How To Pluck Your Eyebrows: A 7-Step Guide + Professional Brow-Shaping Tips

See, shaping your brows (be it with a set of tweezers, scissors, or a razor) is no let's wing it and see what happens! sort of venture. No, it takes supreme precision, will, and a steady hand. Ahead, find our foolproof seven-step guide, plus expert tips to make the brows appear professionally groomed. 

You'll also want to tweeze on completely dry brows—while you may have heard that warm water or steam can soften the follicle and make it easier to tweeze, Healy recommends this only if you have very thick, stubborn brows. "If you experience a lot of pain when plucking or if you have thicker hair, sometimes [plucking] fresh out of the shower or applying a warm washcloth [beforehand] could be somewhat helpful," he notes. "Otherwise, I prefer a brow at room temperature in a natural sort of way." 

Here's what you'll need:

Everyone has their own unique brow shape (find the most common ones here!), and it's helpful to have this realistic outline in mind before you pick up any tools. Read: Someone with naturally straight brows may not want to fashion a faux "arch," while someone with a pronounced peak might not want to tweeze too much off the top. 

If you find filling them in more helpful, Healy suggests taking a dark pencil (even a black eyeliner can work; the goal here is to form a clear outline) and creating your desired shape. "You can tweeze any hairs that are well outside of that area," he says, and use your brow scissors or razor for further cleanup, if you choose.

When you do tweeze the hairs, never pull against the grain. As Healy mentioned up top, you want to pull the hair clean from the follicle and prevent it from breaking. Not only will you achieve a sharper end result, but tweezing in the direction of hair growth creates less trauma on the tiny hair follicle. In case you need a reminder: When a follicle becomes too damaged, it dies—and the hair won't ever grow back.

A complete restyling of your brows will require you to touch up the brow bone (like, say, if you're trying to go from a straight brow to an upward shape), but we recommend waiting for a professional. As Healy says, "If you do choose to get close to the bone, there is a chance you could mess up your brows." 

As we mentioned, you don't want to lose perspective as you're tweezing. It's so easy to get caught up in tapering the tail, for example, that you pluck, and pluck, and pluck, until it looks gappy. That's why every so often, Healy says, take a step back and look at your brows from a distance. "At an arm's length or so is really where you want them to look good." After all, not many people are peering up close and studying your brow style.  

You've got the basics down pat, but these tips will help your brows appear expert-level: 

"Do not follow a celebrity's brows or print out a photo from Instagram to try to go hair-for-hair," he says. "You cannot match someone else's brows from a photo—it does not work that way, like it [might] with a haircut or color." While you can tweak your brows a bit to flatter your facial features, your brow shape is uniquely yours—own it! 

It's worth repeating: When it comes to plucking your brows at home, it's more about a routine cleanup than a complete transformation. Leave the heavy lifting to the professionals, if you can. And if you have any doubts during your at-home tweeze, just know that less is more. "If you're not sure about a hair, then leave it," Healy says. 

However, you also don't want to take too long in front of the mirror—that's when people tend to get a little tweezer-happy and end up with poor, tadpole-like eyebrows. If you're one to overpluck, you may need to give yourself a time limit: Healy recommends setting a hard stop for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off? Step away from the tweezers, please. 

For instance, if you know you have a brow appointment in two days' time, "better to back off and leave it to the professionals," Healy notes, even if one stray hair is giving you grief. And if you just don't feel like tweezing the brows that week? Don't touch 'em! The bottom line: Don't feel like you have to stick to a rigid schedule. 

Plucking your own brows does not need to be a gamble. Equipped with the right tools and these expert tips, some basic maintenance is totally doable. Deep breaths—you got this.