Aging Eyebrows: Get Thicker, Fuller, Youthful Brows | Dr. Sam Ellis

We all know that skin changes as you age, but did you know that your eyebrows can change too? Here's what you can do about aging eyebrows. I'm Dr. Sam Ellis, and I'm a board certified dermatologist in Northern California, and I'm here to help you understand your skin and find products that work for you. So if you like that type of content, give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to the channel. I wanted to delve into aging eyebrows for a couple of reasons. One, a lot of people ask me about them, like what can I do for these sparse hairs or how do I help my sagging eyebrows? But the other reason I wanted to delve into it is because people are not asking me about it, and it's something that actually comes up a lot in a cosmetic consultation, where I have a patient come in, we're talking about things that kind of dissatisfy them about their face, and they're just overall looking older, and they have not recognized that their aging eyebrows are contributing to that overall picture. And when I'm talking with patients in their consultations about easy anti-aging things they can do, whether that's stuff they can do in the office or stuff they can do at home, eyebrow rejuvenation is part of that conversation. Your eyebrows play a significant part in your appearance. They frame your face. And when your eyebrows are sparse or they're drooping or they're just not at their most optimal selves, it's going to change how you look significantly. If you don't believe me, go Photoshop a picture of yourself without your eyebrows. You're going to look extremely different. Some of the more common things you're going to notice with your eyebrows as you age is that you're going to have fewer eyebrow hairs or that hair is going to regrow much slower. You also may notice the color of your eyebrows changes, so it becomes gray, and the texture can even change and become more wiry. And of course, most people will notice that as time goes on, their eyebrows begin to droop or sag, and that can change the shape of your face overall. So let's talk about all the different ways you can rejuvenate your eyebrows to give you a more youthful appearance. And whenever I'm talking about anti-aging stuff, I need you to know that this is not something that I think people need to do, but if you're noticing changes in your appearance that you're not happy with and you want to do something about it, that is what these videos are for. The first and easiest thing you can do to start rejuvenating your brows is using makeup to fill in your brows. Most people benefit from two different types of brow products, a pencil of some sort to actually fill in the hairs, and then a brow gel to kind of comb through the hairs and hold them in place. And one of the best things you can do if you're going to use makeup in your eyebrows is to update your eyebrow shape to match what the current trends are in eyebrow hair. If you are rocking a pencil-thin eyebrow from the 80s, it's going to age you. Granted, take it with a grain of salt, like you don't want to have some crazy brow that doesn't suit your face, but I see so many women who are still using the same makeup techniques and the makeup styles that they used in the 90s or in the 80s, so they are still rocking a pencil-thin eyebrow when a fluffier, fuller brow would suit their face so much better and be way more flattering. One of my favorite eyebrow pencils is the Kosas Brow Pop Pencil. It's the one that I use on myself. I have it here because it was in my makeup bag, but it's really nice. It has a little spoolie on one end that you can kind of fluff your brows up with to get a general idea of the shape if you have enough hair there to do that, and then it has a nice, fine tip that you can use to kind of create little brush-like strokes to fill in your brows. I like this pencil for a couple of different reasons. One, I feel like it's not too soft. Some brow pencils, when you apply it to your brow, they just kind of smoosh and you can't really mimic brow hair, so it doesn't look that natural, and also, I think their color range is really nice. I feel like a huge mistake people make when filling in their brows is they pick too warm of a color, so even if you are a warm red or a warm brown, having kind of a cooler tone in your brows tends to be more flattering, and then as far as brow gels go, I have a lot that I like, but the one that I've been using the most is actually by L'Oreal. They made this 24-hour brow gel, and it is fantastic. It is cheap, and it's super lightweight, so it's great for traveling. I feel like even when I'm doing the most minimal makeup on myself, I have to use at least a brow gel, like give me brow gel, give me mascara, give me a little bit of concealer. I'm good to go. Now, some people may notice that as they age, their brow hairs get a bit lighter in color, or you may have just been born with really light brows that don't show up that well, and aside from using makeup, you can also tint or essentially dye your eyebrows. For my redheads, blondes out there who have really light brows, or for people who are graying, this is an awesome option. You can use the Just For Men's mustache tint to do it for your brows, and there are also specialized brow dye kits out there that you can do it at home. One word of caution