I got my brows threaded!- Review of Himalayan Eyebrow Threading Salon (Manhattan Location)

Hi everyone! Today I'm coming to you with a super exciting post! I took the plunge and got my eyebrows threaded. I have had such a nightmare of an eyebrow journey... it started since puberty I suppose. Naturally I have pretty full brows, and when I was younger (think teens) I had no idea what to do with them. I kind of just let them be scary and unshaped and a mess. Then I started tweezing (oy) and that turned into a nightmare. Ladies and gentlemen, we had a serious case of overplucking.

Awkward. [Excuse the poor quality]

I definitely stopped plucking my brows so horrifically thin towards the end of freshman year of college, but because I just did not like the shape of my natural brows, I started literally plucking off the ends so I could reshape them the way I wanted to. My ends curve downwards a lot and I just prefer more of a straight brow. Still with an arch but just not so... down. 

Anyway, so finally when I literally looked like I had half eyebrows and had friends ask me what was happening to my eyebrows after a day at the pool when I realized in horror that the ends had basically washed off, I realized eventually I would have to start growing them back. I got the motivation a couple months ago when my cousin came to my grandma's house with well-shaped brows and told me she had got hers threaded. I decided I would grow out my brows, and get them threaded too. So I did! I had a few pitstops in the way, such as graduation pictures in which I just had to pluck strays, so they would have been somewhat fuller by now had I completely left them alone, but after 2 months I figured the time was right. I have my graduation next week along with 2 Senior events, so I wanted nice brows for the occasion.

My brows before: The ends are still there-ish (my better brow, with the other one I take the end completely off) but the brow shape leaves something to be desired

I did a good job of filling them in didn't I? :)

When I looked for a place to get them done, I decided not to go to my cousin's place, because even though her brows looked nice I wanted a place that was revered for getting them just right. I found my place on Yelp.

This place got great reviews, especially referencing Pinky. I went a week ago and Pinky wasn't there, so I decided to come this week instead and hope for Pinky. Ironically if she was there, she's not the one who did my brows! (Though I didn't ask this time- I felt foolish? I don't know.) I got Shazia instead, which I wasn't too bothered about because she's also said to do good work (though not referenced as much as Pinky!). I showed her what I wanted and told her I knew my brows were still pretty sparse so if she could to just come as close as possible to the picture. She was very sweet and said she'd try. Speaking of sweet, every person there was really nice, and not in that fake salon way where they all kiss your ass- they were really nice and pleasant, the ladies and the cool asian guy at the register. He was a nice dude! He told me he was surprised to hear it was my first time and that my brows were really nice! :D I was quite pleased, as I spend a lot of time filling in my brows, but I divulged this fact to him and told him he would see when the makeup came off haha. In terms of aesthetic, the place isn't exactly ritzy. It's shared with a jewelry store and I think a couple other floors within a building. I walked right past it the first time around the block- the only sign indicating it is this, right next to the jewelry store door:

The place is on the second floor, really easy to see once you get up there. Anyway, getting back to my actual threading experience, here are the pictures I showed her:

I knew it was quite a stretch, considering the state of my brows. 

This is what I gave her to work with:

Ay. Not pretty. Also, even though theyre quite thick and full they're still somehow sparse. Right?! See what I mean? [Also sorry for the quality and lighting- I was in a bathroom at school when I took these pics, w/o flash]

