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I’m no brow virgin. I’ve had my share of tweezing, plucking, shaving, and threading. The problem is, I’m lousy at maintenance, so after a cleaning, my neatly-shaped brows usually morph into big hairy monsters again. So I jumped at the chance to try Browhaus’ Browgraphy service, to see just how good it was: Singaporean brand (think OC trainers) + architectural philosophy (a Bauhaus-based tandem of function and fashion) =  high expectations, after all.

 

 

I visited the new Greenbelt 5 branch—at some point I felt lost, since there were no other open stores yet on their level. Owner Roberta “Tab” Abad greeted me warmly and explained the whole process, not just of the brow treatments, but also of their other wax offerings at Strip, the sister company located in the same shop (she totally convinced me to come back for a bikini wax). Then she turned me over to Issa, my Brow Architect for the day.

 

 

The first step was color: Browgraphy includes lightening or darkening, in case your hair has been treated and no longer matches your brows. Though my hair hasn’t been colored, I decided not to skip this part of the treatment to get the full experience. Issa slathered on the dye amid my repeated reminders to keep the color subtle. She used 100% vegetable dye, which should be safe near your eyes, and though it didn’t have fumes that stung, it still had a slight sharp chemical smell.

 

 

Next she started threading the area between my brows. I was expecting wax, but Tab later explained that because wax just isn’t as precise, they’ve stopped using it and offer threading and tweezing instead. She also shaped the tops of my brows, working around the areas which were still covered with dye. This part wasn’t so bad—because the skin in this area is relatively thicker, there was hardly any pain.

 

 

After 10 minutes or so, the dye was removed and the threading began in earnest. Issa explained the rules for shaping the brow, using a pencil to illustrate where the inner brow, the peak, and the tail of the eyebrow should be. Every so often, she dusted fine powder around the area being threaded to help ease the pain, which was considerable, especially below the brow. Threading this part was interactive—she had me pull the skin of my eyelid down to make the hairs easier to pull out. At some point I wanted to poke my eye out to distract myself from the pain.

 

 

 

When most of the stray hairs had been cleaned up, Issa started trimming the parts that were sticking out. She pointed out that parts of my eyebrow were actually rather bare, which surprised me, since I’d always thought my brows were pretty thick. Apparently shaggy is not equal to dense when it comes to brows. Keeping the hairs trimmed helps them lie flat and in place, maintaining the shape. And so, with a final reminder about tweezing the stray hairs between visits, I was done.

My new, cleaner brows were a huge improvement. They brightened up my eyes and made my face look much neater. I decided I could’ve done without the color—I felt the lighter brown brows didn’t match the rest of my face and gave me a perpetual look of surprise. Fortunately (or not, if you mean to keep the color), they started to darken again after a couple of weeks. Pain-wise, there’s probably no getting around it—pulling out hair just really hurts. The reassuring thing is, the more you do it, the less it will sting, since the follicles are weakened. Plus, in an attempt to spare myself the pain of subsequent visits, I’ve been more vigilant about maintenance—it’s easier to pluck out a single stray hair now than go through a bushy brow in the future.

What it is: Browgraphy, a thread-or-tweeze service that incorporates color tweaking
Why you should try it: To get professional, scientific shaping to kick-start your brow beauty routine (if you’re on a budget, do it once to get your shape right, then maintain by plucking strays yourself; go back only when things start to get out of hand)
To have your brows dyed to match your latest hair color
To experience the professional, no-nonsense service rendered by the Brow Architects
How much it costs: P1,280 for threading or tweezing
Where to get it: Browhaus at the 4th Floor, Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati (501-3998) or at the 2nd Floor, Serendra, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig (856-9140)
To learn more visit their website at www.browhaus.com