4 shades of color then deposits


I recommend 20 volume Peroxide

tubes of color :
1 tube of N ( neutral series) -
1 Tube of A (Ash series) or whatever we determine will match your hair.

Directions:
Make yourself up a small kit for eyebrows....
You will be doing this 1-2X a month, once you see how cool it is.
Layout a towel in the bathroom, One paper cup used to mix the color. Mix the color according to the directions ON THE BOX OF COLOR.... every line has a different ratio of color to peroxide.
Most of them are 2 Parts Color to 1 part developer( or peroxide) ...
I will guide you at point of purchase

Mix 1 inch squirt of 10N....with a 1 inch squirt of 10A....mix the two colors together FIRST with Q-Tip, well. Measure what you ball park to be 4 inches of peroxide - if you have a 2:1 mixing ratio.... or you can do this with 1/8 teaspoons if you need to....I eyeball it and it turns out perfect...

I've tried this with the public hair colors - - it simply just does NOT work, so you finally have a method to get those eyebrows - professionally tinted.

Once ordered I will finalize the 2nd tube of color with you and how to mix the exact formula . This Kit will last you 1-2 years and if you change your hair color then you change your tubes of color. I've been doing this to my clients for 16 years - - I am sure that is why they are so loyal.

Click the BUY NOW button - - you will be taken to the Secure and Safe PAY PAL site to conduct the purchase, there is no need to have a PAY PAL account to make the purchase.

Its $31.00 for one kit and I will contact you as soon as the sale has been registered to finalize your custom colors. You are going to LOVE THIS, it rocks!