THE STORY
How does this even happen?!?!?
Well, it would happen to me. Because that’s just my luck. But, instead of being embarrassed by it, I’m going to make the best of it, and share my mishap. Maybe you can relate...or maybe you have it together better than I do! Either way, I hope you get a good laugh.
Have you ever seen Tiffany Jenkins who runs Juggling the Jenkins on Facebook? Or the lady who is behind Knee Deep in Life? I follow both--they’re hilarious. They make funny videos all the time. I felt like I was making a video like they do. But I wasn’t....
This all started pre-COVID. I was teaching a Body Back class and I can’t even begin to remember what got us started on this topic. But, I was sharing that I was having a mid-life crisis-type-moment and trying different things to help make myself feel better about myself. For example, the one I remember talking about was a special shampoo and conditioner I found on a Facebook ad to try to strengthen my hair and stop it from falling out. There were some other things too, but again, I can’t remember.
One of our other instructors was in the class that morning. Now, this woman is beautiful. She’s in amazing shape, always looks put together, and is super kind and funny. She looks like she has life figured out (well, as far as I can tell from the outside). So, when she recommended something she does, I KNEW I had to try it too. I mean, she looks amazing! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? --I was going through something. What she’s doing clearly works. I thought I’d give it a try! What did I have to lose?? Well, you’re about to find out.
A few weeks went by and I kept putting it off. I was busy at work and with life. And, I’ll admit, I was nervous to try it because I had to go to work every day. What if I didn’t do it right? What if I didn’t like how I looked? But then, COVID happened. I was so bored after a month and a half. I was also feeling a little down. I remembered that this instructor told me that she uses a dermaplaning tool to remove the hair and dead skin cells from her face. So, I ordered some of these fun little tools. I was like, why not? I’m stuck at home. I don’t see anyone. It’s worth a shot.
I try it. And it's AWESOME! To me, my face looks better. It feels better. I’m so thrilled. I’m loving it. Thank you, instructor friend!
Over the next couple of weeks I did little touch-ups as needed. I mean, the results last. You need to get used to the feel at first, but after a week or so it becomes normal. Excellent. Until one Sunday morning.
I was doing a little touch up...and I hear hair shaving off. YES! It’s working. I must have missed some so I’m glad I’m taking a minute to do this. I move the dermaplaning tool and... my eyebrow is GONE. O! M! G! I. SHAVED. MY. EYEBROW. OFF. Well, not all of it, more like a third of it--the part on the end, except a couple of small eyebrow hairs. But still. Gone. You should have heard the words that came out of my mouth. My heart fell to my stomach. WHAT was I going to do?!?!?!?
Panic. That’s what I did. I scrambled through my makeup to see what I had. I couldn’t walk downstairs missing a huge chunk of my eyebrow. My husband would NEVER let me forget it. EVER.
I found eyeliner...and a lip liner. The lipliner was more brown in color so I tried that first. Well, it was the WRONG brown. With a plum undertone. No. I smudge that and add black eyeliner. BINGO! I blend it a bit and back away from the mirror. Phew! You couldn’t even really tell. I’m saved...I think. I made it the entire day without my husband noticing. Excellent.
The next day was Monday, thank goodness. My husband was going to work. I was so excited. I’d have the whole day to NOT panic about my face. The relief. Until I realized my daughter had a chiropractor appointment that morning. Oh. Help. Me. I have to take her in. And I always talk to him. And his wife. I can’t leave my sunglasses on that cover it because then I’d just look rude, or weird.
So I get a genius idea...if black eyeliner looked fairly believable as an eyebrow, imagine what BLACK SHARPIE would do! Permanent? No worries about it rubbing or washing off? Yes, please!
WRONG!
Okay, it actually looked fine colored on, and it got me through the chiropractor appointment. Whew. Yes, I colored on my face with black Sharpie. But, for as permanent as that type of marker has been in the past for me, it was NOT on my face! (Are you kidding me?!?! If I get it on my hand, it's there for 3 days even after lots of soap and harsh scrubbing). It washed off! Ugh. My husband was in the bathroom when I got out of the shower that evening. I had to hurry and turn my head and swipe some eyeliner on it before he noticed. I made it happen. I was safe. For the moment.
The following day, Tuesday, I tried a combo of eyeliner and Sharpie. I mean, if I’m trying new things anyway (dermaplaning...writing on my face with permanent marker), I may as well keep experimenting, right? It looked fine. Until I worked out. I was sweating so I used a paper towel to wipe my brow. And my eyebrow wiped right off! On the paper towel. Are you kidding me?!?! So much for permanent...apparently the trick to removing permanent marker from skin is sweat. Who knew?
Wednesday morning I could actually see a few eyebrow hairs growing back in and I went back to just eyeliner to draw in the rest. It’s not as harsh as the marker, though I did figure out how to blot the permanent marker to blend it. I also figured if permanent marker wiped off, using eyeliner, that was easier to get on, and off ultimately, would just be my best bet.
THE MEANTIME
So, how long does it take for an eyebrow to grow back?!?! Well, let me tell you. I know from experience! I don’t even need to Google it! It takes weeks. WEEKS! A. LONG. TIME. FOREVER. It’s still not fully grown in and it's been five weeks. From the moment it happened, I popped my hair growth/strengthening vitamins (another crazy COVID/mid-life crisis purchase because I think I’m going bald) as often as the bottle recommended. I also drank a ton of water. I ate protein. I went out in the sun thinking a tan would make it look less obvious. I did whatever I could think of to get my little eyebrow to regrow as fast as possible and hide the fact that it was missing. I don’t even know if these things helped, but I couldn’t take chances. I was DESPERATE. I had to do everything in my power to grow it back and make it look as normal as possible until it did grow in.
Did I mention that I teach Body Back? And that I only had one class a week at the time? I was SO thankful that my mishap occurred on a Sunday. I had six days for regrowth to occur before seeing people up close-ish. Again, thank goodness for COVID (that doesn’t come out of my mouth often) because we all had to keep a bit of a distance!
Since I picked up more classes during the week, I’ve still only taught outside so I get to hide my little oopsie behind my sunglasses! When I go out in public, which is still pretty rare, I try to have sunglasses on, but if not, I don’t even try to fill it in anymore. My mom visited two weeks after it happened and she didn’t say anything about it. I figured if she didn’t really notice, no one would really pay that close of attention.
THE LESSONS
Being a teacher, I do need to share the lessons I learned from this experience because that’s how you get better, right?? Learning from your mistakes.
Be careful when playing with sharp objects. Right, like I don’t teach my daughter this. Apparently I should’ve been taking my own notes.
Sharpie’s really are a versatile tool. I think I’ll keep one with me at all times after this. It’s my new saving grace.
I’m blessed to have dark eyebrows. The other instructor, who I got this idea from in the first place, told me this when I told her about my “incident.”
Big sunglasses hide A LOT. I may need to buy a couple more of the extra large ones that I have--just in case. I like to be prepared.
Men really are not that observant when it comes to anything beauty. And in this instance, I was SO grateful.
Things like this happen to the best of us--even the instructor who I think has it all together (she said she did it once too).
Eyebrows grow back.
As a mom, I’d like to think I have it all together. But, I’ll be honest. I don’t. I’m a mess. A hot mess. I think I was before my daughter too so I’m not even sure I can use the mom excuse. Maybe you can relate-even if you didn’t actually shave your eyebrow off of your face. Maybe it's something equally embarrassing. Or worse. My hope is that you got a good laugh. I survived. I learned. Time to move onto the next embarrassing moment!
(Photo/Meme courtesy of MemeGuy)