How To Grow Your Eyebrow Hair

Eyebrow trends have ranged from thin and long to thick and bushy. If your eyebrows are thinner than you want them to be—either from over-plucking or an eyebrow hair loss condition—you might be looking for a solution to grow them back.

Getting to a point of full eyebrows may not be a quick and easy process. But there are some key products and tools that can help to grow, shape, and fill in your eyebrows—it's all about the proper technique.

Read on to discover what conditions cause eyebrow hair loss and the tips and tricks that can help you up your brow game

Why You May Have Eyebrow Hair Loss

Over-plucking your eyebrows is a common mistake—you start plucking at a few stray hairs and when you take a step back at the final look, more of your eyebrow is gone than you intended. It happens.

But sometimes, eyebrow hair loss is out of your control and may be caused by an underlying health condition.

Trichotillomania

If you find yourself pulling your eyebrow hair out (or any hair on your body) to the point of distress—when you're trying not to, or compulsively—you may have trichotillomania.

Trichotillomania is a psychiatric disorder that is classified under obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and causes people to pull out their hair repeatedly.

Constant hair-pulling can cause scarring and other damage, including infections to the skin on your scalp or the specific area where hair is pulled, and can permanently affect hair growth. A healthcare provider may recommend cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help manage anxiety and hair-pulling

Front Fibrosing Alopecia (FFA)

Front fibrosing alopecia (FFA) is a disease that causes hair loss and scarring on the scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Eyebrow hair loss is often the first noticeable sign of FFA—around 80–90% of women who have FFA have lost part or all of their eyebrows.

The cause of FFA is unknown. But if the disease is caught early—before hair loss is permanent—treatment can help your hair grow back. Treatment options can include medication and laser therapy.

How To Get Thick Eyebrows

If you want thicker brows for any reason—whether you've lost hair as a result of a condition or you over-plucked your brows—here are some tips to get thicker brows and how to fill them in in the meantime.

Draw In Your Brows While Growing Them Out

If you've decided to say "so long" to thin arches, just know that the growing-out process won't happen overnight. For the time being, you may choose to fill in your brows with makeup.

You can purchase a specific eyebrow makeup kit that can help you create thin, natural-looking strokes where you want "hairs" to appear.

Strengthen Your Brow Hair

Faking thick eyebrows is a good start, but you may still want fuller brows of your own. To kickstart the process, you can use an eyebrow serum, a gel-based product in an easy-to-use pen applicator that helps strengthen existing brow hairs.

Most eyebrow serums can be used every night to help grow back eyebrow hair at a faster rate.

Get Grooming

Once the hair on your brows begins to grow in, you can tend to strays and extra-long strands with tweezers, tiny scissors, and a spoolie-type brush. Hair should generally be plucked in the direction of the follicle (to avoid ingrown hair).

Try not to go overboard with plucking and cutting; instead, only remove hairs far outside your arches. Then use the spoolie brush to comb your hair upwards and lightly trim the edges.

Here's a tip: Stay far away from magnified mirrors when doing this—they show every single detail on your face and may encourage you to over-pluck.

Work With Your Natural Eyebrow Shape

You can work with the natural shape of your eyebrows to create a subtle look. Technique is important—fill your eyebrows in with more of a gradient, with the tails darker and the hairs closest to your nose a little lighter.

You can do this by applying an eyebrow cream-gel to the outer half of your eyebrows for a sharp tail and then by using an eyebrow pencil to lightly fill in sparse spots in your inner brows. After filling in your arches, brush the hairs up and over to complete the look.

A Quick Review

You may have thin eyebrows as a result of over-plucking or a hair loss condition. If you have a hair loss condition, treatment options may include medication and laser therapy. If you accidentally got carried away with the tweezers—you can fill in your brows with makeup and try an eyebrow serum.

Growing out over-plucked brows is no easy feat, but if you want thicker eyebrows—it can be worth it.