Threading is the oldest way of shaping a brow and still the most precise way to take a clean line out of one. A length of cotton thread is twisted into a loop and rolled along the skin, and as the twist turns it closes on a row of hairs and lifts them out of the follicle together. Because it takes a line at a time rather than one hair at a time, the edge it leaves is even, and the fine hairs that tweezers skate over come out with the rest.
It suits most people, including anyone whose skin goes red and tight after a brow wax. Nothing warm is put on the face, nothing sticks to the surface of the skin and nothing is peeled away, so the skin is not dragged. At V&F Beauty Lounge on London Road in Headington we thread brows, lips, chin, sides and the full face, and the same room does brow tinting, henna brows, lamination, lash lifts and lash extensions, so a shape and a colour can usually be done in one visit.
Why threading leaves a cleaner edge
The mechanism is simple and it explains the result. Tweezers take one hair at a time, and it is very hard to hold a straight line across dozens of separate pulls, so brows drift thinner at the ends and uneven underneath. Thread catches a whole row at once and lifts it out from the root in one movement, which is why the edge reads as a line rather than a series of decisions.
Wax works from the root too, but it grips the surface of the skin as well as the hair, which is why some people leave with a brow shape and a red patch around it. Threading only ever touches the hair. The skin is held taut while the thread does the work. Either way the hair comes out from the root, so regrowth arrives soft and fine rather than blunt-ended, and there is a longer window before the shape starts to blur.
The shape should come from your face, not a stencil
A brow that suits you is built on the bone you already have and the hair that already grows there. Before anything comes off, we look at where your brow bone lifts, where the hair is dense and where it thins, and how your eyes are set. The arch belongs where the bone rises. A stencil cannot know that, and a shape copied off a photograph rarely survives contact with a real face.
This is the part that takes judgement rather than time. Taking too much from underneath drops the eye. Chasing symmetry hair by hair usually ends with two thin brows that match each other and suit neither side of the face, because faces are not symmetrical to begin with. We shape the pair to look balanced rather than identical. If you are growing brows back after years of over-plucking, say so when you sit down and we will tidy the edges only and leave the rest to fill in.
Eyebrow shaping by threading is £8.00. Eyebrow and upper lip together is £12.00, and men's eyebrow shaping is £10.00.
Threading the rest of the face
The same technique works anywhere on the face, which is why these appointments are usually quicker than people expect. Upper lip is £4.00 and lower lip is £4.00. Chin, forehead and the sides of the face are £7.00 each, neck is £8.00, and chin extended to neck is £13.00. Having the lot done in one sitting is £25.00 for full face threading, or £30.00 for full face and neck.
We thread for men as well. Beard shaping is £12.00 and a men's eyebrow is £10.00: the centre opened up and the strays taken off the top, without turning the brow into something obviously done.
Brow tint, lash tint and henna brows
Tinting darkens the hair that is already there so the shape reads properly without pencil. Eyebrow tint is £8.00, eyelash tint is £10.00, and the two together are £18.00. It is semi-permanent, not permanent. The colour sits on the hair and softens over a few weeks as the brows grow through and you wash your face. Brow tint catches the skin a little as well, which looks strong for a day or two and then goes, leaving the colour on the hairs behind.
Hello Henna Brow is £36.00. Henna stains the skin underneath the brow as well as the hair, so sparse patches look filled rather than simply darker. That skin stain is the part people notice and also the part that fades first, over a week or two depending on how oily your skin is and how hard you cleanse. The colour on the hairs lasts a few weeks. 3D Brows is £26.00 and sits between a plain tint and henna in both price and effect. Ask when you arrive and we will tell you which one your brows would actually benefit from.
Any tint or henna needs a patch test at least 24 hours beforehand. It is a dab of the product behind the ear or inside the elbow, it takes a couple of minutes, and it is done because these are dyes. If the test reacts, we do not carry out the treatment.
Brow lamination and lash lifting
Brow lamination is £45.00. A softening solution relaxes the structure of the brow hair so it can be combed into the direction you want, and a second solution sets it there. Nothing is added: no extra hair, and no colour unless you have a tint alongside it. What changes is direction. Hairs that normally grow sideways or downwards sit up and across instead, which makes a thin or patchy brow look considerably fuller. It grows out gradually over several weeks rather than dropping all at once, and it is not the right treatment for brows that are already dry or brittle.
Eye lash lifting is £48.00 and works on the same principle. Your own lashes are set over a soft shield so they curve up from the root, which opens the eye without adding a single extra lash. It will not make short lashes long. If length or density is what you want, extensions are the honest answer and a lift is not. Both treatments need a patch test at least 24 hours beforehand, and both want keeping dry for the first day.
Lash extensions, and what they ask of you
Cluster lashes, at £28.00, are small pre-made fans set along the lash line, and they are the sensible choice for a wedding or a night out rather than a long-term commitment. Individual lashes are applied one extension to one natural lash: a half set is £45.00 and a full set is £70.00. Russian lashes fan several very fine extensions onto each natural lash for more density, at £75.00 for a full set and £25.00 for a refill.
Every extension is bonded to one of your own lashes, and every natural lash sheds on its own cycle and takes its extension with it. That is normal, and it is why a set thins gradually instead of falling out in one go. Most people book a refill every two to three weeks to keep the line looking full. Leave it much longer and there may not be enough left to fill, at which point it becomes a new set rather than a refill.
They ask something of you daily in return: no oil-based cleanser or makeup remover, no waterproof mascara, and a gentle brush through with a spoolie. Take contact lenses out before any lash appointment. When you have had enough of them, do not pull them off, because your own lashes come away too. Professional removal is £15.00.
