Beauty trends are currently all about the brows. We went from tweezers and pencils in the early 2000s to over 150 products now available on Net A Porter for eyebrows alone. Instagram feeds are advising that “friends don’t let friends have bad brows,” and that you shouldn’t “let anyone with bad eyebrows tell you anything about life.” Thick, exceptionally groomed eyebrows with a perfect arch are the new standard. What can you do when one eyebrow sits lower than the other, or when they start to sink with age?
As our skin loses elasticity over the years, gravity pulls it down. The effects are most profound on the jowls and just over the eyes, but the eyebrows tend to sit a little bit lower as well. Some women even notice their arches flattening or more noticeable sagging on one side than the other.
Tweezing and waxing can reshape the brows to pronounce an arch and give the illusion of lift, but if you’re aiming for fullness, this might be out of the question. Hence the growing popularity of the nonsurgical brow lift.
Ultrasound brow lift
The ultrasound brow lift can be performed with Ultherapy or Ultraformer. Both technologies deliver ultrasound energy to the deeper layers of your skin. The energy creates controlled zones of heat which stimulate the collagen at the deeper layers of your skin. The collagen fibres then begin to regenerate themselves, which restores youthful tautness to the skin and restores some of the lift.
When an Ultherapy or Ultraformer treatment is directed above the eye area and on the forehead, it gently lifts the brows. The results are subtle, but natural looking. This method can also be used to treat asymmetry by providing a stronger treatment to one side of the forehead and eye area where the eyebrow sits lower down.
An added benefit to this treatment is that it can help reduce “hooded eyelids” as it lifts and tightens the skin above the eye.
The liquid brow lift
This version of the nonsurgical brow lift might also be known as a chemical brow lift or an injectable brow lift. It’s performed using anti-wrinkle injections.
Anti-wrinkle injections relax the muscles that cause the skin to crease with certain movements. For a brow lift, anti-wrinkle product can be injected into the depressor muscles above the eyebrows (the ones that push the brows down) and into the muscles below the brows that pull them down. The brow-lifting muscles no longer have resistance, so the eyebrows have a nice lift and little more arch.
Results are subtle enough to provide improvement, but without being a dramatic change. If you don’t have any arch in your brow, injections may not be able to create much change in shape, but they can accentuate the shape you already have.
In addition to lifting depressed brows and accentuating an arch, this treatment is popular for fixing asymmetry between brows as well.
Brow lift with dermal filler
Yes, you can use a little bit of filler to raise your eyebrow. The best part about this is that you get an immediate result.
Dermal fillers come in a range of thicknesses, the thinnest is used for plumping up lips, which need to be always moving, and the thickest fillers are used for shaping and contouring. For a brow lift, the recommended thickness may vary, depending on the nature of your skin.
A small amount of supportive filler can be placed beneath the brow to raise it up and support it. It is done using a cannula to reduce risks, and then the filler is carefully massaged so you don’t have a prominent ridge, just a smooth area and a higher brow.
This treatment can also help lift a heavy eyelid by better supporting the skin above your eye.
Which is the best brow lift treatment?
These treatments use different methods to lift the brows, but they can be equally effective. If you prefer a completely non-invasive method, you may want to go with an ultrasound brow lift. If you want faster results, you may want to choose an injectable route as results from Ultrasound treatments appear gradually over a few months. For best results, many of our patients use both in conjunction. Before deciding which one you want, we recommend speaking to one of our cosmetic doctors or nurses to get more information and ensure you’re a good candidate for treatment.
