Brow Tips

"Ramy, Brow Wizard to the stars..."

 -The New York Times.

"Ramy Gafni, AKA, The Brow Whisperer"

 -The Today Show

"When Gafni (Ramy) was done, he pulled down the mirror and voila! I immediately saw the difference. My once shapeless brows now had contour and definition, and it had a lifting effect on my face. My eyes looked brighter, and my cheekbones seemed a little more pronounced. The overall effect was architectural, and my face, i think, looked more polished and balanced."

-AOL Style List

Ramy has been written up as an Eyebrow Guru on the pages of Allure, Self, Vogue, Town & Country, Fitness and Bride. Here is his quintessential reply to his most commonly asked Eyebrow questions:

Help! What's the best way to shape my eyebrows?!

A. As a makeup artist, eyebrows have always been my passion and my specialty. If you know you have already botched up your browline, the best thing to do is STOP! Go back to square one, let your brows grow back for about three weeks. You will be tempted to pluck strays, but the best thing you can do for yourself is to let them grow back as fully as possible. Usually it is the people who are obsessed with their brows who overdo it and do what I call underestimating your eyebrows. Once your eyebrows have grown in, either go to a brow shaping professional (if you don't know of one, ask a friend who has fabulous brows - they may have been holding out on you!) or reshape them yourself.

As a rule, I'm personally against waxing the brows (waxing is for cars!). Seriously, there is no precision with waxing, you are removing rows of hair indiscriminately and it is very harsh on the delicate skin around the eye area, which is the thinnest on the body. Threading is acceptable if you know an expert, but my technique of choice is tweezing and trimming.

To reshape them yourself you will need several things:

• A large mirror, preferably near a bright window
• a good pair of tweezers
• grooming scissors
• a small brush (a baby toothbrush or old mascara wand that's been cleaned with makeup remover are ideal)

Lastly, 40 minutes set aside so that you don't rush, which often leads to the worst brow fiascos! My favorite tweezer are, of course, the RAMY Tweezer by Tweezerman. They are not as sharp as many other brands and have always been able to get the job done! Always remember, less is more and try to look at your face objectively, using a common sense approach. I've seen many people stand so close to the mirror that they can't see the forest for the trees. A good test is to stand 2-3 feet away from the mirror, so that you DON'T see every little hair. Look at your eyebrows and think about where you may need to remove hair. Then, move closer and begin shaping!

Step 1:

Brush your eyebrows upward, if there is much length, trim them with the scissors as conservatively as possible - as though you are trimming split ends.

Step 2:

Tweeze from underneath brow, removing one row of hair from beginning of brow to end. Pluck hairs out in the direction of hair growth. If necessary, remove second row of hair from directly underneath arch, to open it up. Then clean the hairs I refer to as no man's land, those hairs that are not part of your eyebrow or part of your hairline, but exist somewhere in the middle. Lastly, pluck between eyebrows. Where should your brow begin/end? hold your brush or a pencil vertically against the side of your nose. Where the pencil lands by your brow is where your brow should begin. Repeat on other side of nose.

Step 3:

Using brush, comb brows downward. If there still exists excess length, trim it, cutting against the grain. Remember, trim very conservatively, you can always cut off more, but once it's trimmed too much, there is nothing to do but wait for it to grow back! If you follow these simple steps, your brows should look finished and polished, which will open up your whole face and lift your eyes!

For a brow sculpting with Ramy, please call (212) 684-9500.

For more of Ramy's beauty tips and tricks, check out his book, "How To Fake Real Beauty"