Hands up if you’ve heard of microblading!!!
Ya....I hadn’t either, but thank goodness it exists.
I’ve mentioned before that losing my eyebrows was a HUGE deal to me- it was almost worse than losing all my hair. Over the last few months they have completely vacated the premises so I’ve gotten ok-ish at drawing them back on. But I hate it. Like really really hate it. And I hate not having eyebrows so I’m feeling a bit of a lose lose situation here.
I would have never considered getting my eyebrows tattooed previous to this alopeica business. Number 1: I had no need for it, if I wanted my eyebrows to pop a little I could just fill my existing ones in and 2: I’m a big chicken. Like big big chicken. I don’t do pain, at all. You better believe that some hardcore drugs will need to be involved if I ever need anything more than an IV (helloooooo propofol!!!). I’m also a HUGE commitment-phobe when it comes to permanently altering my body. Too many what-ifs and I don’t want my saggy old skin to look super ratchet when I’m a grandma.
Cue microblading.
I honestly don’t remember where I first heard about microblading. I want to say it was probably from Instagram as I searched through pictures of other women with alopecia. Unlike traditional eyebrow tattoos, microblading is only semi permanent. That’s because the pigment/ink only goes into the superficial layers of the skin. Typically microblading tattoos last 1-3 years depending on the pigment colour and how your body reacts to the process.
I had my appointment earlier this week and I was surprised at how calm I felt about the whole thing. Sure there was an element of fear but mostly I was just excited to have it done. I was getting downright miserable drawing my brows on every morning and not really willing to go without.
After filling out all the necessary paperwork, my technician, Dawn, took me back to the tattoo room and went over the whole process with me. The next step was to draw on the outline of my new brows. I laid down on the table and she measured, stenciled, measured, sketched, measured and altered the sketch until both sides matched (remember: eyebrows are sisters, not twins!!). She gave me two different options in regards to shape of my brows and I headed out to the waiting room to show my friend (Marianella) and my youngest brother (Michael- the one with the pink hair).
Luckily Marianella picked the same eyebrow that I liked. She was given strict instructions on our way to the appointment to not let me do something that I wasn’t comfortable with and her opinion means a ton to me so I would have been having some major self doubt if she picked something else (crisis averted). Next Michael got to have his say. He picked the same as Marianella (which he told me later he really only chose because Marianella did because he couldn’t really tell the difference between the two). And finally I Skyped with Paul. That’s when the long distance thing sucks the most- when you have big stuff going on that the other person can’t be around for. Luckily though, time zones worked out ok and we were able to have a chat. He was a ton of help (cue eyeroll):
‘Which one do you like? The right or the left?’
‘Ummmmm.....I think the one on your right.’
‘Well that’s no good, the rest of us said the left.’
‘Oh, well ok. That one’s alright too. But not that colour.’
‘It won’t be this colour, that’s just the pencil. And it won’t be that big either. She just has to draw it bigger so she can fill in the outline.’
‘So basically you’re telling me that what I’m seeing is actually nothing like what it’s going to look like?’
‘Well no, the shape. Is the shape ok?’
‘Ya.........(long pause).......actually I’ve gotten used to them already. Ya. Get them like that’.
Good talk darling ;)
After we all agreed on the shape, I went back to the tattoo room and Dawn drew on the outline with a waterproof pen and put on the numbing cream. The numbing cream needed to sit on my skin for ~15 minutes so I got to sit and chill with my peeps for a bit and then it was time for the process to begin!
After picking the pigment that Dawn thought would look best on me, we got started on the outline of the brow. (Ha! ‘We’. Just kidding. I did nothing but lie there but without me there’s no tattoo.)
‘This part may feel a bit pinchy’.
Now, if you are scared of pain like me, do not let that stop you from microblading. Like at all. Whatever is in the numbing cream is theeeeee shit. Bam!
She made the first cut....
‘And.....’
‘Ya, I feel nothing’
Like legit. I felt almost nothing for the vast majority of the tattoo. It was just the end that I started to get a little sore but that is partly because my body is an asshole.
