There’s no doubt about it, full brows are in…think Brooke Shields circa 1980s. However, for many of us, they’re a little hard to come by, especially as we age and they start to thin out. But you can still have the full brows of your dreams, just from an unlikely place.
“Right now Kim Kardashian is hot—that is, eyebrow-wise.” says Beverly Hills, CA, dermatologist, Sanusi Umar, MD. He has been performing eyebrow hair transplants on patients looking to thicken their brows and his specific technique allows hairs to be taken from any part of the body like the nape of the neck and the back of the legs, then placed on the face. The procedure takes about four or five hours to complete and typically costs around $6,000.
But is neck and leg hair a good place to harvest hairs? Plano, TX, facial plastic surgeon Samuel Lam, MD, says, “Leg hair is really bad for the eyebrows because it’s very coarse and thick. It’s not somethimg I would use.” Plus, taking hairs from the nape of the neck can cause scarring. Instead, the ideal place to get hair for facial use is around the temples or just above the nape of the neck because the hairs are finer there.
Also be aware that transplant hairs tend to grow faster and you may need to trim them every week. But there is some good news, typically after about one or two years the growth slows down and the transplanted hairs start to grow the same speed as normal eyebrows. “Growth speed and coarseness can change with time, but we can’t guarantee that it will. The hairs could still continue to grow fast and be coarse long after transplantation,” says Dr. Lam. That’s why hair transplant specialists always try to pick the finest hairs to use for the procedure.
If eyebrow transplants don’t appeal to you, he also suggests using Latisse to help your eyebrows grow and thicken. But above all, it’s important to make sure you see a doctor who specializes in the technique because it’s one of the most artistically challenging procedures to perform.