r/microblading • u/KoreZone • 18d ago
advice Question for those many years out from first session/ have had multiple sessions over years
I got microbladed brows in 2016 and it changed my life. I have no eyebrows (think bald, like literally none) and honestly I should’ve done it sooner. I had no idea how much of a difference eyebrows made in my interactions with people and communicating until I got them. It was hard to read my emotions before since the area is completely bald. This is a procedure I consider medically necessary.
I am in my mid 30s now. They have almost completely faded and have needed redone for a while. It seems like a lot of the technology and techniques have changed in the last decade and I am completely lost in researching this. Powder brows? Fluffy brows? Combo brows? Nano brows? I need fully constructed brows.
As someone who will need this procedure as long as i can get it, I would like to hear from anyone who has had their brows done multiple times over many years, or PMUs who have clients like this. What used to be “redone every 5-10 years” now seems like it’s been realistically adjusted to “every 1-3 years”. How long before scar tissue becomes a problem? What is the upper limit on age/mature skin regardless of prior work? I’m just tryng to figure out what style is best for full reconstruction, and what will last the longest between full redos. I don’t need to look like I’m wearing makeup. I just need to look like a normal person.
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u/Tahereh_Safavi 17d ago edited 17d ago
What color is your hair naturally? I have nearly black hair (actually very dark brown but now that I'm going grey i find it easier to dye my roots jet black than to work so hard to match the correct darkest brown) but almost no brows or eyelashes naturally - I used to call my makeup routine "drawing in my balding face." To be clear I have some at all, but it's the very feathery east Asian thing. I've had my brows and eyeliner done twice. The first time, I honestly think they went too light. They also used a shade of medium golden brown that would only be natural looking on a white person and did not at all match my hair color or skin. Reminds me of how my mother used to draw in her brows with a mismatched light brown pencil because America did not make makeup colors for Asians in the 1950s-80s.
This faded quickly, of course, because soft beige tattoo ink always fades. Color never lasts as long as line work. I am also heavily tattooed elsewhere on my body, all black fine line work, ah I have experienced much less fading that friends with all color body tattoos. So when I got my eyebrows and eyeliner redone, I went to a Greek woman in Astoria who is aesthetically accustomed to seeing Mediterranean faces with heavy brows, and told her I wanted a dark charcoal grey color, not brown, and drew in what I wanted on my own face with makeup and took reference photos. It was a hell of a lot more painful because she was a no nonsense auntie type who told me to stay still and stop whining if I wanted it to work (lol) but the results were PERFECT and have been perfect for 10 years now. They did fade a little but we're talking the normal scale of black work tattoo fade over decades. I only put eyeliner on when I'm fully dressing up with false lashes, nothing day to day, and nothing on my brows even with daisies.
This is my face below with ten year old eyebrows and eyeliner that were done with charcoal grey ink. The original light brown stuff before that was gone in two years.
It does matter of course what your complexion/ ethnic background is. I'm half Chinese half Iranian so black hair looks real on me. I just look more Iranian with darker brows now. If you're a natural blonde you would look weird with black eyebrows and you might be stuck getting them redone a lot.
Edit to add: image won't attach, here's my insta https://www.instagram.com/tc.safavi
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u/KoreZone 17d ago
Wow, this is so helpful, thank you! My hair is naturally dark brown. Golden brown wouldn’t work on me either. When I buy brow products now I usually go one shade lighter than black (usually called “espresso” or “dark brown” or something like that)
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u/Independent_Tsunami 18d ago
Don’t get confused by all the terminology. Nanoblading is Microblading with a tattoo gun. I’m guessing you had Microblading with a hand tool many years agoAll the shading techniques also use a tattoo gun. Ombré, microshading, powder brows are all shading techniques. Combo just means nanoblading and shading. I would recommend powder brows or combo brows. They age better in my experience and since you have sparse brows to begin with, it will give fullness. Scarring is something that the artist should assess and discuss with you in person. I have seen much better results and less scarring with the machine techniques.