I have for you if you are tinting your eyebrows is you wanna leave the dye on maybe like a minute or two less than they recommend at first. Sometimes even if you bring your eyebrow color up to the exact same color of your hair, it can look too intense. You can always leave it on longer in the first place, but start with less and go up from there. Now, aside from tinting or dyeing your brows, you can also do things to your brows to promote more brow hair growth. One thing I will often recommend to patients is using something like Latisse, also known as Bimatoprost, which is a prescription medication that helps brow hairs grow in fuller. Now, Latisse is typically used for eyelash hair growth. I don't love it for eyelash hair growth. I have an entire video of why I do not recommend lash serums, but for the brows, it's sort of a different story because it's not close to your eyes and the side effects are different. Bimatoprost or Latisse works by extending the growth phase of your hair so your hairs are able to grow more before they fall out, and it helps thicken up and darken your hairs to give them more of a presence on your face. I love Bimatoprost. It's actually really powerful when used in the right places. I have patients use it on their brows. I also have them use it in their hair and on their hairline. So when used in the appropriate locations, it does wonders. Now, if you don't have access to prescription Bimatoprost or Latisse, you also can get over-the-counter versions that work via a similar mechanism. So for example, products like Grande Brow and New Lastin, both very effective for growing brow hairs. And these over-the-counter products that work for brow growth, like New Lastin and Grande Brow, work because they have something called a prostaglandin analog that functions similarly to Bimatoprost that's found in Latisse. Anytime you're applying a topical product like this, there is a risk of irritation, so it's something to keep an eye out for, but in general, it tends to be well-tolerated in the brow area. And if you do happen to notice side effects, you can always stop using these topicals and the side effects should resolve. Now, if you're already using something like Bimatoprost and it's working for you, but you need even more of a boost, you can also use Minoxidil in your eyebrows. Now, Minoxidil is quite effective at growing your brow hair, so you wanna apply it in a very controlled way. I typically recommend getting a large pack of spoolies on Amazon, for example, and then you can just put a little bit of your Minoxidil foam on that and then comb it through your eyebrows once a day. Also, if you take oral Minoxidil, so take it in pill form, it will also help with your eyebrow hair growth. Now, anytime I talk about lash growth or brow growth, people will often ask me, do you have a natural brow growth serum to recommend that doesn't have a prostaglandin analog? And I have never found one that is particularly effective. You hear tons of people talking about the value of castor oil, and at least to date, the studies have not shown that castor oil is actually effective for hair growth, even though people recommend it all the time. It can be a way to condition your lashes and brows, but again, it hasn't really shown growth. But if you have tried anything at home that you feel has particularly helped grow your brows or lashes, let us know in the comments. So let's say you're using makeup, you're tinting your brows, you're using brow growth stuff, or you decide you don't want to do any of that, what else can you do to have more of a presence of your eyebrows on your face? That is where semi-permanent makeup for the brows, also known as microblading, has a role. Microblading is essentially getting your eyebrows tattooed on your face, and although the pigment is generally not as deep or as intense as a traditional tattoo, so it fades more over time, it's a tattoo nonetheless. I say that because I feel like there was this huge prominence of microblading like five to 10 years ago where tons of people went and got their brows done and maybe didn't get them done super well, and so now we are paying those consequences because I don't think they realized the permanence of an intervention like that. That being said, microblading has really become refined over the years and the techniques have gotten better, and I have seen some incredibly realistic microbladed eyebrows. And so when patients ask me like, well, Dr. Ellis, my brows aren't really growing. I'm considering microblading. Do you recommend it? It's sort of like saying, do I recommend getting a tattoo? And in some ways, yes, if you feel like that would add value to have that done on your face so that you don't have to draw your brows in every day. I think overall, conceptually, I do recommend it, but then it also matters the like talent of your tattoo artist or your microblader. Like you really need to investigate this and take that seriously. We offer tattoo removal in our office with a Pico-A laser, and it's not uncommon that people want their microbladed brows removed. But here's the thing, microbladed eyebrows, and honestly, just like tattooed makeup in general, whether it's like lip tattoos, eyeliner tattoos, they are much harder to remove because the types of pigment that are used in makeup are different than in traditional tattoos, and the