I’ll explain in a minute.
Now, if you’re like me and don’t really do your research before getting certain procedures done (I didn’t want to freak myself out, ok???) you may think that microblading would involve a tattoo gun.
It does not.
It’s actually more just like an exacto knife. I don’t really know how the whole process works but there’s an exacto knife thing and a little tub of pigment and then some sort of magic in-between (and more topical anesthetic).
So anyways, back to my body being an asshole....
Basically they make little cuts in your skin (and while you don’t really feel much you do hear scratching which is a tad bit unnerving but I just tried to ignore it). Well, your skin doesn’t really like to be cut (turns out) and then it gets really angry and makes you bleed and swell and such. (Which I didn’t really think about but probably should have known but because I didn’t think about it I was a bit freaked out. But Dawn was super awesome and reassured me that this was all normal and plus she has this other magic stuff that makes the bleeding stop and honestly I didn’t even know I was bleeding until she told me so it really wasn’t that big of a deal at all.). Butttt my skin was extra super irritated at the whole thing and did a little bit of extra swelling which meant that Dawn couldn’t put as many hair strokes in on this initial appointment. It was all like ‘get this pigment out of me!’ and I was all like ‘Shut up and take it you stupid skin! If you wouldn’t have made my hair fall out in the first place we wouldn’t have to do this!’ (I said this in my head because I didn’t want to weird Dawn out but I feel like having arguments with your body when you have an auto-immune disease is a completely rational thing to do).
During the whole tattoo Dawn sat me up and measured things a couple more times and made sure I was comfortable. The thing with microblading is that the colour fades and your body might decide to ditch the pigment a bit (like areas of my eyebrow that were more swollen and NOT letting the dang pigment in could fade to nothing over the next couple of weeks) which is why most places include a free touch up 1-3 months after your first appointment. So while I was busy having an argument with myself in my head, Dawn was busy assuring me that whatever happens, we will make sure everything is perfect with the touch up.
When she was all finished with the tattoo she sat me up and gave me a mirror to check myself out. I was in shock.
Literally.
But not like a ton of shock, just like the appropriate amount of shock that you should be in when you get your forehead cut open. I think I scared her a little cuz I was pretty quiet and all like ‘Ya, cool, this is great’ but like maybe not as excited as some people are. But I was totally legit excited about it because ‘Look, I have a face!’...but holy crap, I got a tattoo. And wow. And this is crazy. And yesssssssss. There were a lot of things going through my mind :)
For the first hour or so after the tattoo I felt a bit like I had had Botox and I couldn’t really move my face and that if i did move my face then my eyebrows would fall apart.
They did not.
Since then I’ve just been trying to be super diligent about doing my proper aftercare because I want these mofo’s to look ON FLEEK for as long as possible.
This turned in to a really long post. Hopefully I got all the procedure stuff right but I might be wrong so don’t quote me if you’re all like ‘I’m getting my eyebrows tattooed’ and they come at you with a gun and you’re all like ‘THIS IS NOT WHAT I WAS PREPARED FORRRRRRRRR’. Dude. I don’t know.
Also, couple shout outs are in order: First of all if you are in the Edmonton area and want to get your brows bladed check out Iron Orchid. She has an Instagram account and I just feel like her brows are the most natural looking out of all the ones I’ve seen. Dawn is super nice and makes sure you are happy with everything and explains everything as she goes. She is moving to Mexico in May but is planning on coming back every 6-8 weeks to take clients (cuz tickets are only $400!) but if I can’t get in to see her because you take my spot....friends off. And if she ever decides to only be in Mexico....guess what Paul?!!! We’re going to Mexicooooooooo.
Super special thanks too to my parents and Paul’s parents who helped out with the cost of the procedure. It literally means the world to me. It’s so nice to feel like I have my face back :)
In summary....
Super stoked with the brows. It will be interesting to see how they heal and how much work we will have to do at the next appointment. (P.S: the whole process including the consultation took about 2ish hours). I’ll keep you updated as it goessssss.
