All Eyes On Her

I’ve been holding off on getting my brows done for the past few months, ever since losing my job back in October. It just seemed like one of those expenses that I couldn’t justify, since theoretically I can maintain my brows pretty well on my own. It’s only when I get lazy and don’t pluck regularly that they get all messed up shape-wise — and I’ve learned that, while I *think* I’m good at re-shaping them myself, I actually tend to make them a bit uneven and over-pluck certain areas.

So I’ve been dying to get back to my brow gal, May — I don’t think I’ve seen her since last summer! But back when The Big Job Loss happened, I went to a dermatologist because I was maxing out our health care benefits before they expired. And my dear new derm (Paula Zook, whom I HIGHLY recommend for Seattle-area folks) chatted with me a bit about Retin-A, and convinced me to go back on it.

So I did, and I’ve been loving it — it’s definitely helped with some of the frustrating cystic acne I’ve experienced, and the new micro-gel formulation is indeed less irritating than the stuff I used in high school. But with Retin-A comes a big caveat: NO facial waxing is allowed. The skin gets too flaky and delicate, and you can actually rip off patches of skin if you wax while you’re on Retin-A treatment.

So what’s a gal to do? I’ve read about threading, but I haven’t been able to find any good threading referrals in Seattle, and besides — I’d miss my May! Luckily, it turns out May is game for plucking. I’ve always thought this was a smarter alternative, anyway — some salons in Barcelona refused to wax my pal’s eyebrows, because they said that it pulled too much at the skin and caused a loss of elasticity around the eyes. So I’ve always been a bit leery when I get my brows waxed, but it’s just so much FASTER. However, now that I’ve got a real reason to have to avoid it, I’m very excited to try plucking.

I’ll be making an appointment to get plucked by May sometime in March. I can’t wait — I’m not sure if the rate is different than for waxing, but I figure the process must be more precise, and I also think it’ll be less irritating to my skin. (Because I’m very fair and sensitive, I tend to have GIANT red blotches all around my eyebrows for a good two days. I even invested in some of those oversized sunglasses when that trend hit, even though I thought they were hideous, because they were the only thing that covered up my lobster brows!)

I’ll definitely update. But I just thought I’d stress this here — even though I myself have waxed my brows in the past, I really think plucking is a better solution. I’m happy to finally get the nudge I need to make the switch — I think the skin around my eye area will be that much happier when I’m in my sixties!