Meet Asya, our Retail Marketing Manager, who we sent along to experience Microblading for herself and to feed back to us on what all the fuss is about…
Why did you decide to have Microblading?
I had always been quite happy with my brows. Naturally very dark but with fine hair – I weirdly never suffered the usual Turkish girl problems of overly bushy or mono-brows really. I did however have a brow related accident when I was very young which left a small scar on my right brow. As I got older people often asked if I had shaved it to make some sort of fashion statement- which I always thought was an absurd question and made me feel a bit self-conscious about it I guess.
Cut to my thirties and I’ve never been more aware of my brows. Yes, the trend has turned, which made me wish that my brows were more like my Turkish counterparts (that’s what you get for being a smug pre-teen). And yes, I also started working for a brow company, who perfectly articulate on a daily basis what a dramatic difference a slight tweak to your arches can make to your entire face shape. However, big’ish thick brows still all felt achievable with all my new brow products (perks of the job). However, after becoming a new mum, of course, EVERYTHING CHANGED! I was not prepared for post-natal hair loss (which is very real people!) I had heard all the horror stories about clumps coming away in your hand after giving birth (we won’t touch on my new receding hair line here) - but I had no idea and absolutely no preparation that this can also apply to your lashes and brows with both of mine suffering immensely and almost immediately. And this change really hit me hard. It is probably down to how acutely aware I am of the importance of brows. I have had my mind blown on many occasion with what a difference a good brow can do during a ‘before and after’ shoot. I also understand why you probably may think I am being biased but I assure you, it is only because I have seen the proof with my own eyes. So I wanted a solution. With all the other changes happening to me both mentally and physically I felt like I wanted to take back some ownership and ain’t no better place to start than with my brows and to get that 10 years younger look ASAP.
So I decided to go ahead! Quite an impulse decision for me to be fair – but after seeing so many great results I was feeling brave!
Consultation
I had an appointment at Blink Brow Bar’s new Microblading studio at Fenwick of New Bond Street. First step is the consultation. This is where you go through all your medical and general health history with the therapist. Super thorough yet quick; big tick from me! Then you lie down while your therapist places a ruler above your brows and roughly sketches an outline with pencil to show you a suggested shape with a thread and tint to set the template. I then I had to go back 48hrs later for the actual procedure.
Appointment
I think it's important to add here, how scared I was on D Day. I had researched, I had seen a million before and afters, read all the horror stories (not from Blink of course) and you know, this is semi-permanent make up, ON YOUR FACE and worse still ON YOUR BROWS - the very area where I have spent the past few years understanding the significance of good brows vs bad brows!
So yes, I was nervous and quite frankly a nightmare client I would imagine- with all my silly, annoying questions! Honestly, my therapist had the patience of a saint and wasted no time at putting me straight to ease. You really are consulted through every step. First with the dye colour matching to your brows and then the shape where your opinion is treated as key here. Although feeling a little better, I still wanted to take baby steps, which I truly felt supported with. My therapist even said to me, ‘I might have my opinion but only you know what you want to see when you look in the mirror, so you need to be happy.’ This was exactly what I needed to hear and in a way, trusted her nimble hands and knowledge even more so as she just got it. To add further stress (I’m a glutton for punishment what can I say!) I opted to go without the numbing cream. I had seen during my research that not using the cream can give a more precise incision and speedy healing process, which was also the same review by Sali Hughes – and that’s all the expert advice I needed on that matter!
So what actually is it?
Just to bring you up to speed, Microblading is a form of semi-permanent makeup. The technique consists of creating fine hair like cuts into the skin with a hand held tool, which is then filled with pigment. The hand held tool allows the therapist to draw in detail on each brow mimicking real hairs. This is what allows the therapist to create a completely bespoke brow to suit your face shape.
Does it hurt?
Well, the short answer is yes.. About as much as a tattoo in a delicate area I would imagine but the pain certainly became more manageable. I found the noise much harder to bare, as it is essentially skin being lightly cut- I won’t go into detail but I am sure you get the gist. However, this too became easier to deal with.
Can you see progress as you go along?
During every small step I was consulted and shown the progress and it was during this that I decided I still wanted to show a bit of my scar and not go for a complete cover up! I decided it’s kind of what makes me unique I guess and my therapist totally had my back on the u turn!
How was it afterwards?
I didn’t bleed at all which I was pleased about and found the healing process really straightforward. Aside from slightly scaring my husband with my very dark and swollen brows (which calms down after the first few days) I found trying to keep my brows dry was probably the biggest hassle. Although that’s just for 7 days, an extremely small price to pay for my new, full and thick but oh-so-natural brows!
What now?
Next step will be a top up in 4/6 weeks. You can lose up to 50% of the pigment within the healing process so the top up just goes over any incisions that need more pigment and fills in anything that may have been missed.
To summarise…
If you are debating whether or not to go through with this- I urge you to take the plunge! I couldn’t be more happy with my new brows! I feel like I look like my old self, but a better, well rested version and isn’t that always the goal?