Do not be put off by the location or exterior of this place - Mae is an eyebrow wizard! She's been practising and perfecting her art for many years, and your eyebrows are in very safe hands.
I've always had very fair eyebrows, and recently I seem to be losing more off the end of them, for no obvious reason. Filling them in in the mornings was getting to be a real pain in the chops, and they were becoming increasingly wonky and annoying. Without eyebrows proving structure, my face just looks like a giant potato, so something had to be done!
Slighty peeved, off I trotted to Mae's, to get a tint and shape. I'd been recommended Mae's by a make-up artist I did a course with, who recommended Mae's for semi-permanent brows. I wasn't lconsidering semi-permanent at that point, as I'm a bit of a feartie. I don't even have my ears pierced!
During the tint, I asked Mae what I could do about my disappearing brows, and received the sage reply 'only semi-permanent can save you now'.
I thought about it for a few weeks, then plucked up the courage to get semi-permanent eyebrows done.
I had a major concern that I was going to end up with ginormous mad black brows, but there is no need to worry, Mae will not do that to you! Unless that's what you want, in which case, good luck to you.
There are 2 stages to the process. On the first visit, Mae draws on the brows, checks you are happy with the shape, then can do different techniques of blading depending on what look you want. I had a combination of the 6D micro-blading technique, which is used to draw on individual hairs for a more natural look, as well as the powder look, which fills in the white bits in between the hairs.
Is it painful? Yes. Yes it is. It's not unbearable, but I'm not going to lie to you, it was a bit ouchy. Mae puts on numbing cream first, but let's face it, she then sets about you like a teeny little Edward Scissorhands, so that's going to smart a bit. Just when I was about to ask her to stop, she was finished. Excellent. And again, being honest, for the next 3 or 4 days, if you are pale like me, you ARE going to look a bit like someone has drawn on your brows with a Sharpie. I compensated for this by wearing extra dark eye make-up, which seemed to lessen the effect, and I think I pretty much got away with it. After 4 days, the colour starts to fade more to a natural look.
It's handy to know about the after-care before you go. After it's done, you can't get your eyebrows wet for 7 days, and you need to put Vaseline on them every hour or so, as a barrier to stop any germs or dirt getting in and so nothing interferes with the healing. This actually isn't as bad as it sounds, it's not really that noticeable if you do it carefully, and you don't want scabby brows, so it's worth doing.
You then have to wait 4 - 6 weeks until they have healed, then you go back for a top-up. Everyone heals differently, and sometimes a bit of colour won't take, so the top-up makes sure that everything is as it should be. The same aftercare rules apply. After 4 or so weeks, you then have your healed and finished eyebrows, and these should last you about 12-18 months.
I have eyebrows again! They do look really natural, and have just added that little bit of definition that makes so much difference. I am totally delighted with the result, and will definitely be back to Mae's when eyebrow time comes around again. read more
