Dita Von Teese recently gave an interview where she pulled back the curtain on her beauty routine. She revealed she uses Just For Men hair color to dye those fabulous eyebrows! (http://www.stylelist.com/2011/05/23/dita-von-teese-eyebrows-just-for-men-hair-dye/) Here’s how!

Dita Von Teese reveals the secret to her bold brows. Photo: Neilson Barnard/WireImage for Swarovski North America Ltd.

First: Have your brows shaped! Whatever your preference – wax, tweeze, or threading – have your eyebrows shaped and cleaned up. Remember to gently clean the skin with a low ph cleanser and if you’ve had the middle between the brows waxed or threaded, be sure to use a VERY gentle exfoliate (this only needs to be done once a week after waxing). This will help keep any ingrown hairs from occuring. And ALWAYS moisturize after cleansing!

Second: Picking out the color – Just For Men comes in two formulas, facial and hair. For ladies looking to dye their brows, pick the hair color, not the facial. Your brow hair is still not as dense as a man’s facial hair (we always want to choose the MINIMUM chemical process needed for a job). If you have very curly hair or feel like the brows are on the kinky side (no giggling), then you may need to choose the facial, but I’d try the hair color first.

Because these are progressive dyes (meaning they get darker the longer they are on the hair), you always want to choose a color slightly lighter than your own or exactly your color. After looking at their website, I believe NO ONE should go any darker than the dark brown. Let me repeat that: NO ONE should go darker than DARK BROWN. Once this product has been applied and processed, there is nothing I or any hair stylist/esthetician/etc can do to take it OFF. Products with metallic salts cannot be removed by conventional methods, ie bleaching – to do so could cause chemical burns and turn the hair turf green. Seriously.

Third: Prepping and Application. Prepping – Progressive dyes also stain the skin worse than any other dye. To keep from having Groucho Marx brows, apply a little barrier cream to the bare skin around your eyebrows. You can use a petroleum jelly, baby oil, heavy conditioner or lotion. You want to apply this fairly liberally as you will be wiping some of it away after the color application. Just be very careful not to get it on the eye brow hair as the color will not penetrate evenly.

Application – opening the box, you will see two bottles. One is the developer, the other the actual dye. You should be able to get several applications out of one box. As long as the bottles are stored with the lids tight, the individual parts will remain stable and useful until you’ve used all of the product.

Into a clean shallow glass or plastic bowl (NEVER METAL), pour small, but equal, amounts of each bottle. Mix with a Q-tip or clean toothbrush until blended. Now, apply the product to your brows starting from the inside and working your way out. I think a toothbrush or brow brush is the best applicator. You want to make sure to get each hair covered and the brushs will seperate the hair slightly to do that. However, keep a Q-tip handy for small areas or to spot apply where a brush may be too big.And of course, avoid applying to the skin. After applying, use another clean Q-tip to remove excess dye from around the brows – do this quickly before the dye has a chance to set too long on the skin. Remember the actually dyeing process only takes a few mintues so color needs to be removed quickly – best to do as you go. I would reapply a little more barrier cream after removing any excess color. This will help with the next step.

Fourth: Proccess and remove – once you’ve completed application, allow five minutes for the color to process. If you feel your brows are particularly coarse (you probably have curly hair) or have gray, you can leave the color on a couple of more minutes, but not more than another five.

Remove the color with a damp cotton ball(s). (This product will stain just about anything – your skin, clothes, washcloth, counter top, etc. Be careful!)

It’s inevitable that the dye will get on your skin. Even if it dyes the skin under the brows, this will give the brows more depth. If there is excess dye around the hair, don’t panic. It’s only temporary. Skin sloughes off the body rather quickly. You can use a gentle exfoliant to help remove the color. An old stylist trick for removing hair color is to use cigarette ashes with a little water mixed into a paste, rubbed onto the effected area and wiped off. If you’ve been careful, taken your time and done the prep work as I’ve laid out, you really shouldn’t have much to worry about.

If you’re not quite brave enough to do this yourself, you can always book an appointment with me at Rhiannon’s Closet. Brow coloring is $10 – waxing is $10. Unless you have very sensitive skin, waxing and coloring can be done in the same visit.