Semi-permanent brows: Will the shade change over time?

Brows have taken over the world in 2016 and they are just getting bigger and bigger. Literally. Which is difficult when you over-plucked in the '90s.

But what can you do when you have tried everything to grow them back with little or no result?

Recently, I mentioned that I undertook a course in the latest and greatest 3D realism, microblading. The name of this new technique is "Phi Brow" and for those of you who missed my article, you can catch up here - I think it's a must read.

I'll go into more detail on the difference between microblading and tattooing in my next article but today I want to focus on one of the major requests clients have when they come to my salon - how to fix tints/the shade of tattoos that have changed colour over time. Sometimes shades can oxidise over time but the good news is that it is possible to correct.

One of my clients came to me with what I call 'pink brow'. Her natural eyebrow had actually been shaved off, leaving her with two tails when her hair grew back. But the wrong pigment had also used (this actually happens quite a lot) and it had oxidized pink over time.

In this case, I had to lower the brow and to even the symmetry, along with colour correcting to neutralize the pink tones. We still have the last stage to do in this correction where I'll do the Phi Brow effect over this colour correction to emulate hair strokes. I'll keep you updated when it's finished so you can see the final result.

The worst part is that sometimes it's not even the technicians fault in that they have actually made the effort to be trained professionally; it's just that they have been to a training course that simply wasn't good enough and they were provided with incorrect information. I have clients who got permanent tattoos done (elsewhere) years ago and they pigment used was incorrect, and they have now ended up with blue eyebrows. This might be a great look if you are in Fraggle Rock but not if you had expected a different shade in the, you know, real world (and just to clarify, I'm not saying Fraggle Rock isn't real).

What I want to get across is that it is exceptionally important that you know what you are getting yourself in for. Knowledge is power and I want to leave you in a much better position so that you can avoid any and all disasters.

In my opinion, you get what you pay for and you have to pay for quality when it comes to semi-permanent procedures. It's great if salons or technicians are doing an introductory offer to introduce a new service, but if a semi-permanent procedure is under €299 (at special offer price) I personally would avoid it because good quality pigments alone cost a fortune (not to mention quality training courses).

You can buy tints online for very little money but how can you be sure what is in them? At the end of the day, this pigment is going on your face which is the one thing you can not hide if things go wrong. And believe me, they can go wrong.

Ask your technician where she/he buys their products. Do your research.

Have you ever had an eyebrow tint/shade/tattoo disaster? Do you get a regular tint in the salon/ do it at home or get a semi-permanent procedure?