How Katie got her eyebrows back
A YEAR ago, Katie’s luscious blonde locks suddenly started falling out. 12 months later there’s not a hair left. But this week something incredible happened.
THIS week something was returned to me: my eyebrows. It’s the first time in 12 months I’ve felt even just a little bit remotely like the “old me”.
Your eyebrows are such a small part of your body and appearance, but they have such a profound impact on the way you look. They frame your face and so perfectly portray your emotions and feelings … so much so that when they’re suddenly gone, it’s quite a shock.
A little over 12 months ago, I began losing my hair. In August I was diagnosed with alopecia, and within a month all the hair on my head was gone. A month later it was gone from my body. By February, my eyebrows had disappeared and not too long after that I pulled out the last of my eyelashes.
I was no longer me, and I tried every medication I possibly could to get back to being me. Clearly none of them worked.
So I gave up on trying to change it, and accepted the fact this was going to be me for the unforeseeable future. I could get worked up over it, or I could focus on getting myself healthy from the inside and start having some fun again. So that’s what I did.
During that process I was introduced to the art of eyebrow feathering. For those that don’t know, it’s essentially a semipermanent tattoo that lasts for a certain amount of time. In this case it’s around 12 months. It’s seriously incredible — they look so realistic and lifelike, just look at the photos — they look like actual eyebrows. REAL BROWS!
I was quickly in contact with Kristin Fisher; queen of eyebrows. I stalked her work on Instagram every day (@kristin.fisher.eyebrows for those of you who are curious) and I showed every person I possibly could. I couldn’t, and still can’t get over how real they look.
I’ve been pencilling my eyebrows on everyday for the last six months and I tell you what — eyebrows are an art form. You perfect one side and then you spend triple the amount of time trying to get it right on the other.
Then you forget and accidentally wipe your face when you’re sweating at the gym and oops! There goes an eyebrow! It’s hilarious and frustrating all in one.
This week I had my appointment with Kristin. I was so nervous and excited to see how they would look — I’d pretty much forgotten how I looked with them.
The process itself is quite fascinating. We began with numbing cream because funnily enough, having someone slice into your face a million times is going to hurt just a little bit. Then it came to the stencilling. Kristin was incredible. She spent more than an hour perfectly shaping and defining my new brows — measuring my face precisely then sketching, and erasing, and sketching and erasing until they were just perfect. She had nothing to work from either, she well and truly had her work cut out for her.
Then came the tattooing. Using what felt like a little blade, she so precisely and delicately filled in each and every little stroke until both brows were full and perfect.
When she showed me, I burst into tears. This unexpected wave of relief and shock overcame me. It was honestly the most normal I felt I looked, in almost 12 months.
I couldn’t be any more happy with the final product. It’s helped me feel like I’m just that one step closer to getting back to me and I can’t recommend the process enough.
I know it probably seems like a very small thing, but for me it’s just so much more. For me it is that one little bit of normality returned to my life, that for what its worth, hasn’t been all that normal lately at all.