The Quest for the Perfect Eyebrow Shape at The Browshop in NYC

I recently asked a dermatologist which type of hair removal was the safest for the eyebrow area, given the proximity to the sensitive skin surrounding the eyes. She looked at me like I have been a horrible, abusive owner of my own skin and said “Well it’s all bad for you. The least damaging is tweezing.” I realized that somehow the journey to perfect brows took precedence over what was best for my skin.

After that interaction, I forced myself to grow out my eyebrows for four months.

Prior to my conversation with the dermatologist, I had been threading my brows. I decided to stop during the winter after learning the hard, painful way that my skin was pretty sensitive due to the cold weather. Waxing has always been too harsh on my skin, leaving it red, irritated, and then breaking out for the next week. The final frontier in brows would be finding a place that would do brow shaping with only tweezers.

As I started researching, it became clear that I’d have to spend a bit more than the first threading place I’d found after moving to New York City, which charged $5. That’s $5 total, not per brow in case you were wondering. Most brow shaping appointments run around $50 and up here in New York City.

I decided on the newly opened Browshop at Completely Bare after a series of Yelping, googling, and mapping out which location didn’t force me to head to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Brow stylist (first time I’d heard that title, but I kind of love it), professional makeup artist, and licensed esthetician Joey Healy not only has his own eyebrow studio and cosmetics line specializing in brow products, but he recently partnered with Completely Bare to train several experienced eyebrow specialists. At the Fifth Avenue location near Union Square, The Browshop is located in an open area in the back of the store, overlooking the busy street from high enough of a perch that no one can see you being plucked.

Despite me running a bit late, my brow specialist Ronia still spent a full 45 minutes consulting, shaping, and tweezing away at my brows. Using a special measuring tool, aka the Browshop calibration tool, she discussed the ideal spot on my face for an eyebrow arch and jotted down the measurement of my brows in inches. After I’d approved of her work, she filled in my brows with a powder much darker than I normally use, but it surprisingly looked great with my newly shaped brows.

The best part of the experience, besides being happy with my newly shaped brows of course, was how friendly Ronia was, making an uncomfortable experience feel like I was hanging out with one of my good friends. A friend who knows a whole lot about eyebrow arches.