“How much are these going to cost me?”
When we heard that transplanting eyebrows is becoming a standard procedure, ours shot straight up. So eyebrow transplants are totally a thing now, huh? Well, we guess this comes as welcomes news to those unfortunate individuals who over-plucked their poor brows into visual obscurity during the late 90’s absent-brow phase, although it should be said that eyebrow transplants carry the risk of extremes like any cosmetic procedure. Originally, the procedure was developed to help burn victims or people with diseases that prevent hair growth recover their brows. Naturally, however, once news of the procedure caught on, everyone else started clamoring: “Forget the burn victims! What about my sparse brows?” Surgeons cite Megan Fox and Cara Delevingne as influential brow inspirations. The process has steadily been gaining in popularity, and runs into the thousands cost-wise.
The eyebrow transplant process actually involves removing hair from the patient’s head and then implanting the strands into the desired eyebrow area. (This procedure is called follicular unit transplantation, if you;d like us to get technical.) The procedure is done with a mild sedative, takes about two hours, and usually doesn’t involve pain. The transplant can be anywhere from 50-325 hairs for each brow, and the areas on the scalp where the “donor” follicles were removed get stitched up to hide the loss. After a couple weeks post procedure, the transplanted hairs fall out and then start growing back in a couple months later! Weird yet efficient does not even begin to describe this procedure.
There is one downfall to this miracle procedure, however: when the hair donated from your scalp takes, the individual strands will continue to grow at the same pace, that the hair on your head does, not at the usual pace eyebrow hair grows (which is considerably slower). Thus, your newly-implanted babiest might require more maintenance than you usually give to your eyebrows and a bit more trimming than the rest of the brows do, otherwise you risk a real wild set growing down your face. Actually, it could be kind of cool for your eyes to have a set of built-in curtains to peek out of. Playing hard-to-get would become a million times easier. Talk about demure!
If you don’t have the bucks to drop on a whole new set of brows but are desperate for some thicker arch action, don’t despair completely. There is always the option of temporary brow extensions, which are much more wallet-friendly. Lash bars are popping up all over the place. Stylists at these bars will glue on individual eyebrow hairs in a way that blends well with what you’ve naturally got going on. (Or you can always get yours tattooed on, if you’re feeling extra over-it).
Let’s just hope people are reasonable and don’t run too far with this trend in the way of giant implants and overly-injected lips. There’s a fine line between enhancement and exaggeration. And they say that cosmetic surgery is a slippery slope, which Jocelyn Wildenstein can definitely attest to.
