5 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Getting My Eyebrows Microbladed

I neglected my eyebrows for the better part of 20 years. In their natural state they're basically translucent, so I saw no need to shape them (I know, I know). But there was one day that shaped both my life and my brows and would lead me down a path that had me finding out first-hand what microblading your eyebrows is like. On this day, I had them filled in by a professional. She recommended that I try brow tinting, because blonde brows are really hard to fill in. So I did.

Life-changing is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but I'm going to use it here because there's no other way to describe the trajectory of my life. After that, I was a woman possessed. I became obsessed with my brows, tinting them every four to six weeks and hoarding piles of pomades, gels, and pencils to fill them in when they inevitably began to lighten.

Then, a couple of years ago, I noticed my brows begin to thin. (Fun fact: Did you know stress can cause this? Cool.) To say I took it well would be a vast overstatement. Imagine me shaking my fist at the sky and wondering why I had so little time with perfect brows.

It was right around this time that a treatment called microblading, a process that involves tattooing hairlike strokes onto your brow area, started gaining popularity. Microblading, it seemed, was the messiah come to save my face from its slow decline into browless-ness.

So, I did a little research (aka read a couple of online articles and went through a lot of Instagram posts) and decided to book an appointment. But nearly two years later, there are a few things I wished I had known before taking the plunge.

1. Your Brows Will Come Out Darker

When I came home from my first eyebrow microblading appointment, my boyfriend was perplexed as to why I had filled in my brows with Sharpie. You actually want them to be darker at first, because the tint will fade and lighten to your desired shade. But, just from my own experience, you may feel self-conscious leaving the house. Your brows will look dramatic. Here's what they looked like immediately following microblading. (Please forgive my selfie pose. I hadn't yet discovered my angles/the nuances of lighting.)

2. It's Not Totally Pain-Free

Most reputable eyebrow microblading places will apply a numbing cream before they get to work scratching pigment into your skin. Unfortunately, mine started to wear off near the end (my appointment was over two hours long). My technician offered to add more numbing cream, but when debating the existential pain of waiting 15 minutes for it to kick in (on top of the time the rest of my appointment would take) against feeling actual physical pain, the latter won out.

That said, the pain itself isn't really that bad. What is bad, however, is the fact that...

3. You Can Hear The Tattooing

It sounds like the little tiny scratches a person hears in a dark basement/closet before they get murdered in a horror movie. Not a deal-breaker (especially if you're used to getting tattoos), but just something to be aware of before your appointment.

4. How Many Microblading Sessions Do You Need?

"Sure, I can commit to multiple microblading appointments," I, a human woman who still cannot figure out how to add reminders to her phone without using Siri, actually thought. If you get microblading, you must do at least one follow-up appointment for best results. This is so that the technician can do touch-ups and make sure there aren't any patchy spots. In addition to the time commitment, there's also a monetary one as well. The treatment is not cheap.

5. Microblading For Blondes

Like I mentioned, my brows are naturally translucent. (Seriously, if you look at old photos of me, it looks like I have no arches.) I've been religiously tinting them for the past few years, but life happens and sometimes I go too long between tints. If you have very blonde eyebrows like I do, you'll probably still have to get them tinted after you get microblading done, which is annoying and also expensive. Below is a super close-up of my brows about two years after microblading and having them freshly tinted. If you look, you can see where the microblading is faded (it's the reddish tint).

Before my eyebrow microblading, the tint would fade evenly. After microblading, when the tint on my brows begins to fade, my hairs start looking patchy because the faded tattooing has turned slightly red and shows through my pale brows.

This was, in part, my fault. I prefer a darker, cool-toned brow to contrast with my blonde hair — think a little bit Daenerys Targaryen-esque. For the first few months I didn't mind at all having to be super on top of my tinting appointments, but now that it's started to fade it looks a little wonky to me. Plus, the strokes began to blur together a bit, so the look is definitely less clean.

However, I wouldn't have gone through the hours-long process of eyebrow microblading to get a result that matched my natural, super light color. My usual tinting would have looked weird over blonde microbladed brows, and blonde brows aren't the look I want. It's a real catch-22, or in 2035 terms, the woman shrugging emoji.

Basically, if you have very blonde arches like me, just be careful and make sure you really talk it through with your technician. The photo above shows what my eyebrows look like now, about two weeks after tinting and a year and a half after microblading.

That said, I know many people who swear by microblading — it is amazing for people who have sparse brows, or people who want bolder brows. For me, though, deciding to get microbladed was my 2016 version of "should I get bangs?" I did it, loved it for a bit, then wished for my brows to go back to normal (and by normal, I actually mean shaped and tinted, pre-microblading).

Fast Facts About Microblading

• Average Price: $500 - $1000 per session
• Amount of Treatments: Typically at least two, but results vary by person
• Average Time to Heal: Two weeks

How Long Does Microblading Last?

As a general rule of thumb, experts share that microblading can last between 12 months and three years. But it’s important to note that your results are dependent on the care you give your brows post-treatment. Those who don’t look after them are more likely to require frequent maintenance follow-ups.

“If you are someone who wants fuller brows, or [you] even over-tweezed, or if your brows just don't grow in certain spots, you should consider microblading,” Hibba Kapil, founder of Hibba Beauty Studio and microblading expert, previously told Bustle. “You won't have to fill them in for at least one year — the results are amazing."

After your treatment, it’s recommended to avoid excess sun exposure as much as possible and steer clear from harsh exfoliants such as glycolic acid and retinol, which are quite literally meant to remove the top layer of skin — and thus, your new tint.

Does Microblading Hurt?

The process of microblading involves getting a semi-permanent tattoo on your brows. And so, like any other tattoo, it involves needles; however, the ones used for this specific treatment are significantly smaller as they are meant to mimic fine hairlike strokes. As Kapil notes, "It's not painful, but it is uncomfortable.”

If you are worried about the level of discomfort or are someone with a particularly low pain level, there are methods used to make the process as easy as possible.

“Most places, including Hibba Beauty Studio, will numb the area beforehand to prevent discomfort. If you don't numb you can feel the scratches,” Kapil explains. “I find that for most people it's the screeching noise that is the biggest problem."

Dr. Janet Prystowsky, board-certified dermatologist and founder of Livad Skincare, previously echoed this statement to Bustle, sharing, "Numbing cream is typically used so that the procedure is not very uncomfortable.”