Eyebrow Threading

This should be done just before bed, so that the residue on the skin has a chance to work.

Fill an old (and clean) sock with 2 handfuls of oats. Tie and then either attach it to the bath tap so that the water runs over it or tie it to the plug so that again the water hits it first. The resulting milky bath is very soothing to the skin and should not be rinsed off. Needless to say, don’t get your hair wet.

In the morning you can shower/wash you hair as usual. You skin repairs overnight which is why it’s best just before you go to sleep.

Disclaimer: If you have never attempted to wax or sugar your legs before and have no idea how to do it then don’t try this at home.

The mistake most people make when waxing or sugaring at home is trying to mimic the professional salon wax technique. Here is a straightforward way to sugar your legs without ending up in a mess (not too much anyway!)

You will need
Sugar paste (see below for recipe, or buy from a beauty supplier)
One strip of tough cotton, such as denim, roughly 15cm square
Talc
Large, old towel
Olive oil or shea butter

Sugar recipe: 1 cup of sugar to 1/3 cup of water, heat until a golden syrupy colour. Add a squirt of lemon just after taking off the heat and allow to cool. If you are in a cold country then increase the amount of water to 1/2 cup.

Preparation (IMPORTANT!!!!)
For dry areas of the legs such as the knees, ankles and toes, apply the olive oil or shea butter to ‘fill in’ any cracks in the skin. Wipe off the area with the towel so that there is no excess on the skin. Now sprinkle and smooth a layer of talc on your leg (do one area at a time, such as front of one leg, side of one let etc). Keep the talc nearby so that you can keep adding it as and when necessary. Take an eggsized amount of the sugar paste (it may be very hard, but squish it a couple of times to soften it. Don’t heat it up.). Spread the paste on the centre of the cotton square so that you have a flattened patch about 2cm thick.

How to remove hairs
Little by little is the key here! You’ll get done much faster than if you try and do massive amounts all at once. On the prepared area hold the skin taut and press the cotton patch down and IMPORTANT smooth with your flat fingers or heel of your palm in either a down or up direction (doesn’t matter which one). Do this at least 4 times so that the hairs are completely sunk into the paste. Now KEEPING THE SKIN TAUT rip off the cotton as you normally would (as parallel as possible to the skin in the opposite direction of growth). Voila, you should now have a small hairless patch of skin! If not then either smooth the paste a bit more or a bit harder. Carry on doing the same, making sure to keep adding more talc to ensure there’s a layer on the skin and no sugar paste gets stuck. You can actually rip off the cotton in the same direction of growth for some areas, which is useful for those awkward areas. To do the backs of your legs try kneeling and twisting around to see them. Keep reusing the same bit of sugar stuck to the cotton, as it’s a thick layer that can do both your entire legs.

After sugaring simply discard the used sugar paste (can be put on a compost heap if you used 100% cotton) and do not add any lotion or moisturiser to the treated area for the rest of the day. Stay out of direct sunlight for 48 hours and do not go swimming, to the gym or any activity that might infect the skin before it heals.

Disclaimer: This is my own personal recipe and if you wish to try it out then you are responsible for ensuring you patch test any ingredient you haven’t used before to avoid any potential problems. Your use is at your own risk. Sorry but sometimes you can have an allergy to the most basic things in life!

Be careful, you may think you have oily skin but you may actually just have shiny skin! Oily skin looks very greasy by the end of the day and makeup wears off very easily. Also, you may only have oily skin on parts of the face, in which case only use this mask on these areas.

You will need:
kaolin powder
calamine powder
milk (fat free if possible)
aspirin (optional for acne sufferers)

To make the mask simply mix 1 heaped teaspoon of kaolin powder, 1 heaped teaspoon of calamine powder, half an aspirin crushed and enough milk to make a paste. Spread evenly all over your face (avoiding the eye area and corners of the mouth). Leave for around 10 minutes then rinse off with warm water.

The milk has lactic acid which unblocks pores. The kaolin powder absorbs oil from the pores. The calamine soothes the skin and the aspirin, if you decide to use it, has a mild exfoliating action. NB less is more, so don’t use more than half an aspirin. Your skin is very gentle so treat it just as gently.

Can be used daily during summer without the aspirin, as when we sweat we generate more oil so you’ll be more greasy than usual.

Disclaimer: This is my own personal recipe and if you wish to try it out then you are responsible for ensuring you patch test any ingredient you haven’t used before to avoid any potential problems. Your use is at your own risk. Sorry for this disclaimer but sometimes you can have an allergy to the most basic things in life!

This moisturiser is especially good for dry patches of skin, or as a lipbalm.

