Unlike shoe, hair, and clothing trends, eyebrow trends are slower to change and people may be less likely to follow them based on their existing brow line. But one thing is for sure, symmetrical and well-shaped eyebrows, whether thick or thin, are always in style.
Whether your eyebrows are beautifully natural, like Gwyneth Paltrow's, or beautifully groomed, like Oprah's, as long as you take care of them your eyebrows will enhance your beauty, instead of detract from it.
Your clients need to know this. Post these words somewhere in your salon.
"Perfect eyebrows are a beauty essential. Without well-groomed eyebrows, people will notice your eyebrows. With well-shaped eyebrows, people will see your beautiful eyes."- Victoria Bush, author of "How to Create the Perfect Eyebrow".

Now with your new sign in your salon, or these words posted on a price menu or elsewhere, are you prepared to give all of your clients beautiful eyebrows? Are you able to confidently wax your client's eyebrows because you know exactly which hairs to remove and which to leave?
Let's step through a client eyebrow shaping and waxing visit from start to finish so you can build your confidence with eyebrow design.

Step 1:The client makes the eyebrow waxing appointment.
Question:How much time should you allow for the eyebrow waxing appointment?
Answer:If it is the client's first ever eyebrow service with you, have them book an Eyebrow Design consultation. This could take anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes.During this consultation, you will assess the client's features, and learn all about their health, medication, and beauty treatments that may preclude you from waxing them.
The consultation can be booked in different ways. You can have a complimentary consultation, you can charge a fee that the client can credit toward the hair removal service and/or products, or you can charge them a fee that pays for your time.
Question: How much should you charge the client if they are a first time eyebrow shaping client?
Answer:The range for an Eyebrow Design consultation is $25 - $65 and higher.
Question: How much time should you allow if you have designed the client's brows at a previous salon visit?
Answer:You should be able to wax their eyebrows in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or 25 minutes, for the advanced, the intermediate, or the beginner waxing professional. This includes the time it takes to wash your hands, prepare the client, cleanse the client's skin, wax, and apply after-wax products.
Question:How much should you charge the client for the eyebrow waxing service if you have designed their brow at a previous salon visit?
Answer:The range is $10 - $30. Make sure you are fairly compensated for your time and expertise. You are responsible for making sure that the client's Health and Medication Survey is updated so they have no contraindications to waxing, for upholding the highest sanitation standards, and for making sure that the client has an aesthetically pleasing eyebrow shape. Is $10 enough to cover all of that?
Question:What if your client insists that they do not need a consultation and that they just need you to "clean up the area?" (They mean wax these brows as fast as you can and just remove stray hairs and I really don't want to pay for your time and expertise. They're saying...I just want to spend about 10 bucks and 5 or 10 minutes. What should you do?)
Answer:It depends on your salon and you. This is the real world and clients do come in and say this. They'll ask this of you as they run in the door or right after a soothing facial. You must do what fits within your salon's image, parameters, and goals. If you're game, swoop them into a private room as quickly as possible. Make sure they are not taking or doing anything that should prevent you from waxing them. Charge them at least as much as your usual fee, if not more, to wax their eyebrows. Perhaps they won't ask for special treatment in the future.

Step 2:The client comes to your salon or spa for their eyebrow design appointment.Client Consultation Appointment
First, have the client fill out a Client Health, Medication, and Beauty Treatment Form. This form will tell you if the client has any illnesses, takes any medications, or undergoes any beauty treatments that you should be aware of and that may stop you from waxing them.
For example, if they are taking any keratolytic drugs, you may either need to warn them or not wax them at all. Keratolytic drugs work by peeling off the top cells of the epidermis. This causes the skin to be more permeable, causes increased blood flow, and thus a higher skin sensitivity. Keratolytic drugs include Retin-A, Renova, Tazarac, and Accutane.
If a client has had a recent filler injection, Restylane injection, or other beauty treatment, you must wait 3 – 5 days before waxing the area of injection so as not to relocate the injected material.
Second, assess the client's facial features including the size of their features, the long and wide facial zones, the face shape, the color tone, eye set, and eye orientation.
Third, ask the client what they like about their eyebrows and what they don't like about their eyebrows. This is possibly the most important consideration of the eyebrow shaping and design process. Your client's opinion must dictate what you do with their eyebrows. If they ask for thick or natural looking eyebrows, and you make them very thin, you will lose that client and many more.
Fourth, choose eyebrow characteristics for your client's new brows. Eyebrow thickness, brow shape, arch height and location, length of brows, color tone, color for fill-in, beginning and ending point, and high point and arch are the characteristics (minimally, but there are even more of) that should be studied to find the brow shape that will let your client's face glow with symmetry and beauty.
Fifth, sketch the new shape on the client card or record the shape name if you're using a template.

