In Pursuit Of Korean Eyebrows

Kate Moss topless and her even more scanty eyebrows.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with my eyebrows. First of all, I was cursed with scanty eyebrows (just part of my genetic Chinese blood) – I look like one of those people who had half their brows shaven when they were drunk by friends, except that mine was all-natural! Then, the waif and Kate Moss happened, and I happily plucked out all of my eyebrows to mimic Miss Moss’ oh-so-trendy pencil-thin ones. You should have seen my ex-boyfriend who saw me for the first time without make-up…if regret had a face, it would be his! Thankfully, he stuck around for a good decade, and thankfully for him, some of my eyebrows grew back.

Fast-forward and an innovation called eyebrow embroidery saved my life. This treatment involved scraping your brows with sharp blades then depositing ink into the cuts to constitute fake hair. Voila! Perfectly-drawn eyebrows. Thankfully, it looks better than it sounds, although the procedure back then was extremely torturous – this coming from a girl with seven tattoos on her body! But I lived with the pain just so that I could have groomed brows without having to draw them (Yeah, I’m that lazy when it comes to makeup!).

Then K-pop happened and arches in your eyebrows are now passé! Suddenly, everyone and their grandma want Korean straight-across brows. Why? Apparently, this screams youth like Chupa Chups. This popular eyebrow shape gives you the bright-eyed bushy-tailed sweet look you’ve always dreamed off. I buy it, my seven-year-old niece has the same brows. So what do I do now? MY EYEBROWS HAVE ARCHES! AND THEY ARE THIN TOO! As if to mock me, I see this hairy trend everywhere – posters of follicularly-unchallenged Korean stars to beauty bloggers, all mocking me with their gorgeous and full (and young) brows.

Han Ga In

Kim Tae Hee

Song Hye Gyo

My cutie pie niece

Thankfully, I came across HighBrow from a beauty blogger who tried their Brow Enliven treatment and I could not stop staring at her brows, they were full, natural and exactly what I wanted! I made my appointment pronto and met up with Cynthia, the proprietor and her Creative Director Andy, aka the man with the golden hands. Their signature Brow Enliven treatment is an innovative procedure which uses three different sized blades that were specially designed by Andy to create a more natural and precise eyebrow shape. This procedure is also done on the third layer of the skin epidermis where there are no blood vessels.

HighBrow Korean brows specialist.

Choosing my brow shape with Andy – KOREAN KOREAN KOREAN!

Getting acquainted with my Korean brows.

After explaining the entire procedure to me, Andy showed me different brow shapes and said that since I have an oval face, I would suit the Korean shape. Hooray! That was all I needed to hear. To begin, he skillfully drew two different eyebrow shapes and asked me to pick the one I preferred. Naturally, I chose the straighter and thicker one. Then, he applied numbing cream and put cling wrap on my brows for about 25 minutes. While waiting, Andy customised an ink made up of three different brown colours to match my hair and skintone. When he started, the process was so painless that I dozed off – with him cutting my brows and his face about two inches away from mine! Did someone say narcoleptic? In less than 10 minutes, he was done. He explained that my brows will darken slightly the next day as the ink sets, and I have to avoid washing and wiping my brows for a week. I was also given a serum and cream to further protect my colour. Brow Enliven is by far, the easiest and cheapest way to shave years off – and in the capable hands of Andy, you can look like your favourite Korean star faster than you can say yeppeun!