Losing Your Eyebrows: How It Feels and Practical Solutions

**Disclaimer – this blog represents my own personal opinions and views and should not be interpreted as medical advice. Please consult your GP or Dermatology specialist for any personal medical advice regarding your hair loss.

Losing your eyebrows due to Alopecia Areata, or for any other reason, can be an emotional and overwhelming experience. In this blog, I share my personal journey with eyebrow loss, the challenges that came with it, and the solutions I discovered, including the one that completely changed the game for me. If you’re looking for different options to manage brow loss and rebuild your confidence, you’re in the right place.

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 In 2021, following a 2.5-year period of spontaneous regrowth, my hair started rapidly falling out again. The first time I lost all of my hair; it was from my head only (Alopecia Totalis). Despite having been through this once before, I was already finding losing the hair on my head extremely difficult to deal with. To add to this, I started to notice that my eyebrows were also thinning and patchy. What fresh hell was this?

At first, I managed to use eyebrow pencil to fill in the missing patches to retain the shape. But it didn’t take long to realise that this was merely a temporary solution to a rapidly worsening problem. Cue mass panic. Although I knew there were a multitude of ways to cover up hair loss on my head (should I wish to do so), all I could think was:

“How on EARTH am I going to replace my eyebrows?!”.

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The Search Begins

And so, the frantic Googling and social media trawling began. What I knew was this: my Alopecia Areata had progressed to Alopecia Universalis, meaning I was losing all the hair on my body – eyebrows included. This was something I hadn’t considered happening to me. In retrospect, this seems naïve given I knew very well of the spectrum of disease severity and that this was very much a possibility. Regardless, I felt blindsided and unprepared.

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Grieving Two Lines of Hair

When I thought about the superficial concept of losing my eyebrows, it felt somewhat dramatic to find their loss so impactful. After all, weren’t these just two lines of hair on my face? Actually, I was discovering that it was not quite so simple as this.

Eyebrows have a multitude of functions including making up a fundamental part of your facial structure and identity. I hadn’t appreciated how much eyebrows define and shape your face – how much they helped me recognise myself. I had already been struggling with my reflection. Without my eyebrows, I now completely failed to recognise the person in the mirror.

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Options for Dealing with Brow Loss

After hours of research (and many tears), I had a list of several potential options. Here is a summary of what I found and how I felt about each one:

1. Do nothing.

For me, at the time, I was struggling with loss of identity and low self-confidence. I did not feel ready to go out in public without eyebrows. In this state of mind, this would be yet another reason to add to the list of “reasons to be stared at”. However, this is absolutely a valid option if you feel it works for you.

2.     Use make-up.

Generally speaking, I would classify myself as extremely low maintenance. Unless it’s a special occasion, I use minimal amounts of make-up and the thought of having to spend 30-45 minutes carefully recreating my eyebrows was horrifying. Also, I’m just not that good at make-up and frankly did not feel I had the skill set necessary to recreate my eyebrows in an authentic way.

If this is an option you think that you might consider, there are some amazing women I follow online who are literal brow magicians. They demonstrate with incredible flair that it is extremely possible to use make-up effectively for this purpose. I'd encourage you to take a look at Lucy's page @myalopeciajourney or Emmy's page @emmycombss

3.     Microblading.

As you may already know, this is a semi-permanent cosmetic tattooing technique. Personally, I wasn’t too keen on opting for something that I could not immediately change if I wasn’t happy with the result. My self-image was dangling on a precipice, and I didn’t want to risk doing anything that would push it over the edge.

I have spoken to many people about microblading, and my impression would be that the feedback has been mixed. I have spoken to people who are extremely happy with their results and some who regret having it done. For me, the take home message has been that microblading can be a fantastic option if you research thoroughly and go somewhere reputable – but take your time with the decision and be sure it is the right one for you. There are lots of different techniques and emerging trends with microblading so make sure you do your homework and are aware of all of the available options.

4.     Eyebrow transfers (aka game-changer!)

Enter: my holy grail of brow replacement. Eyebrow transfers. As my eyebrows were falling out, I had zero clue that these existed. I found this concept by chance through social media, and it absolutely saved me.

If you grew up in the 90s you might remember using fake tattoos - the ones you stick on your arm with a wet cloth and peel away? This is exactly what eyebrow transfers are. You cut them out, place them where your brows should be, press with a damp cloth, peel off the backing… and voilà: instant brows. The best part is that you can experiment with different colours and shapes to find the ones you like the most. And, if you mess it up or don’t like them - you wash your face and start again.

I used eyebrow transfers religiously for two years. Once applied, they would last me 2-3 days if I kept them dry. Which, as a previously described low-maintenance girl, was perfect for me.

I can confidently say that with my own eyebrows I have never had a single compliment to say “wow, your eyebrows look great”. When wearing eyebrow transfers, I regularly got comments about my eyebrows and how great they looked. As someone with fairly light eyebrow hairs, unless I regularly got my eyebrows waxed and tinted, they are naturally not particularly well-groomed or striking. However, with the eyebrow transfers I noticed a difference – and clearly so did other people!

I didn’t quite figure out how to tell people that the secret was that I stuck them on with a wet towel (lol).

Final Thoughts

Losing your eyebrows is something most people never think about - until it happens. I can testify that it is upsetting, stressful and, from an identity perspective, hugely disorientating. Hopefully, in sharing my experiences, I have helped to normalise yours and shown that there are ways of navigating through this, in your own way.

Whether you draw them on, stick them on, tattoo them on, or you decide to do nothing – all are valid options. The most important thing experimenting with what works best for you so that you feel as comfortable and confident as possible.

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