Let's take a look at three of these eyebrow characteristics – the beginning point, the ending point, and the arch.

The Beginning Point of the Eyebrow
The correct position of the beginning point of the eyebrow (where the eyebrow should start) is directly over the inner corner of the eye – with possible modifications.
The possible modification of the beginning point of the eyebrow is based on the person's eye set, that is whether the eyes are well set, close set, or wide set. How might one modify the beginning point of the eyebrow? Based on the client's eye set, the beginning point can be moved outward by removing eyebrow hair at the beginning point, or the beginning point can move inward by growing in hairs at the beginning point.

The Ending Point of the Eyebrow.
The correct ending point should be the intersection point along the brow line that occurs when a straight-edged object is placed at the base of the nose, intersects the outer corner of the eye, and finds the intersection point along the eyebrow.
Should the ending point of the eyebrow ever be moved from that intersection point? The answer is no because its placement maintains balance of the facial features based on the central focus of the face, the nose. Time and again, make-up artists as well as non-beauty professionals have tampered with the ending point with unattractive results. What ends up happening is that the eyes are either dragged downward or excessively dramatic and completely out of balance. We recommend always following the ending point rule for the eyebrow.

The Arch of the Eyebrow
The current, long-standing rule regarding where the arch should be along the brow is obsolete and should no longer be followed. The obsolete rule uses the outer rim of the iris (obsolete rule) to locate the arch
If you wish to verify this (we hope you do), look at any magazine and find photographs where the actresses or models are looking straight ahead. Take a ruler and place it at the outer rim of the model's eye and see where the ruler, going vertically upwards, intersects with the actual arch of the eyebrow.
You will see, time and time again, that there is no relationship between the iris and the arch. If there is, it is coincidental and not common. So...where does arch belong? The answer is slightly outside the high point and the rest we'll leave for future, more advanced study.

Eyebrow Waxing Appointment
First, give the client their Client Health, Medication, and Beauty Treatment Form. Have the client record any changes, then sign and date the card.
Second, look at their Eyebrow Design card that shows your brow sketch or template name. Use that brow shape as the guide to removing the client's eyebrow hair or for filling in with powder or pencil until the hair grows in to create the desired shape.

We recommend using eyebrow powder instead of pencil. Excellent eyebrow powders are easy to apply, can be blended for a better color match, and look more natural than pencil. Eyebrow powder stays on longer, whereas the eyebrow pencil will smudge off more easily.

Step 3: Book the client's next appointment before they leave!
Your client does not want to worry about losing their beautiful new brow shape. They do not want to take the time to call you to fit in an eyebrow waxing. Make it easy on them by booking the appointment before they leave. Book the appointment in two to four weeks depending on the client's answer when you ask, "How quickly does your eyebrow hair grow?"
The whole process is that easy, as easy as 1-2-3. Unfortunately, it's not.
There is so much involved in the eyebrow shaping process, yet it doesn't have to take hours to perform the service. When you become proficient, it'll take you between 10 to 15 minutes to create a fabulous design. Where you need to invest the time is with the study and practice of eyebrow shaping, design, and waxing.
Take a hands-on eyebrow shaping class. Take a waxing class to learn excellent waxing techniques. Practice all that you have learned. Learn from your mistakes. Then you will be able to create a wonderful eyebrow shape for each and every client. Then when someone sees them, all the attention will be on their beautiful eyes.

Victoria Bush is a licensed aesthetician, educator and make-up artist, specializing in eyebrow design and hair removal. She is the author of the Milady textbook entitled, How to Create the Perfect Eyebrows, which she wrote based on years of research and hands-on eyebrow design practice in the professional beauty industry. Bush created and developed a line of eyebrow design products in the mid-90s which are still sold today under the trade name of Brow Perfection. The company has begun teaching Adriel Eyebrow Design continuing education classes in some states. The classes will be available in most states by the end of 2005. Bush is a summa cum laude graduate of Georgia State University.