Eyebrows - The shape of things to come

I BLAME Geri Halliwell. Back in the mid-1990s, just as I was entering adolescence, the Spice Girl’s over-plucked eyebrows suddenly became all the rage.

Such was the trend for barely-there brows that, armed with my big sister’s tweezers, I secretly set to work on my own piliferous pair.

Pretty soon, I was left with nothing but two lonely lines on my forehead.

Ginger Spice’s grew back — but mine didn’t.

Now, almost two decades on, putting on my make-up in the morning is a bit like a game of join the dots.

My bathroom cabinet is bulging with eyebrow pencils, powders, brushes and gels to help temporarily transform the surviving stragglers into some sort of shape.

So when I was invited to try out the latest beauty treatment to give you back your brows, it was a no-brainer.

Also known as micropigmentation, semi-permanent make-up is used to enhance the eyebrows, lashline and lips.

TOWIE’s Amy Childs, Coleen Rooney and actress Natalie Cassidy are just some of the celebs reportedly rocking eyebrow tattoos.

At Akina Beauty and Laser Clinic in Temple Bar, the treatment — which starts from €300 — is becoming increasingly popular too.

“Eyebrows are such a big thing,” says owner Eavanna Breen.

“They really define the shape of your face.

“I see lots of clients like you who over-plucked their eyebrows in the past and the hair never grew back.

“Others have lost their eyebrows to illness.

“Very fine colour pigments are implanted into the upper layers of the skin with an oscillating needle,” she explains.

“Unlike regular make-up, semi-permanent make-up doesn’t smudge — so you look your best from the moment you wake up in the morning.”

As someone who’s never even considered getting a tattoo in her life, taking beauty tips from Mike Tyson by getting one on my face might seem a bit extreme.

At the initial consultation, where I got a patch test behind my ear, Eavanna put my mind at ease about waving goodbye to the permanently-surprised look.

“People ask me: ‘What if I decide to change my hair colour?’” she says. “The biggest fear most people have is that it’s going to be like a tattoo that you can never get rid of.

“But if you have the treatment and never get another top-up, it will fade eventually.

“If you decide at a later date that you want to go lighter or change the shape, we can do that.

“You’re never stuck with them is the point.”

Forewarned not to drink any coffee or alcohol before going under the needle, a week later I arrived eyebrowless for the last time to Akina.

With over one hundred pigments to pick from, Eavanna narrowed it down to three dark brown shades before letting me pick my favourite.

Then, while the topical anaesthetic was kicking in, she impermanently drew on eyebrows with a pen until we settled on a shape.

“We could get the eyebrows drawn on in ten minutes, or it could take an hour,” she tells. “We work together until we get the shape right.”

“The treatment itself can take about two and a half hours — it depends on how your skin accepts the dye.

“It can be tedious and you need the patience of a saint.

“But my attention to detail is not something I’m willing to compromise on,” says Eavanna.

“You want them to be as natural looking as possible.”

After about ten minutes, Eavanna had etched on eyebrows I was happy with.

Next, using tiny feather strokes for a more natural finish, she painstakingly applied the real thing, dipping the needle into the pigment regularly.

I will not lie — the scratching sensation on the thin skin of the browbone is far from pleasant.

And the liberal amounts of numbing cream couldn’t stop my eyes from streaming throughout the process.

But it was no worse than the laser hair removal I’m also having done to remove the fuzz that grows, typically, where I don’t want it to.

In total, the semi-permanent make-up treatment took about two hours.

With Eavanna showing me the results in the mirror as we went along though, there were no nasty surprises afterwards.

“When you first walk out the door, they can look really dark, almost Groucho Marx even,” she warned. “Over the coming weeks they fade, and you come back in again for a top-up.

“After that, how often you have the treatment is entirely up to you.

“Some people like to do it on a yearly basis, other people leave it for a bit longer.”

Putting my new power brows to the test, the next weekend I went along to a pal’s birthday party.

And the best part is that no-one even noticed I’d been anywhere near a needle.

It’s (tat) too soon to say whether I’ll get them topped up down the line.

But for now though at least, I plan to enjoy those extra ten minutes in the morning — and waking up with eyebrows.

Eyebrow enhancement costs €495, including a six-week top-up treatment — see www.akina.ie