Here is one of my pet peeves—bizarre eyebrow shapes.

I often look at patients and wonder at their eyebrow shaping. Eyebrows frame your eyes and balance your face. There are specific landmarks to observe and specific eyebrow shapes that are subconsciously pleasing to the observer.

Symmetry is the hallmark of a young face. We all get more asymmetrical over time but certainly a funky eyebrow shape accentuates it.

The biggest mistakes in eyebrow shaping are plucking the brow too thin, tweezing the center margin too far outward and starting the arch too far centrally giving a comma shaped eyebrow. Often one side of the eyebrow (the side opposite your dominant hand in the mirror) is tweezed way out. Take a picture of yourself and really look at your eyebrows. Often you will see the asymmetry and mistakes that you don’t notice in person, especially in your magnifying mirror.

Hold a pencil parallel to the outside corner of your nostril through the inside corner of your eye to your eyebrow. Only pluck center of this line. Rotate the pencil through the outside corner of your eye to your eyebrow. This is where your eyebrow should end. Rotate through the outside edge of the colored part of the eye to the brow. This is where you arch.

Don’t over pluck, leaving the eyebrows too thin. Not only does it age your face, and give a “hard” appearance, but often over time the hair won’t grow back. And please start the arch out far enough. Enough with the comma-shaped nonsense. Yes, both sides should match as closely as possible.

You can do this on your own. It’s free and makes a huge difference in the attractiveness of your face. Do it right or get professional help.