Sometime in the 8th grade I took it upon myself to stop getting mediocre wax treatments which were not only expensive but ineffective in actually improving the shape of my eyebrows. I started plucking my caterpillar-looking eyebrows and people who hadn’t seen me since before my eyebrow metamorphosis noticed the difference right away.

Hence, I am a firm believer that brows are the single most important facial feature and can make or break a look. Ask anyone in the journalism room—in seminar, I can often be found in the corner of the room doing eyebrows for my peers. While I don’t mind helping my brow-challenged friends, I believe that learning to do your own brows is an important skill to learn because eyebrows are expensive, (especially once I start charging for my services) although totally worth it. So, here’s a little guide I put together composed of tips I normally offer to my “clientele,” which guarantee consistently on-fleek eyebrows without frequent trips to the salon (or to my “salon” niche in the journalism room, depending on how you see it.)

If you’re just beginning your journey to better brows, I personally think tweezing is the most efficient method of brow maintainence, but you should start slow. Begin with the hairs in the middle and pluck until the start of your brow lines up with the inner corner of your eye. Next, get the stray hairs below your brow. ALWAYS start from the bottom and NEVER from the top or you will flatten your arches and look like Timmy Turner. Correctly arching your brows is a little more difficult to explain, so here’s a video I found which thoroughly explains the process of filling in and grooming your brows properly.

If your brows are under over tweezed, meaning you too took it upon yourself to tweeze your brows, but somewhere along the way you got a little carried away—don’t worry, I got you. My eyebrows have evolved tremendously throughout my high school career and one of the low points of that time would have to be my freshman year when I incessantly plucked my eyebrows to the point that they disappeared in pictures. If there’s anything I learned from that experience it’s that patience is key. If your brows are sad and shrunken due to overenthusiastic plucking, take about 2 weeks and only pluck the obnoxious strays and absolutely nothing else—nothing close to the main eyebrow hairs. As tempting as it may be to pluck, leave them be.

If your eyebrows are light colored and/or very sparse, purchase a product to fill in your brows. You have options: either a classic pencil eyeliner or a powder/charcoal eyeliner which you’ll need to apply with an angled eyebrow brush. Your selection depends on your desired outcome—if you have really light hair and want them to look as natural as possible, I recommend a pencil eyeliner or a very light shade of powder/charcoal eyeliner. If you have darker hair and want them to look beautifully bold, go with the charcoal/powder or even a rich eyeshadow. (Rich meaning it will apply bold color easily without using very much product.) If you choose this route, the next decision you’ll have to make is your brush. An angled eyebrow brush makes for the neatest application and, in my opinion, the most professional look. Also, the shade of powder/pencil eyeliner you use has a huge impact so choose something similar to your  natural hair color and when in doubt, go just a teeny bit lighter. Trace the outside of your eyebrow, the top and the bottom horizontally in long, fluid strokes (don’t push apply too much pressure or they’ll look too dark). Next, in short, vertical strokes fill in the brow and stay within the lines you traced. In the event that they’re too dark, use a Q-tip and remove excess product. At this point, your brows should be pretty on fleek.

Now for the finishing touches, apply a highlighter (which is a concealer that’s a bit lighter that what you would typically use on the rest of your face) just below your brow and just a dab above and blend well. This adds dimension to your face and makes your brows stand out. Take a brow brush and go over brows once or twice and you’re done. Enjoy having fantastic brows.