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THE QUEST FOR THE
ELUSIVE EYEBROW
As you may have already read on
this site being bald and losing my body hair and several internal
female organs has not really been a problem for me, until I lost my
eyebrows and lashes.
I don't know whether they are
normally the last to go or whether I was somehow able to protect
them the longest. I do know, that as they fell out I began to lose
the healthy expression of my face and began to look
sick. 
This was NOT okay with me.
I knew that I needed some new
coping skills and make-up application techniques so I began a
comprehensive search.
First, I tried the eyebrow pencils
I happened to own and found myself unable to create anything either
realistic or remotely close. My coordination failure was a shock to
me as I have a Master's Degree in Fine Art, featuring
design,
drawing and drafting. This was
unbelievable.
 Next, I sought the products
currently on the market in your local beauty supply stores and even
a store specializing in wigs and products for the cancer community.
What I found were powders that came with a brush and some 'one-eye-at-a-time' stencil applicators. You can imagine that
'one-eye-at-a-time' left a great deal of room for
another symmetry failure. It took me about an hour in the morning to
get them straight - whether or not they ended up in the right place
on my face. Then, to my great frustration, within an hour or two I
would find that I had inadvertently rubbed off half of the powder or
more. There goes the symmetry.
For weeks I was dismayed by the
futility of it all.
I had been doing the Henna Tattoos
and had finally perfected both the recipe and the process when I
realized that even if it was not my natural color the Henna would
allow me to create a longer lasting solution. I could spend a few minutes getting the Brow Guide symmetrical and only have to do it once or twice a
week. I began to apply the Henna paste, which if nothing more, did
match the tattoo on my head and didn't rub off in casual wear. I
then augmented the tattoo with a little liquid eyeliner to add
texture, shape and color.
You will find several successful
solutions for applying your eyebrows here at www.ChemoChicks.com and
they are outlined as follows:
- You can purchase the Chemo
Chicks Henna Body Painting Kit and our Brow Guide. The use of the Henna for eyebrows lasts 5-7 days. The
Henna Paste lasts for 3-4 weeks in your refrigerator, so you can
achieve a great long-term solution by re-applying before the
original Henna has worn off.
For me, this was easy to do all by
myself and the look became even more successful when I was
introduced to the line of SeneGence long lasting make-up and used
the Eyesense and Browsense products to add a few hair like
strokes over the top once a day. It is the long lasting properties
of SeneGence, which won't "rub off, brush off, sweat off or
swim off", that perfected the method.
- The real breakthrough for me was
when I developed the Brow Guide
double, plastic coated eyebrow stencil. If you were thinking that I was
obsessed with this ongoing quest and could not rest until I
invented this product - you would be right.
The Brow Guide rests on your
nose and is secured in place on your face with an elastic strap that
frees both hands to apply your Eyesense and Browsense fast
drying, long lasting liquid make-up. Again, finding these products
was a revelation to me because it stays on until I remove it with
Foops Facial Color Remover or a glycerine soap like Neutragena. I look just as good at the end of the
day as I did in the morning when I put it on.
Even when I do not feel as good as I look.
- This solution will only work if
you have the time to plan ahead before
starting your chemo. If you have a month or more before starting
your treatments, you may want to consider "permanent make-up" You should be able to find a practitioner of this
licensed skill in the phone book. We hope to develop a list for
you here online. Please, let us know who you are using.
Here is how it is working for me. A
few weeks after I finished my first set of six chemo cycles and was
feeling much like my old self again, I had my 'second look' surgery.
It is the common way, with Ovarian Cancer, to learn if the
treatments have worked or are working. The very good news is that
all of the biopsies of my tissue are cancer free! The tough news is
that the statistics show, and some oncologists recommend,
that a full year of monthly chemo cycles with Taxol can greatly
increase my odds of a long-term cure.
My husband Tobin and I decided it was
worth going through it for the hope of long-term recovery. Especially since I
wasn't having too terrible a time with the treatments. I had some
side effects but I found them tolerable.
Knowing that I could handle the
physical yucks of chemo was one thing but a FULL YEAR WITHOUT
EYEBROWS was more than I could bear.
Since I was recovering from my second major operation in
seven months, I had a few chemo-free weeks to
plan ahead. That is when I sought out "Permanent Make-up."
I knew I had at least 4-6 weeks before I would need to begin my
treatments. If you have any less time than this or you are already
undergoing your chemo then this method is NOT for you. When you are undergoing chemo you
will not generate the new cell growth necessary to heal quickly and
the possibility of infection is too risky.
Permanent Make-up is a real
temporary tattoo. Done with real tattoo needles by applying colored
pigment to tiny cuts dug into your skin. It requires 3-4 weeks to
recuperate between applications and it takes 2-3 applications if you
want it to last 4-5 years before fading. Since I only need the
effects to last about a year it was agreed that one deep and
thorough treatment would do.
Cheryl did a great job even though
I did not make it very easy for her. First, she waxed and shaped my
natural, re-grown, eyebrows until we arrived at a shape we both
liked. Next, she used a topical liquid anesthetic to numb the area
as much as possible (definitely not enough for me!). She mixed a
color that would work with my skin tone and existing hair, loaded up
the needle, revved up the motor, and begun.
Cheryl proceeded to carve a series
of diagonal lines in among my eyebrows so that when my hair is gone
there will be a semi-permanent shadow of an eyebrow that I can
simply augment with my Eyesense and
Browsense fast drying,
long lasting liquid make-up.
I am not going to lie to you. It
hurt like hell! Essentially this is a real tattoo but with semi
permanent dye, on your face. Now, I am really not the vainest woman
on the planet but if I could withstand an hour of torture I knew could
face the coming year with eyebrows!
As I start losing my hair again, I
am relieved to wake up every morning with a little something there.
I strap on my Brow Guide, add a few hair like strokes and I am
good to go.
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