I’m terrified of pain because my pain tolerance is totally zero. I feel faint when I even think of doing my regular dental check-up or am faced with getting a jab at the doctor’s. But in the name of beauty, I’ve had needles pricking along my lash line, literally millimetres from my eyeball, and also on my brow bone. And what’s more, I’ve voluntarily gone back for more pain… I mean, touch-ups.
Photo: 123rf
It took a lot of coaxing, by a very persistent media relations manager from Browhaus, for me to try my first eyeliner tattooing five years back.
The first time I felt the needle poke my lash line during the Browhaus Big Eye Eye Define treatment, I almost lost it completely. The supposed hour-long session stretched to over two excruciating hours because I was weeping and wailing for the Browhaus artist to stop with every dot of eyeliner she managed to tattoo on.
Photo: 123rf
On top of that I was freaking out because I was blinking and squirming so much, I was so certain the final result would be totally askew. (Squiggle eyeliner, anyone?)
However, over the course of the session, I felt myself relaxing ever so slightly as I kind of got used to the pain. And at the end of the treatment, I sat up and looked into the mirror and was amazed. The tattooed on eyeliner was perfectly straight and looked flattering yet subtle. It looked like I was an expert at the tightlining technique of eyeliner application.
I have gone back for eyeliner touch-ups about every two years since then.
Very recently this year, I decided to push my boundaries even further and signed up for an eyebrow embroidery trial (Browhaus’ Brow Resurrection). I was nervous at the prospect of an unfamiliar kind of pain – this time it would be more of a tiny blade slicing the skin so that the tattoo dye would penetrate the skin looking like hair-like strokes.
The moment I met my eyebrow embroidery artist, even before I sat on the treatment chair, I begged her to lay on the numbing solution generously.
After waiting the stipulated 15 minutes for the numbing solution to work its magic, the embroidery artist proceeded to whip out the blade and work on my brows. To my complete and utter surprise, it was painless. (Disclaimer: The therapist cautioned that pain sensation would differ from person to person. But as I said, I’m usually hyper sensitive to pain.)
Photo: 123rf
The brow embroidery session was done in an hour and I was left with a perfect, albeit super dark, pair of arches. But as I was driving home about 10 minutes later, my entire brow area started to throb with pain. I’m not going to lie, it really, really hurt. And it lasted for a good four hours. I took a dose of panadol to ease the pain so I could sleep that night.
But the next morning, apart from a tight sensation (like how it feels when you get a scrape and the wound starts to scab) on the skin around the entire brow area, the pain was almost gone. And I was back in the chair for a touch up exactly a month later. I absolutely loved the freedom of not having to fill in my brows every single day, or worry about my brow makeup getting smudged or looking patchy or uneven throughout the day.
Why a pain-phobe like me will brave the pain and keep going back for touch-ups for my brows and eyeliner?
No matter what situation I’m in – after an intense, sweaty workout, a long day at work, or even a 22-hour flight – I don’t look as tired or wasted as I would have without my ‘artificial enhancements’. And believe it or not, the thought of trying out semi-permanent lip colour has even corssed my mind now and then too!
What happens during an eyebrow embroidery session
- If it is your first session, after you arrive and meet your eyebrow artist, she will give you a run-through of what the procedure entails and answer any questions you may have.
- Using an eyebrow pencil, your eyebrow artist fills and shapes your brows to suit your face shape. You can jump in at any point to make changes based on your prefered shape and thickness.
- When you’re happy with the design, you then sit in the treatment chair or lie on a treatment bed and a numbing solution is applied to the brow area. This should be left on for 10 minutes.
- The therapist then uses the eyebrow dye (usually a skin-safe formula that’s made up of vegetable dyes) and a tiny blade to make little incisions on the skin, These hairline strokes help to fill in the brows that were designed to your specifications.
- Depending on how much you squirm and how often you ask the eyebrow artist to pause, this session can take from 90 minutes to over two hours.
- At the end of the session, you will have a semi-permanent set of arches and these will look pretty intense as the dye is still fresh. Brows will look dark for up to a week or two after the session.
- Lastly, before you leave the salon, you will also be schooled on how to take care of the treated area and after-care products may be prescribed to you for your home care.