laser doesn't target them as well, and those pigments don't respond as well to the laser. Ultimately, when it comes to microblading your eyebrows, when it's done well, it looks fantastic. When it's done poorly, it looks pretty bad. So it's really important to take that decision seriously and making sure that when you're meeting with your microblading artist that your vision for your brows really aligns with what they can deliver. But now I wanna take a second to talk about drooping eyebrows because this is another thing that tends to start bothering people, and they wanna know what they can do about it. One of the first things I'll do with my patients is I will have them hold a mirror in front of their eyes, and I really want them to explain to me whether or not they're bothered by the fact that their brow itself is drooping or they have excess eyelid skin under their brow that's bothering them. When your eyebrows begin to drop, two things happen. One, you get more shadows around the eyes so the eyes can look darker overall because you have less light coming into them, but also it can kind of squish this excess skin under your brow so that your eyelid is heavy and it can make your eyes look more closed off. That combination of things really ages people, and whether or not you are prone to that is highly, highly genetic. I have lots of patients who overall their skin is doing really well, but the skin under their brow and around their eye feel sort of like disproportionately droopy and heavy compared to the rest of their face, and that is usually a genetic thing. And so then part of our consultation is talking about what can we do to lift those brows back up and open the eyes so that everything looks more balanced. Probably one of the easiest things you can do is something called a Botox brow lift. With a Botox brow lift, we are essentially injecting the muscles that normally pull the brows down, so the ones that sit between the eyes and around the tail of the brow, and when we release or relax those, the brows are able to float up a little bit. Now, how much those brows float up or lift with a Botox brow lift has to do with two things. It depends on how strong their forehead muscles are. If their forehead is really strong, it's gonna pull their brows up more. And how strong were those downward-pulling muscles? If the downward-pulling muscles were really strong and we release them with Botox, that person is also going to have more elevation of their brows with that intervention. So for people who are kind of hesitant about eyelid or brow surgery, which I will talk about in a second, starting with something like a Botox brow lift can kind of show them how much improvement can you get without going under the knife. Other ways that people ask me about lifting their brows are with things like thread lifts, which are essentially little barbed wires that get placed under the skin and pull the brows up and back. I'm absolutely not a fan of those, especially in the brow area where the skin is super thin. I have seen so many complications where the barbs peek out through the skin or they cause this really weird distortion of the brow, and I would never recommend them there. Another tightening procedure that some patients benefit from is Ultherapy over the brows. So Ultherapy uses ultrasound heat or energy to cause tightening of the skin. And so you can do Ultherapy directly over the middle of the brow or the medial brow or the lateral brow, wherever anyone wants their lift. And by placing some pulses there, you can actually get some skin tightening. Now it's generally really conservative, like one to 1.5 millimeters. But again, if someone says like, listen, I'm never gonna have surgery, what are all my non-surgical options? Ultherapy is there. But what I would say is as a cosmetic dermatologist, if you are not getting enough brow lift from a Botox brow lift, it's really nice to start considering surgical options. This is going to give you the best lift, the most impressive improvement, and the longest lasting results. It is not uncommon in a cosmetic consultation that I'm also referring a patient to plastic surgery. They often end up in a consultation with me or in my office because they wanna talk about non-invasive or non-surgical options. But I think it is my duty as a cosmetic specialist and as a dermatologist to enlighten them about all of the options that are out there for them and for so many people, a surgical intervention is really going to be the most effective. I won't go too much into the surgical details, but essentially the two main things you can have done are something called an upper blepharoplasty, where the excess skin around the eyelid is removed. So that's really good if you're having a lot of hooding or drooping of the brow that way. But you can also have a brow lift, which actually works to lift the entire brow up itself if you feel like that is sagging down. And sometimes they're done together. I hope that helps address some of the concerns and questions you have around aging eyebrows. If you have additional questions, definitely let me know in the comments. If you've done any of these eyebrow interventions and they've worked or not worked for you, also let us know in the comments. Thank you for being here. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel, and I'll see you next time.