Are my eyebrows going to be shaved for microblading?

This is a question that we get a lot!! We created this video to put people’s minds at ease. We do not shave your eyebrows off before microblading. Please don’t let your artist do that. Watch to learn more!

If you rather read, below is the transcript. (Edited to make me sound smarter!)

Aloha,

My name is Hannah Maruyama. I am the owner and master artist, here, at YAMA Studios. A semi permanent makeup studio based, here, in Honolulu, HI.

I am here today to answer some questions that are commonly asked about microblading and semi permanent makeup.

Are you going to shave off my eyebrows?

This is my favorite question! This is my favorite question, you guys! You would not believe the amount of women that come into my studio and ask me if I’m going to shave off their entire eyebrow!

I could not figure out where this came from in the beginning. But, turns out that a lot of my clients got their eyebrows microbladed in the Philippines, about 20 years ago, I would say. 20 to 30 years ago actual makeup tattoo was really popular here because people are very active and outdoorsy. And it’s hot here.

It makes sense to just wake up and be able to get out of your house. Traffic here is really bad. There’s a lot of driving. A lot of people work multiple jobs. It just made sense to have your makeup tattooed on.

Cosmetic Tattoo in the Philippines

So, a lot of women, when they were traveling abroad, they had their eyebrows or their eyeliner tattooed in the Philippines. When they do that in the Philippines, apparently, this is what I’m told, they do microblading in the Philippines now. Phi Brows, I believe has a pretty large following there, but what I’m talking about is a legitimate black ink tattoo.

They’re very obvious. I see them all the time. So, obviously I do a lot of handing out of my cards to those people. But, point being, in the Philippines, when you go, they said, what they do first is they shave off your entire eyebrow with a razor. And I was horrified! I could not believe that they let them do that because that’s not in the spirit of microblading, at all.

Don’t ever, ever unless they are a doctor and they are operating on your face, on your eyebrows, let anyone for any reason shave your eyebrows off.

Just don’t let them do that to you. That’s not a good look. It’s difficult for your eyebrow hair to recover from that and, as a whole, what I usually tell my clients is that we need to treat our eyebrow hair like they’re flowers. Not like they’re weeds. So, don’t pluck them out and shave them all off.

Let me just tactfully say that the work that was done quite a while ago, several decades ago with tattoo ink, is not, it does not look natural. It does not look like it belongs. And, in fact, sometimes it can be, it’s difficult to remove and it’s also difficult to cover up. So, I would advise you to be very careful. I use a razor to do my pre-grooming. If you have any doubts, just make sure that they’re not going to take off your whole eyebrow. I don’t know what the rationale would be for that. I guess someone might tell you it’s so they can make the shape, but they should be designing the brow specifically for you, factoring in your hair growth, factoring in your facial symmetry, factoring in any irregularities that you may have in your skin. So, don’t let anyone shave your eyebrows off. I thought that should go without saying, but apparently it’s pretty wide spread. So, I just want to address that. But the spirit of microblading and the spirit of semi permanent makeup, I believe, and this is my YAMA Studios philosophy is that: it should look as natural as possible. It should look as much like you as possible. It should be a really natural enhancement. It should go with your face. It should look like it belongs to you. And I think that that’s a very important part of the art form and the science, as a whole.

If you’d like to learn more about semi permanent makeup or you’re interested in learning about microblading, as well, click on any of my other videos. If you really want to dive deeper into this world and learn more about it, my book is also linked below. It’s called Before the Blade: What You Need to Know Before Getting Microblading or Semi Permanent Makeup.

Important stuff. It’s a good overview of what to expect, how your appointment’s going to go, how to choose your artist, how to care for your semi permanent makeup, who is a good candidate for it, and just general warnings and cautions, and things you need to know, things that might eliminate you. All kinds of good stuff in there.

Like and subscribe. And I will be with all of you again next week!