You need:
Unrefined shea butter (acts as an emollient)
Olive oil or sunflower oil
Coconut oil (solid type with no fragrance)
A few rose petals (optional)
Bowl of hot water
Small jar such as an empty moisturiser pot, glass or plastic, with screwtop lid. Clean out with warm water and soap, then place in a cup and pour boiled water over it, then remove without touching the inside and leave to air dry.

To make the moisturiser

Place the empty jar in bowl of hot water, so that the level of water is just below the top of the jar. (If you’ve got a plastic jar then keep a small spoon in it to weigh it down) Scoop in the unrefined shea butter to roughly fill up the pot halfway. It should start to melt due to the hot water. Once it has become mostly liquid (stir if you need to) add the coconut oil (about half of the amount of shea butter) and 1 teaspoon of olive or sunflower oil. Stir again and add the rose petals. Stir so that the petals are submerged completely and leave for around 1 hour or 2 hours. Remove the petals, scraping and squeezing to get the rose oil out. You should now have a semi-solid moisturiser that you can use all over your body and face. Use sparingly on the face as it is very concentrated compared to usual facial moisturisers. In summer keep it in a dark area such as a drawer, as it will melt in direct sunlight! If you find it too intense then use it for your feet.

You can of course substitute the rose petals for a VERY SMALL drop of your favourite essential oil, but make sure you only use a small drop so that you don’t irritate your skin. Or you can leave the fragrance out entirely.

If you’d like to find out more about threading you may find the following sites useful:

http://www.blinkbrowbar.com/
http://www.priory.com/fam/threading.htm
http://www.shavata.co.uk/index.html

Non-threading site
www.bestshampoo.co.uk
If you know of any sites on threading please email addlink@eyebrowthreading.co.uk

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Look out for good hygiene (therapist should wash hands before touching your face) and a client consultation before you have your first session, including aftercare advice. After all, you don’t want to have threading done if you are having microdermabrasion or a facial the next day.

www.babtac.com (ignore the bit that says there aren’t many therapists who do threading, they have loads of listings)
www.beautyguild.com
www.beautysurvival.com/threading.html
www.embodyforyou.com

If you are in the US then you’ll find local listings here:
http://www.beautysurvival.com/threading.html
Plus you may find listings at Craig’s List too.

Other methods of shaping eyebrows include:

Tweezing
Easy to do, but also easy to mess up! Use eyebrow guides when shaping for the first time (available from high street shops) or go to a salon.

Waxing and Sugaring
Very quick to do and a staple treatment of many salons. Take care though, skin should be completely taut when removing the wax or sugar paste otherwise repeated treatments can ‘loosen’ the skin. Also, NEVER EVER have waxing or sugaring done if you are using any vitamin A based skin cream (e.g. retinol). These thin the skin, and the top layer gets ripped away!

Electrolysis
The only way to permanently remove eyebrows. Best if your eyebrows are sparse, as the number of hairs in this small area is very high and it can take nearly 2 years to get them all.

It’s best not to use other methods as it’s difficult to get precise results with them (e.g. laser or depilatory cream).

Eyebrows have changed with human evolution to provide two major functions.

Firstly they prevent sweat from running into the eyes. Even the thinnest of eyebrows are able to do this, so it’s never a good idea to remove too much.

Secondly, and most importantly, they are an important part of expressing emotion and body language. Sit in front of the mirror and make expressions of happiness, sadness, fear and anger. Now do the same but with the eyebrows covered up. The difference is enormous, and explains why people with botoxed foreheads look so strange in conversation.

Eyebrow hairs tend to get thicker and longer as we age, especially in men. The best way to deal with them is to trim the hairs a little, rather than remove them.

Threading eyebrows has become more fashionable in recent years, thanks to coverage in the media. As you probably know already threading has been used in Asian and Middle-Eastern countries for decades, and is also known as khite. It is performed using a length of twisted cotton to catch and pull out the hairs

Although it may seem quite simple, threading does take a certain amount of skill to ensure hairs are not snapped off.

Threading is best for those of us who have a large amount of eyebrow hair and surrounding facial hair, as tweezing simply takes too long. If you are lucky enough to have just a few stray hairs and no noticeable facial hair then you probably won’t understand what the fuss is about!

The main benefit of threading is the way it shapes the eyebrow, not just underneath but also the top. One of the major drawbacks of tweezing, especially when done at home, is that it’s easy to remove the wrong hairs which then alter the shape of the eyebrow. For example, you may remove thick hairs from underneath the brow which act as a form of ‘scaffolding’ for the entire brow. By removing those hairs the shapes collapses, and there is no option but to wait for them to grow back in!

Threading avoids this as it only removes hairs from around the eyebrows. It’s fine to go over the same area several times as only the hair is being targeted. It’s also very good for removing facial hair, especially when waxing or sugaring has proved too irritating. (Let’s not get into whether plucking facial hair is good or bad. Millions of women do it every day, and it obviously works for some but doesn’t for others.)