14 DAY TRIAL // Thick eyebrows are back in fashion, with everyone singing their praises, from stars rocking them on the red carpet to stylists who call them the ultimate “symbol of power.” For those of us whom years of plucking have left with nothing but a faint trace of the brows we used to have, or who have never had such eyebrows that would allow us to turn them into said “symbol of power,” all hope is not lost, as the Daily Mail puts it.
Eyebrow transplant has not become a common procedure, a surgical intervention that costs about £3,500, takes about three hours to perform under local anesthetic, and takes another few months up to half a year for all the results to become perfectly visible. Yet, it’s the very results – which are extraordinary, experts point out for the Mail – that make of this procedure the ideal solution for women looking for thicker brows.
“One follicle can be implanted at a time, and, crucially, surgeons are able to control the precise angle of the hair, which is very acute in eyebrows. […] A very thin strip of skin (6-7 cm long, and 4-5mm wide) is taken from the area of the scalp where the hair is softest. The surgeon then removes each hair from the piece of skin with a thin needle. Next, he makes up to 50 tiny incisions with a scalpel where the eyebrow should be, and, using a needle, inserts each hair follicle into the incisions,” the Mail writes after speaking with Dr. Bessam Farjo, who’s been working on hair-loss treatments since 1992.
“The results are not immediate: it takes two to three months for the new hair to grow through the skin, and up to six months for a well-defined eyebrow. The new brows need trimming about once a month as the hair continues to grow as it would on your head,” the publication further says. However, women who’ve already turned to this procedure find it the ideal solution for their problem, saying there is absolutely no difference between their “new” brows and the pair they had before excessive plucking left them with close to nothing.
The same method can also be applied to make thicker eyelashes, though the procedure is somewhat more complicated. Another solution to get well-defined, thick eyebrows is permanent makeup – that is, to have the brows tattooed on the forehead. Still, this might be a bit inconvenient, since color fades in time and one has to have the tattoo retouched every 18 months, the same publication also informs.