Makeup Monday: First Time Threading

What lovely photo memories threading left me with;)

I was a wee bit nervous about my first threading experience. Not because of the pain – I’m kind of a champ when it comes to pain tolerance – but because I never let anyone touch my brows. I had my brows done once in my whole life and it was a tragedy. I like my brows defined and my arch just so. I have to fill them in enough as it is, so the idea of someone taking anything off is a mini nightmare. However, when my friend Christine of My Style Pill shared her amazing brow makeover experience at Shobha, I became intrigued. I’ve heard a lot about threading but of course, I went ahead and did my research anyway. The risk seemed pretty minimal and the pros were exactly what I was looking for:

– It’s precise: since it’s done in many little stages, there’s less chance of any “oops!” moments.

– It even gets rid of the baby fuzz.

– It’s 100% natural.

A few weeks later, I had an appointment with their master specialist, Anjali, who has been threading since she was 12 years old and is highly respected in her field. I brought Kim along for moral support (and for photo documentation). She ended up getting her own brows done!

To start, Anjali has you tell her exactly what you do and do not like about your brows and what you want to achieve. She then gives her own input and once there is an agreement, she tells you exactly what she is going to do. This helped me, because we were immediately on the same page. I wanted a little bit more definition in my right brow (to match my left) and wanted to clean everything up a little bit. From there, Anjali worked her magic. I’ll use Kim’s photos to demonstrate the process:

First, she combed the brows (using a lash wand) and trimmed the excess hair.

Then, she guided us where to place our hands, so we could help in the process and hold the skin taut. She shifted our hand positions a few times throughout, to shape the brows.

The threading began! To me, it felt like a vibrating sensation and didn’t hurt at all. Kim said it did, but please keep in mind that she literally cried when she got her tiny tattoo – and bit her hand until it almost bled. That being said, it was probably a minor pain, somewhere in the middle of our respective sensations. Afterward, Anjali treated the area with rosewater, to reduce redness (which was already very minimal). She also demonstrated how to fill them in with our complimentary Shobha brow pencils, which I have since made the switch to.

Threading is available in many locations at many different prices, but since I only have experience with Shobha, I can only attest to their own services. You can view their price list here, but note that Anjali will be more expensive. You pay for her years of expertise! Ordinarily, she said that a full brow transformation takes two or three sessions – the rest is maintenance. Keeping that in mind, she is well worth the initial price. This is coming from someone who is brow obsessed.

The verdict: Kim and I both agreed that we would do it again – absolutely. Anjali was extremely precise and thorough and left us with beautiful brows. She also walked us through every step to keep us feeling at ease, which was much appreciated. Naturally, we didn’t remember to take final photos (those will come) but let’s just say it’s because we were so happy with the results, we plum forgot. My own brow results weren’t that drastically different, but that’s what I was looking for. A more clean, symmetrical and defined version of my already existing brows. It’s a subtle difference to many but it made a huge difference to me.

Thank you to Shobha for making us feel so welcome, and to Christine for introducing us to our new brow guru!

p.s. Please share you own threading experiences in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
p.p.s. See a video of Anjali in action here.