The Ultimate Guide to Saving Thin Eyebrows

Gone are the 90s when thin eyebrows were the pinnacle of every makeup routine. Whether you’ve overgroomed your brows or are noticing they’re thinner than they once were, our ultimate guide to saving thin eyebrows will help you recreate the strong, lush brows that will frame your face with a whole new level of drama.

What Could Cause Thinning Eyebrows?

It can be discouraging and upsetting to see thinning eyebrows, but taking the time to learn the potential and likely causes behind your sparser-than-usual brows will set you on the right path to getting them back. So what are the possible reasons your brows could be less full and more patchy?

• Age. As we age, lower estrogen levels affect our hair growth, leading to thinner hair and eyebrows.
• Alopecia areata. An autoimmune disorder in which your body attacks healthy hair follicles, alopecia areata can cause hair to fall out, creating thinner hair or even bald patches.
• Overplucking your brows. Did you know that eyebrows are the slowest growing hair on the human body? If you’ve overplucked your eyebrows, the hairs could eventually stop growing altogether.
• Hypothyroidism. Your thyroid produces hormones, which affect your hair growth cycles. Hypothyroidism — when your thyroid doesn’t produce as many hormones as it should — can affect your brow growth, nncluding losing your eyebrow hairs.
• Stress. Severe stress can trigger telogen effluvium, a condition in which hair falls out a few months after the stressful episode, and can take several months to return.

Now that you know some of the potential causes of thinning brows, it’s time to focus on getting them back for good. 

Also: How to Trim Your Eyebrows Yourself

The Best Tips for Creating Thicker Brows With Makeup

The good news is you can create thicker brows using the right makeup products and techniques.

Gucci Westman, the makeup artist responsible for making Jennifer Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon and Cameron Diaz look flawless, says never to touch your brows as far as plucking goes—advice she neglected to take in her youth, like so many of us!

To help create thicker brows, Westman uses feathery, gentle strokes to fill in brows with a pencil that matches her natural brows. Using your eyebrow pencil, hold the pencil upright next to your nose—this is where your brow should start. Then, angle the top of the pencil to the end of your eyebrow to create a triangle—this is where your brow should end.

For natural-looking yet defined brows, Mario Dedivanovic, best known for creating some of Kim Kardashian’s most iconic looks, says to first brush brows, according to Cosmopolitan. This will help you see where your brows need the most attention! Next, lightly use a pencil (seeing a pattern here?) to fill them in. For an added effect, take a brow brush and use a shadow that’s a shade lighter than the pencil you used to set the look.

Sir John, best known for doing Beyonce’s brows (and Ashley Graham’s!), has a similar idea, according to ELLE: feathery strokes with your go-to eyebrow product, narrowing your strokes once you get to the end of your brow. 

Read: How to Do Your Eyebrows Based on Your Natural Shape

Nutrition to Focus on for Eyebrow Hair Health

So while your makeup is doing its magic, how can you support eyebrow health and thickness? Here are a few key nutrients that could help combat eyebrow thinness:

• Zinc, iron and vitamin D have all been associated with hair thinning in telogen effluvium and alopecia areata, so if you’re suffering from thinning hair from stress or an autoimmune disorder, these could be beneficial nutrients to focus on.
• Also called vitamin B7, biotin is a nutrient shown to improve hair wellness in people experiencing hair thinning.
• Vitamin A is an essential vitamin for healthy hair, so making sure you’re getting enough can be important for your eyebrow growth.
• Getting enough Vitamin C in your diet can also be helpful for thinning hair.

What else can you do to save thinning brows besides eating a healthy diet? First, don’t tweeze your eyebrows. That may have worked for you in the past, but plucking will only accelerate the thinning process at this point. Find a case to put your tweezers in and send them on vacation!

Read: 4 Nutrition Habits That Are Making Your Hair Thinning Worse

Reducing your stress as much as possible can also help support your body’s natural hair cycles. Since brows take longer to replenish themselves, patience is key, but the results will be worth it. Give your brows a little TLC (and your favorite brow serum) to encourage fullness and thickness for a healthy, stunning look!

Read: Here's Everything You Need to Know About Bleached Eyebrows

Want to Get Your Brows Back?

Our GRO Brow Serum supports healthy brows so you can enjoy thicker, fuller looking brows.  Formulated with clean, vegan ingredients, this brow serum infused with powerful phytoactives revitalizes hair at the root to deliver visibly fuller, denser looking brows in as soon as 60 days.*

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Photo credit: Shiny Diamond/Pexels

* Results from clinical study involving 30 subjects over 60 days.