Microblading is a great solution for people who have brow insecurities of any kind, but especially for those who have very little natural brow hairs. In fact, a large portion of clients who come in for microblading have thin, overplucked arches – remnants of the 90s and early 2000s!
Even if you’re an experienced artist, you know how tricky microblading eyebrows can be. Since there’s very little hair, each of your strokes will be very prominent and there’s no guidance from the natural growth pattern! If you’re just starting out, you may be surprised by just how difficult it can be.
So, to prepare you for all those virtually browless clients, here’s a list of tips on what to pay special attention to when you get a client with very little natural brows.
Why Is Microblading Thin Eyebrows Tricky?
The sparser the client’s natural brows, the less room you have for error! You need to get everything right:
- The length of the arches
- The curve of the arches
- The thickness of the arches
- The placement of the strokes
- The thickness of the strokes
So, just about every aspect of creating the brow arch and filling it in with strokes has to be done perfectly.
Now we don’t mean to suggest that microblading thick brows is easy – bushy brows are a challenge in their own right – but most artists have more trouble with very sparse brows than they do with fuller ones.
Image source: Instagram @thebrowloftcardiff
Tips on Microblading Thin Eyebrows
As you work on clients with very thin brows more and more, you’ll get the sense of what works in such cases and what doesn’t. But to help you do each pair of brows as well as possible, we’ve prepared some tips.
Of course, every client is different and presents a unique set of challenges, but here is some general advice which will be universally useful.
Don’t Go Too Thick
Clients who’ve had thin brows for a while, possibly always, may come to you with dreams of thick, bushy, Kim K brows. But giving them those feathery caterpillar brows straight up may not be the best idea.
It’s not uncommon for clients with relatively full brows to get overwhelmed when microblading makes their arches even thicker, and sometimes regret the decision. For clients who are used to having their brows very thin, the chance of microblading regret is much higher.
So, the best policy is not going too thick in the first session. Give them thinner, natural-looking arches which look much better than what they had before. They may think they’re ready for a huge transformation, but in reality, even relatively thin microblading arches can make their dreams come true.
If you get a client with hardly any brows asking for very thick arches, try to reason with them and explain that, if you go a bit thinner at the first session, they can have some time to get used to the look and decide whether they want to go even thicker at the 6-8 week touch up.
With permanent makeup, you can always add, but you can never take anything away (okay, removal is possible but it’s better to avoid it). If you give them brows so different from what they’re used to, there’s a chance they won’t be satisfied. So, start thinner, and add later if they want to go thicker.
Image source: Instagram @rosa_mazzoni
Mapping Is Everything
If your client doesn’t have enough natural brows for them to create a full arch, it’s your job to recreate the arch from scratch, and the shape has to suit their features.
So, mapping is a very important aspect of microblading thin eyebrows, and you have to pay special attention to it. Mapping techniques are various and each artist uses the one that suits them best, so we won’t go into too much detail.
But it’s important to emphasize that you should always take your time with mapping when working on extremely sparse brows, since there’s no natural shape for you to follow.
You can find more general tips on mapping here.
Note – Getting the Lower Edge Right Is Crucial
When doing your outline on a client with very thin, sparse brows, you need to pay special attention to the lower edge of the brows. Since the space between the crease of the upper eyelid and the point where the brow should start is so limited, you need to place the lower edge with extreme precision. Otherwise, the whole arch can look off.
Take your time with it, and if you’re not sure how far down to start your strokes, try out different positioning in one of the mapping apps. You can find some app suggestions here.
Image source: Instagram @browrevo
Choose the Spine Carefully
When microblading thin eyebrows, the placement of the strokes within the outline can be as important as the outline itself.
The spine of an eyebrow is the point at which the upper and the lower strokes meet, and this stretch is what gives the brow arch structure. For most clients, determining the spine just means observing the natural brow growth pattern, but if the hair is so sparse you can’t identify the natural spine, it’s your job to recreate it.
Make sure to choose the one that best suits your client’s natural features – the overall effect depends on the spine as much as it does on the outer shape of the arches. You also need to take into consideration the brow hairs the client does have, so they don’t clash with the spine too prominently.
Final Tip
If you follow all the advice listed and you’re still not 100% satisfied with your work on very sparse brows, it might be useful to get some additional training. There are now many mini-courses you can take that focus on particular aspects of microblading, or you can reach out to your trainer and ask them if they have any additional advice to share on microblading thin eyebrows.
Cover image source: Freepik
