DUBAI: As salons remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, women across the region are putting down their tweezers in favor of fuller, untamed arches. Indeed, now is the optimal time to grow out your eyebrows and experiment with something new. However, arches can run the risk of looking unkempt if not properly maintained. Here, we ask brow experts Olivia Christina and Suman Jalaf for their tips on grooming your eyebrows at home. Exfoliate Brow specialists swear by regular brow exfoliation to help prevent ingrown hairs and encourage hair growth. “You can create a natural at-home exfoliator,” shares Christina. “My favorite is to mix olive oil with sugar.” Use brow serum “It is essential to use a regrowth serum, especially one with peptides, if you want to encourage hair growth,” says Jalaf. “My personal favorites are Revitabrow or Librow. Their proprietary blend of biotin, green tea extract, peptides and lipids help condition and strengthen brows while defending against breakage and brittleness,” she explains. Christina adds that if you prefer a natural option, castor oil and coconut oil are great alternatives. “Make sure your eyebrows are cleansed and dry before you apply your serum and use a spoolie brush to distribute the formula through the hairs,” she suggests. Massage the area According to brow experts, massaging your eyebrows and the area around them may be beneficial for proper blood circulation. “Massaging your eyebrows helps stimulate positive hair growth by increasing blood circulation to that area,” explains Jalaf. “It’s important to massage the area around your eyebrows with castor oil or your preferred serum for five minutes daily to really see a difference.” The brow expert recommends gua sha, a traditional East Asian treatment that involves scraping a flat jade or rose quartz stone over the skin in upward strokes to relax stiff muscles and promote tissue drainage. “Tools like jade rollers promote lymphatic drainage to reduce toxins, manipulate areas of tension to stimulate and alleviate stress-related symptoms such as eye-strain and eye fatigue,” she explains. Shape your brows It’s important to map out your brows so you know where they should start, arch and end. Christina recommends using a thin brow pencil such as, YSL Couture Brow Slim Pencil, to do this. “To shape the arches, start by lightly marking the start of your brow by holding your pencil against the bridge of your nose. Then, mark out the tail of your eyebrow by aligning your pencil from the outer edge of your nostril and past the corner of your lash line. Finally, lightly draw the base of your brow,” she says. Remove stray hairs “Growing out your eyebrows takes patience and with that comes putting down your tweezers so as to not remove a single strand of hair,” states Jalaf. But what about those persistent stray hairs that don’t belong? “Remove any eyebrow hairs that are outside of the base that you have drawn using a good quality tweezing tool such as Tweezerman. Then, take a spoolie brush, comb all of your hairs upwards and carefully trim any longer, unruly hairs one by one,” Christina suggests. Fill out Filling out your eyebrows with makeup can help them look fuller and more defined. Christina suggests using a brow pencil to lightly fill out any sparse areas with a slim eyebrow pencil to recreate the look of hair strokes. For those seeking a more semi-permanent option, Jalaf recommends reaching for a brow tint. Set your arches If your eyebrows seem to have a mind of their own, the brow experts suggest setting them in place with a good brow gel. Christina recommends the Benefit Cosmetics 24hr Brow Setter, while Jalaf swears by the Hourglass Arch Brow Shaping Gel. Soothe the area With all the exfoliating and plucking, skin can risk potential irritation. “If your skin is a little red or inflamed, you can calm it down with a soothing cream such as Kristie Streicher’s Apres Calming Cream,” says Christina. Apply the formula on a Q-Tip and massage around the brows.