By Grace Gold, Allure
Eyebrows have never been bigger: Consider Glossier's 10,000-person Boy Brow waitlist. With emerging trends like semipermanent microblading and the "Instagram brow" phenomenon, it's clear that bushy is the new black.
[post_ads]The quest for fuller brows has made eyebrow transplants a thing. RealSelf.com, a forum for cosmetic surgery where visitors share experiences and rate doctors and procedures, reports that there has been a 140 percent increase in eyebrow-transplant searches on the site in the last year. Similar to regular hair transplants, the process involves removing either individual groups or a strip of skin with active follicles from one area of the body to another. (The back of the head is the most common harvesting site.) The follicles are then trimmed to fit the preferred brow shape and transplanted into the brow area.
"Overplucked eyebrows are the most common cause of people who seek out transplants," says New York City and Miami plastic surgeon Jeffrey Epstein who performs about four such procedures per week. About 70 percent of his patients are women in their 30s and 40s, since that is the time when overzealous plucking in earlier years often begins to show up as thinning and bald spots.
The healing process is similar to the one that follows getting a tattoo, with light bruising and some crusting of the skin. "Most patients look fine three days later, and within eight days the eyebrows look great," says Epstein. It takes about four months for the new hairs to begin to grow, and you can expect your results to reach maximum fullness after a year. Most of Epstein's patients maintain their new brows not by tweezing them but by trimming every couple of weeks.
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For most, the price of admission is a serious investment. It may vary by region, but RealSelf estimates a median cost of $7,500 for the average eyebrow transplant nationwide. (It may cost less if fewer follicles are needed to get your desired result.) The ideal candidate is someone who has overtweezed or who has genetically thin brows. However, Epstein says, it won't work for those who have medical conditions like alopecia.
Brow expert Tonya Crooks, who has shaped the arches of Megan Fox and Julia Roberts, cautions that permanent procedures, like eyebrow transplants, and semipermanent ones, like microblading, should be considered far more soberly and seriously than simply going in for a shaping or buying brow products. She is also wary of transplants in general, having worked with clients who have had the procedure. "The hairs are usually taken from your head, which is really a different type of hair compared to the texture of your natural eyebrows," says Crooks. "These hairs grow incredibly fast and more often than not can look unnatural, in my experience." Other possible complications include lasting redness and scarring of the donor site if performed incorrectly, according to Epstein.
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As with all cosmetic procedures, the key to getting a natural-looking result is to fully research the surgeon you choose and to view before-and-after pictures to get a good sense of the doctor's skill. "It's important patients do their homework and make sure the doctor has done many eyebrow transplants—if not done properly, the results are truly problematic," says Epstein—whose patients (80 percent!) fly in from other areas to visit his New York City and Miami offices just for the treatment.How to decide if eyebrow transplants are for you? Crooks advices her clients to ask themselves two questions: Should I try to work the best with what I have, and are there other possible solutions that don't involve going under the knife? If the answer is yes, it would better to check out the brow aisle in Sephora. If it's no, take the time to do your due diligence on surgeons you plant to consult.
[post_ads]The quest for fuller brows has made eyebrow transplants a thing. RealSelf.com, a forum for cosmetic surgery where visitors share experiences and rate doctors and procedures, reports that there has been a 140 percent increase in eyebrow-transplant searches on the site in the last year. Similar to regular hair transplants, the process involves removing either individual groups or a strip of skin with active follicles from one area of the body to another. (The back of the head is the most common harvesting site.) The follicles are then trimmed to fit the preferred brow shape and transplanted into the brow area.
"Overplucked eyebrows are the most common cause of people who seek out transplants," says New York City and Miami plastic surgeon Jeffrey Epstein who performs about four such procedures per week. About 70 percent of his patients are women in their 30s and 40s, since that is the time when overzealous plucking in earlier years often begins to show up as thinning and bald spots.
The healing process is similar to the one that follows getting a tattoo, with light bruising and some crusting of the skin. "Most patients look fine three days later, and within eight days the eyebrows look great," says Epstein. It takes about four months for the new hairs to begin to grow, and you can expect your results to reach maximum fullness after a year. Most of Epstein's patients maintain their new brows not by tweezing them but by trimming every couple of weeks.
[post_ads_2]
For most, the price of admission is a serious investment. It may vary by region, but RealSelf estimates a median cost of $7,500 for the average eyebrow transplant nationwide. (It may cost less if fewer follicles are needed to get your desired result.) The ideal candidate is someone who has overtweezed or who has genetically thin brows. However, Epstein says, it won't work for those who have medical conditions like alopecia.
Brow expert Tonya Crooks, who has shaped the arches of Megan Fox and Julia Roberts, cautions that permanent procedures, like eyebrow transplants, and semipermanent ones, like microblading, should be considered far more soberly and seriously than simply going in for a shaping or buying brow products. She is also wary of transplants in general, having worked with clients who have had the procedure. "The hairs are usually taken from your head, which is really a different type of hair compared to the texture of your natural eyebrows," says Crooks. "These hairs grow incredibly fast and more often than not can look unnatural, in my experience." Other possible complications include lasting redness and scarring of the donor site if performed incorrectly, according to Epstein.
[post_ads_2]
As with all cosmetic procedures, the key to getting a natural-looking result is to fully research the surgeon you choose and to view before-and-after pictures to get a good sense of the doctor's skill. "It's important patients do their homework and make sure the doctor has done many eyebrow transplants—if not done properly, the results are truly problematic," says Epstein—whose patients (80 percent!) fly in from other areas to visit his New York City and Miami offices just for the treatment.How to decide if eyebrow transplants are for you? Crooks advices her clients to ask themselves two questions: Should I try to work the best with what I have, and are there other possible solutions that don't involve going under the knife? If the answer is yes, it would better to check out the brow aisle in Sephora. If it's no, take the time to do your due diligence on surgeons you plant to consult.
