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Henna Brows Aftercare - Rules and Maintenance Tips
A simple guide through henna brows aftercare. The rules are quite simple, but it’s important to follow them to ensure the best results.
Image source: Freepik
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Henna brows are a simple, non-invasive, semi-permanent brow enhancement treatment. It’s basically a form of tinting, so its application is topical, but the results are meant to last up to 5 weeks (the shade on the skin lasts up to 2 weeks).
In order to make sure your henna brows last out that long, you need to follow the rules of a simple aftercare routine, and avoid certain products as part of maintenance.
Here’s a guide through henna brows aftercare, along with general maintenance tips.
Click on the link to go directly to a specific step:
What’s Henna Brows Aftercare Like?
Henna brow aftercare comes down to avoiding certain products and activities in order to prevent premature fading and keep the color looking fresh as long as possible. Since the color is applied onto the skin, not into it like with brow PMU, it can fade faster than it’s supposed to if you don’t pay some special attention to it.
Image source: Instagram @goldenjusta
Henna Brows Aftercare Rules
In the first 24 hours after the treatment, follow these rules:
- Don’t get your brows wet
- Don’t expose them to sweat or steam
- Don’t expose them to heat
- Don’t apply any makeup on or around the brows
- Don’t expose your brows to sunlight
- Don’t apply any harsh skincare on the area (including makeup removers)
- Don’t apply any product that contains fragrance to the area
All these can cause the shade on the skin to fade prematurely. The shade generally lasts shorter than the hair dye – 1-2 weeks – so you definitely don’t want to accelerate its fading even further! The color of the hairs is more resilient and lasts up to 5 weeks.
Henna Brows Maintenance
When the first 24 hours after the procedure elapse, there are still some brow henna aftercare rules you should follow in order to keep the color on your brows as long as possible.
Here’s what you should do for the longevity of your henna brows if you want to keep the effects for their full lifespan:
- Avoid sunlight exposure for long stretches of time. Sun radiation causes a chemical reaction that fades color faster both from the skin and from the hairs.
- Avoid oil-based products. Oil in skincare accelerates the fading of color from both the skin and the hairs. This includes makeup removers, cleansers, and moisturizers. Study the ingredients list of your skincare – they may contain oils you don’t even know about.
- Avoid retinol, acids, and other anti-aging or skin brightening ingredients. These substances accelerate the skin cell turnover cycle, and they wash away the color from the skin.
- Avoid touching your brows. Rubbing your brows with your fingers or with a cotton pad will wipe off the color from the skin.
- Avoid any exfoliation. This applies to both mechanical scrubs and chemical peels. Rubbing removes the color mechanically. Ingredients that do a chemical peel accelerate the skin cell turnover and fade the color.
- Avoid waxing your brows. If you get wax onto the tinted area, it will remove the color. Tweeze out your stray hairs instead.
Image source: Freepik
So, What Can I Use on My Brows After Henna Brows?
It’s a good idea to switch to gentle skincare for the longevity of your henna brows effects.
Get a gentle makeup remover and don’t rub your brows when removing makeup. In terms of moisturizing, you can just avoid the brow area and apply what you normally wear on the rest of your face. Just let the skin absorb the product before you go to sleep – you might rub your face against the pillow and get the product onto your brows.
There are special formulas available on the market designed for henna brows after care – mostly balms with SPF that provide the skin with moisture and protect the color from sunlight, so it’s not faded prematurely.
How Often Can I Get My Henna Brows Refreshed?
Once you try henna, you may never want to go back to bare brows again!
However, you should be cautious not to overuse henna. Once the effects have faded, you should give your skin and your brow hairs some time to breathe and rest from the colorant. Like any colorant, henna is slightly drying, and if you get treatments too close together, your skin and brow hairs could get dried out.
Another possible issue with overusing henna is the slight but not negligible chance of developing an allergy to it. Obviously, if you got the henna treatment at least once and everything went fine, you’re not allergic to it, but if you overexpose your skin to it, it may start reacting.
For these reasons, some techs recommend spacing out the treatments at least 4-6 weeks apart, regardless of how long the effects last on your skin.
Henna Brows Aftercare – Main Takeaways
Henna brows are quite an affordable treatment, and they’re not meant to last for that long, but you still want to make the most of your treatment and prevent premature fading of the effects by following the rules of eyebrow henna aftercare. The immediate henna brows aftercare comes down to keeping your brows dry and avoiding certain activities.
To keep the color fresh as long as possible, avoid sunlight exposure, harsh and oil-based skincare, and facials that can remove the color mechanically.
