Jenna: Hello this is Jenna and welcome to the Elevate Yourself Podcast - where we can talk about beauty and self care without judgment.

I just wanted to talk to you guys today about something that is near and dear to my heart- “How to choose the best method of brow enhancement for you?”. Specific to you and why this is so important to me is because in the studio every day I see girls, you guys want to look gorgeous. You want to look beautiful effortlessly. Everyone's so attracted to permanent makeup right off the gate. I have so much gratitude that there is so much trust in the community towards my skills as permanent makeup artist but the fact is that if you have never tried out a different type of brow, if you've never penciled in your brows, if you've never tried a brow tint if you've never tried to henna brow. This is a very scary situation for both of us. So I just wanted to reel her in and just highlight that it's basically like getting married without going out on a first date. If you are hopping right into PMU without doing any of the other services. Let's learn about some of the other services and find out what the best brow enhancement for you and where you are in your journey with your brows is.

So starting off with brow enhancements from the least permanent to the most permanent so I linked in brow pencil to flirting so you can try out any different shape and a different style. Maybe one day you try something out. You don't really like that. No worries. Just clean it off, new slate, new vibes the next day. Actually more high maintenance, but low commitment level of brow style and I think this is very, very important when you're first like starting out.

The first step would definitely be getting over our pencil. This is not like always the best solution for someone who does not have a ton of hair but honestly in working up to the other things that you might want to get, this is definitely like first base. You have to start with something to know what you are going to want in the end game. Going up from there in commitment. I would say having a brow tint is a little bit like dating. You have flirted with a couple different shapes you kind of have an idea of what you're looking into. You are familiar with yourself being viewed with like a little bit of a darker brow. Because lots of us, we have lighter brows or maybe patches in our brows once we do start building that brow up, even though it might look better to everyone else. At first, it's not going to look good to us because your body doesn't like to see changes, kind of like red flags it to us. In order to get used to these changes or things that might look good that you didn't think looked good because you're so used to seeing yourself in a certain way before. You do need to take time to like kind of try other things out. That will give you a chance to like accept seeing yourself in a different light or with these changes.

So next step up, I think would definitely be henna brows. Henna brows are a great option for someone who doesn't have as much density maybe in their brows but still has a really good brow shape. And that would be like kind of like if you're going steady in a relationship. You already know that you want more. You've got a taste of what you like and you want more of it. You're ready for to turn that up. That would be a henna brow. You are not going to see the same kind of fading as tint. You'll see the hair grow out with a tint. It'll stay on the skin for one to two days but with a henna brow you're going to get the stain on your skin for oftentimes like seven to 10 ish days depending on how fast your skin exfoliate and how well you did prep the skin. Because obviously if there's a lot of dead skin cells hanging out at the top of your skin layer, that henna color is going to come off with those skin cells. So we want to make sure our brows are properly exfoliated because before we come into that appointment.

One step up from that would be like a brow lamination. I think it's more like being engaged. There's different brow artists who will have different opinions about this, but this service is best suited to someone who has a okay amount of hair that is maybe dispersed or growing in the wrong direction naturally. It is a little bit of like being engaged because you are doing something that's semi permanent and you have to wait like it out really like so your hair is going to be permed and redirection to make the optimum amount of fluff with your natural brow but it has to grow out for it to go back to normal. So the other things like henna brow seven to 10 days you're back to normal, then that hair is going to grow up with the tint and you'll be absolutely back to normal. The tint, you're just basically going to again, up to three days the stain is gone from the skin and then the hair is growing out. It's much more natural with the brow lamination. The organization of the hair is going to be permanently lifted in a different direction to maximize that fluffy look. However, it is going to take as much time for that hair to grow for that service to go back to like super natural the way it was looking. So I would consider that a little bit more commitment than doing a henna brow or just a regular tint because you will not see your brow going back to its original state for about six to eight weeks. Great for someone who has already tried something before and is looking for more. I think that it's a great great great alternative to permanent makeup for someone who wants something fluffier is not sure that they want to commit because let me tell you, all these fluffy brows that are happening you have to maintain those brows especially if you don't naturally have fluffy brows. If you're out in the sun or your body might be deficient in certain minerals. It's not perfect. There are times where it could it needs a little bit of maintenance like a yearly touch up is recommended for a color boost. Sometimes clients don't need that, sometimes clients will be three or four years but the reality of the situation is no matter how good of a permanent makeup artists you are, your clients skin is unique and is their lifestyle. I think the best way to test out a fluffy brow it's definitely with a brow lamination. Maybe the style changes, maybe your personal style changes and you want to go back to something a little bit more close to your natural brow style, then you can always go back. But if we do that permanently, with a permanent makeup service, you can't go back to your naturals shaping without something like laser tattoo removal.

