Our eyebrows are an integral part of our facial aesthetic and how we present to the world. When it comes to first impressions, eyebrows let us evoke expression, signify emotion, and make connections on a deeper level.
While eyebrows tend to grow naturally without much help, it’s not uncommon to see brows diminish with time due to aging, too much tweezing, breakage, and the general wear and tear of life. Eyebrows may start to look sparse after some time, so what can we do to reverse the trend and attain full brows once again?
Eyebrow regrowth is absolutely possible, but there are some considerations we need to make along the way. Whether you’re trying to fill in some gaps along the brow or just taking preventive measures for the future, we’re here with a series of tips and facts that can help.
Before you take steps towards growing your eyebrows back, it’s useful to understand what makes this such a unique body part.
Eyebrows may be made from the same compounds as other hair, skin, and nails, but they have distinct features in their composition and how they grow — including longevity and life cycles.
For instance, brows tend to be slightly coarser and thicker and have a higher variance in terms of length and width. They also grow in unpredictable directions compared to scalp and body hair, making them more difficult to tame in some cases.
Eyebrows are also rather dense for most people, with an average of 250 hairs per brow. It’s not just about looking good, either — our brows protect the eyes from dirt, dust, debris, and even UV rays that we face when stepping outside into the sun.
Most notable is that eyebrows take twice as long to grow like the hair on our head, meaning that your plans for brow growth may take longer than expected. The average brow hair has a lifespan of about four months, meaning that you only grow fewer than 1000 hairs per brow every year.
The takeaway is that brows are precious commodities, especially if your goal is to increase density and coverage on the brow.
You won’t be seeing overnight results from natural brow development unless you somehow discover the magic cure for instant growth. Brow hair is known for slow development, and if you’ve been spending too much time on hair removal, and are now expecting quick transformations, think again.
The good news is that many of these growth conditions are within your realm of control. As we’ll uncover, there are several things you can start doing right now to better your brow growth, and these compound with one another for accelerated results.
Time is the main factor, so don’t get stuck looking in the mirror at your sparse eyebrows every day to monitor individual hairs coming in.
Practicing patience with brow growth is your best bet, even if you opt for alternative therapies or surgeries. Use an eyebrow pencil or clear mascara to help fill in any gaps while you wait for your new hair to regrow. Just put down the tweezers, end the waxing, and stop the threading.
Pick up your brow pencil instead. These things take time, so give your brows a resting phase and leave them alone.
This lesson applies to all things cosmetic: the best results require time and consistency.
It’s no coincidence that the healthiest people display attractive traits like clear skin, toned muscles, and long, strong hair on the scalp and brows.
When it comes to overall health, there’s no getting around the fact that our bodies respond to good habits with positive side effects like great brows. A balanced diet is only the beginning of good overall health.
This brings a few different factors into play, such as blood flow, nutrient absorption, hormone balances, and metabolic rates. When your body is firing on all cylinders, and you’re fueling those cells with quality nutrition, it only makes sense that your brows will grow full and strong.
Alternatively, bad habits like excess sugar consumption, sedentary living, anemia, and stress can create conditions for hair follicles to break, resulting in brow loss, even if you’re doing everything else right.
Healthy living won’t make or break your brows, but why not give yourself the best chance to grow those brows naturally?
Brow loss can happen for different reasons beyond genetics and lifestyle. Sometimes, medical conditions or responses to traumatic events can cause eyebrows to fall out and fail to grow back to their full extent.
A standard example is chemotherapy, which is known to disrupt hair growth cycles throughout the body. Once complete, the upside here is that chemo patients often find that their hair grows back relatively quickly, including their brows.
Unfortunately, some conditions affect the skin on a deeper level and create an inhospitable environment for brow hair despite our best efforts to promote growth.
Cuts and burns, for instance, can cause scarring on the brow area, which leads to permanent disruption of the follicle life cycle. Another possible cause is severe eczema, psoriasis, alopecia, or other skin conditions that can be treated but not cured in full. Even thyroid issues can impact your brow health.
