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Tip of the day: Removing over eye caterpillars, also known as your eyebrows

Filed under: Style Tip of the Day


Sure the eyebrow shape your mama gave you is just the right one for your face. That doesn't mean there isn't a little clean up involved to keep them looking right.

It's a sad fact that some people go so insane with plucking that they have to paint their eyebrows on (why, why, why!?) while others are so unkempt that their uni-brow can be seen from space.

So before you even pick up those tweezers, first things first; grow your eyebrows out Brooke Shields style. We know it sounds frightening but it's the only way we know for sure that you'll do a fresh pluck. And if they already are, well you are winning the battle my friend.

Next up – the tools. The love of our plucking life? Tweezerman. And while you're at it you might as well grab an eye pencil, nail scissors, a brow brush and some numbing gel or an ice cube if you're sensitive, you wuss.

So you've got your plucking tool belt on and you're ready to rock and roll. The only problem is that you don't know how to avoid disastrous results again. It's this simple – details, details, details! Let's take a quick look at some of the specs before we allow you to tackle with your tweezers.

• Use a magnifying mirror so you can see every hair. If you don't have one, plucking outdoors in natural daylight works too.

• We all know the story of the turtle that kicked that sorry rabbit's ass. Apply the lesson and pluck with caution.

• Remember your eyebrow should have a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning should start directly over the inside of your eye (or the part closest to your nose for those who need it in lay). The middle, or arch, should be at about the back third of the eye. The end should stretch a little bit past the outer edge of the eye but not as far as the temple.

• And last but definitely not least– sweet baby Jesus do not over pluck. Overstating the shape and/or plucking too much will make you look like you are extremely surprised from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. Hell, you'll even look surprised while you sleep – which is just creepy.

• In case you didn't see it the first time, do not over pluck!

Now you and your sidekick Tweezerman are ready to lock those bad boys away for good. And by lock away, we mean pluck those suckers.

• Before you start, use an X to mark the spot. Lay your pencil vertically at the inner corner of your eye and then make a small mark where your brow should begin. Next lay it from the inner corner and across your pupil. Where the pencil hits your brow, make your next mark. That's your arch. Finally, make a dot where the brow ends and those sparse, meaningless little hairs begin at the outer corner of your eye.

• Using these points as your guide, fill in the brow with pencil. Fill in where the natural brow is obvious, leaving strays where they belong – on the outside of the main brow.

• Next, sweep the entire eyebrow in an upwards motion with your brow brush. Take the nail scissors and trim the tips of the hairs. Note we said trim – not cut to the root. If you do that, your eyebrow is going to need a comb over. Yeah, we said it, an eyebrow comb over.

• Finally, brush the hair back into place and tweeze all of the hairs that fall outside of the line and apply a brow gel to keep them in place.

Poof! Caterpillars be gone!

PS - This just in: Holy crap, there is an actual term for a unibrow. It is called synophrys and the definition is "the presence of abundant hair between the eyebrows, so that they seem to converge to form one long eyebrow." You really do learn something new everyday!

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