Finally we arrive at permanent makeup and this can be a really great solution and save you a lot of money on these services. Once you are sure of what you want. And once you have tried out some things, it's like being married, you don't want to dip into that overnight. Most people who get married and don't know their partners. Most of those marriages might not end out the best. You might not be the happiest with a partner you choose. However, if you go through the steps like we usually do in finding our partners and you have a much better chance of being happy with this service. That's why I'm trying to highlight this and the step we go through so that people are not as open to making decisions that are going to lead to disappointment for them. As an artist, we don't want to put you in that place. We want to educate as much as we can so that you will arrive at a decision that is best suited for you. Once you have tried out some of these things, then permanent makeup can be a great choice. If you are considering permanent makeup I have created a permanent makeup consultation. During that consultation I will take into consideration your natural brow shape and amount of hair that you have available and then I will guide you on these steps.

Sometimes people don't need to do brow pencil in the beginning. They can go into a route tinned or a henna brow that will be better for them. Before doing any permanent makeup, I always require now that we do have some sort of a history for our services because it creates trust between us and it also gives you the chance to try out different shapes which is so important before you commit to anything serious. It also gives you a chance to get familiar with seeing yourself with different brow shape because it can be really crazy. I know a lot of women who get a set of lashes, they might have kids or like a baby and they go home and the baby won't stop crying because they're used to seeing you a certain way. It's not necessarily that you're better or worse. It's just shocking because it's not what's expected. And that's the same thing when you're looking at yourself in the mirror. Your mind just wants to see what it expects. You do have to take a second about 24 hours I recommend to any client before making any kind of judgment on what's happening with your service. Allow yourself 24 hours to just get used to it before you decide whether or not you like it because about 24 hours later you're gonna start being comfortable seeing yourself in a different way. Might even like it better than that initial shock.

I hope this is helping you guys. We have created a little infographic for you just the steps in the level of commitment and then I'm going to go through and also make you guys a little chart based on your hair growth and what your goals are, which service will be better suited for you and that's a little bit more in depth. But this chart I think is gonna help a lot of different people.

My goal is to equip you with the knowledge so that you can choose the right service from the get go. I really hate it when clients come and they spend their hard earned money and their precious time on a service that is not right for them.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I love talking to people about their services. Send me a selfie of your brows and DM me at elevatelash.ca and I will give you a free route consultation at any point in time. I'll tell you which service is going to be best for your brows. I've definitely talked people out of getting permanent makeup who are, I think are not suited for it, who honestly would look better with a brow tint. Like why not just go for Brow Tint if you have a super full brow and it's going to last you for about four weeks. Then once you're a little molder perhaps or you have some hair loss issues, then go for the permanent makeup. There's just so many different options and I really do think it's my responsibility as an artist before it is something permanently on you that you explore all options and that I fairly and honestly represent all the different options to you so that we're not doing something that creates a situation of regret.

Hope that this is going to bring so much value to you guys. If you have any other suggestions on topics that we should cover in the future. Happy to hear about that because I know you guys have questions, unfortunately, but fortunately too, I'm so blessed to be so busy in the studio. But these podcasts are really going to be my way to reach out to the community to make sure that I can provide as much value to as many people as I can while still honoring my full client load in the salon. I will be back next week with Laurel Colins - the Beautiful Living coach. We have so many awesome tips for you guys about creating a beautiful life. So catch up with us next Friday for the next episode. Loved this episode? Head over to iTunes to subscribe rate and leave a review. Don't forget to join us next week for another episode. Thanks for listening!