The harsh reality is that some situations call for more drastic measures for brow growth, whether it’s transplantation or a simulated brow solution that fills in gaps. This is another reason why working with an experienced hair restoration pro is essential if you have a unique condition that impacts hair or brow growth.
What is the most preventable cause of brow loss, and can you promote growth by simply avoiding this habit? The answer is overplucking — the most common culprit of eyebrow loss.
With a brow-obsessed culture, we know how tempting it can be to fixate on the shape of your brows and try to groom them to perfection every day. The bombardment of social media and internet articles about brow shaping doesn’t help this fact.
But if you care about natural brow health — which you should — it’s often best to leave those brows alone and use other methods to shape them instead of just plucking away at every opportunity.
If you absolutely must pluck, be sure to target hairs that are clearly astray from the brow line and try not to get carried away.
While we advocate natural growth methods and strive to get clients sustainable results, there’s usually no harm in using brow-boosting eyebrow growth serums or creams to aid those sparse brows in the meantime.
These methods can include everything from microblading (temporary brow tattoos) to thickening agents made from keratin, vitamin A, and other compounds that mimic the look and feel of real brows.
So long as your chosen methods don’t interfere with the natural growth phase of your eyebrows, these can be safe and effective ways to improve your aesthetics in a short timeframe. Just be sure to avoid makeup products with high concentrations of chemicals or compounds that can cause adverse reactions in the skin.
The goal is to eventually have such strong natural brows that these makeup techniques are only used as an occasional supplement rather than an everyday thing.
A clean diet and exercise regimen can work wonders for brow growth, but what can you add to your routine in terms of supplementation to accelerate and improve your results?
Research shows that we can promote brow growth by using certain supplements, including hair restoration favorites like biotin, collagen, keratin, and various vitamins.
These products are found everywhere and are easy to add to your daily lineup. They’re also relatively affordable compared to prescription meds and therapies, so there’s no harm in trying them out for a few months.
Everyone has different nutritional deficiencies that remain unknown until we unlock the right formula, so some experimentation is required to find the most effective supplement stack.
Eyebrows respond exceptionally well to oils for better skincare and strengthening follicles at a deep level. You’re probably familiar with oils like olive oil and coconut oil, which contain plenty of vitamin E to thicken brow hair and create conditions for growth.
Other oils are lesser-known but can still give you some serious brow benefits, including castor oil and jojoba. These oils are rich in fats (the good kind) and proteins and enzymes that help your eyebrow hair grow faster and more fully.
Applying these oils isn’t rocket science, either. Just warm up the oil, massage it into your brows for a few minutes, then let the area sit for several hours (or overnight) before rinsing and cleansing. You can also add essential oils like lavender, peppermint, or rosemary to get some extra brow-boosting effects.
Despite our best DIY efforts to stimulate brow development, there is only so much we can do before we hit our genetic limit for growth. If you’ve been plucking and manipulating your brows for years, they may not be growing back at your desired rate, and results may be lacking.
That’s why we’re seeing more clients seek out restorative eyebrow surgery, a procedure performed by Dr. Jae Pak, with low risk and a high satisfaction rate.
This procedure involves harvesting hair from the back of the head and grafting follicles to the eyebrow area with artistic and technical expertise.
While eyebrow transplants may be more expensive than these other methods listed, the results are far more permanent and satisfactory.
Starting a dialogue with a hair restoration expert–like Dr. Jae Pak, M.D.–can point you in the right direction for eyebrow enhancement, whether via natural means or alternative therapies and procedures.
In a short consultation session, you can pinpoint the causes of eyebrow hair loss and work to create a custom strategy that helps restore that lost hair. The best physicians are eyebrow experts with years of experience and will give you a no-nonsense approach that gets results.
With so many ways to promote eyebrow growth with natural methods, substances like peptides, and next-gen treatments, there’s no reason to live with thin brows.
Use this list of tips to your advantage and test out a range of methods to see what clicks for you. In the meantime, reach out to Dr. Jae Pak, M.D., and schedule a consultation to rejuvenate your brows and fast-track your results today.
Sources:
Speak with Jae Pak, M.D. today!
Request a Consultation