THE power brow is poised to beat out lush lashes as the newest beauty fix.
Bold brows are trending on the runway and the red carpet, and it's a look that will continue into the spring, says Heather White, of Stamford Spa & Salon in West Vancouver.
"Megan Fox. Kim Kardashian. They've all got these great defined brows," says White, who trained with Hollywood brow shaper Nilam Patel and developed the Perfect Brows service that she offers at her Dundarave salon.
These days, even blondes are sporting bold brows, White tells me when I drop into the salon to sample the service.
Nature blessed me with full and fairly well defined brows and so my laissez-faire maintenance regimen consists of a quick pluck of a hair or two and a hasty stroke of brow pencil. In White's expert care, however, I see the error of my ways and the true benefit of the celebrity treatment.
White honed her craft in the United Kingdom, where she and her husband, hair stylist Gary White, owned and operated an expansive hair and esthetics salon before moving to the North Shore and opening Stamford Spa & Salon in June.
The salon takes its name from the historic town north of London where the couple ran their successful business, a Clarins gold standard salon with a staff of 25.
In England, White tamed the brows of local celebrities including television actresses and news presenters. Her seven-step process consists of tinting, waxing, tweezing, trimming, threading, makeup applying and pencilling.
The Perfect Brows service focuses on long-term design rather than immediate brow tidying. The fee is $40.
"The big difference is educating people rather than just focusing on removing hair," White says as she assesses my brows.
"You've got a thick part in the middle and a thin part in here," she tells me as she shows me in the mirror where my brows are uneven and unmatched. "We just need to get those nice and even," she says, mixing a tint and applying it with an orange-wood stick.
"People have always got sisters, they're not twins, when it comes to eyebrows," says White, proceeding to wax and tweeze my brows.
"You want to get a nice shape that's more angled," she instructs. "You don't want to go too thin but we do need to take some of this off. That arch gives you a really good lift."
Wielding eyebrow scissors, she expertly trims what she
calls my "wild ones," those unruly hairs along the tail of the brow that simply refuse to behave. "A lot of people go a bit crazy when it comes to cutting," she notes. Over-tweezing is another no-no.
She threads above my brow to blend and finishes with an application of mineral makeup and brow pencil.
White finishes in just under 30 minutes and shows me where it's safe for me to tweeze for maintenance, advising: "You can do a little cultivating but try and leave them, and come back in four to six weeks."
The result is expertly groomed brows that give my face an instant lift and take me through the holiday party season.
"Having the right shape is everything," says White. "So it is important sometimes to take the time to nurture the brows into their ideal shape."
For clients with hereditary scarce brows, over-pluckers or those recovering from medical treatment that causes hair loss, White offers a permanent brow makeup service.
The salon also offers a range of esthetic services including Dermaceutic peels, DermaFrac collagen stimulation treatments, Elemis anti-aging facials, Intraceuticals oxygen infusion treatments, Luzern skin care, Lac Sensation gel manicures and CACI facial toning.
Stamford Spa & Salon is at 2417 Marine Dr. in West Vancouver.