Anyway, I told her how nervous I was and asked whether it would hurt and she told me no not much, and that plucking mustache hairs hurt but brow hairs wasn't too bad. Haha. She was very nice and humored me when I gasped "WAIT NO! I'M NOT READY YET! PLEASE!!" and smiled and let me breathe. Then I said okay and she threaded 1 stray hair in a quick and agile motion and told me "This is what it feels like. It's not so bad right?" And it really wasn't. So I told her okay and gamely laid back and closed my eyes while she began the process. In the beginning it was alright- not too bad at all. But when she got to the underside of the brows BOY DID THAT HURT!!! It really did. It wasn't as painful as I was scared it would be, as I had heard horror stories from some friends and my cousin warned me to take painkillers beforehand. I think next time I will, but still it wasn't like 10 minutes in the chambers of Hell. It was just painful. But nothing anyone couldn't handle. It was just definitely painful. Haha! So she showed me one brow when it was done and I quite liked it! She explained to me that since I had some sparse hairs that still hadn't grown back from overplucking that she couldn't make it a straight line like she would want but to let it grow and when I came back she would fix it up :) I thanked her and told her I understood and agreed. She moved onto the next brow. For a portion of the time I helped her by holding my mobile lid down and keeping the skin above my brow taut. It's really not a big deal, I for some reason thought this would be some technical challenge that would throw me into a state of incompetence and disarray. Basically, I'm dramatic.

When it was all over I was excited to look in the mirror. But when I did to be honest I was very unhappy :( The brows don't really match each other, and they look worse then I did when I came in, although more groomed individually. But in looking at my face as a whole it makes my face look worse. The dude at the register looked kind of shocked when he saw me afterwards, having said my brows look so nice before. But he quickly tried to knock that expression of his face... it did kind of amplify my inner feelings though, seeing that even he was surprised.

Ugh, sorry about the horrible red bump! Threading irritates your skin, but it goes away after a couple days.

 Left Eye

Right Eye

Face pics (prepare yourself, I think it looks a bit weird):

 Pre-threading, and post-threading^. In a weird way I feel like the pre-threading compliments my face more... even though it is a mess. Afterwards the brows look so different to me... I know they're supposed to be sisters, not twins but I don't know, hoped they would be more complementary to one another

 How it looks without filling in (it's bumpy near my brows and even on my Forehead... not sure if the threading aggravated my face or what, it's weird that there are bumps all the way up top, I think a couple could just be blemishes but some are caused by the threading)

How it measures up to the pictures I showed her:

1

 Before threading, after, and Hilary Duff's brow inspiration

 Before threading, after, and Katy Perry's brow inspiration

Me vs. Katy! Mine definitely look more similar to Hilary's then hers, but I don't think they're totally opposites. Hers are also, more delicate and more angled outwards. I love them so much...wish mine looked like that! This is why I just plucked the ends off, because it gave me the freedom to draw my brows that way. Obviously hers and Hilarys are extended with pencil and filled in, because they go out so far and you can't really even see the hairs there, which means it's drawn on skin. So I don't know... But I shouldn't go back to my old plucking habits! I don't think anyway. Should I? :x

Bottom Line: In terms of my experience at Himalayan Eyebrow Threading Salon, I'm not thrilled with how they look on their own. It did hurt but she was fairly gentle.  The cost of threading was $7 and I left a $1 tip. Not sure if most people tip, but I did! They also gave me a coupon to get $2 off any $10 service. The place is no muss, no fuss, no extras, but it gets the job done. I'm not really that happy.

Website: http://www.himalayansalon.com/

Update: I have sustained serious skin irritation from the threading... these bumps are really inflamed, and they hurt a lot :( I have to buy witch hazel to clean them, aloe vera to heal them, and anti-bacterial ointment because the inflammations means they could be infected.

Next Day Update: The bumps have gotten even worse. Now they're like angry red weals, completely covering in between my eyebrows and all over my forehead... I don't know why they do that. Why do they thread between your brows? It's not like I had a unibrow, I didn't even think I had hair there. I don't feel like they threaded as high up as the bumps go but I had my eyes close. It's either a horrible reaction because I have sensitive skin or it's an allergic reaction to something they used. I just spent the last twenty minutes crying over this because it hurts so much and it's painful and itchy and really really sensitive, and I look like a freak. I spent my whole day today with my head down and it feels so awful not to be able to even look around like a normal person. I bought witch hazel and aloe vera and neosporin and treated it like the websites say, and I'm seeing the dermatologist tomorrow. In a week I have a whole bunch of Senior events coming up and my Graduation Ceremony... I'm so scared it won't get better by then. It's really bad. :'(

I know I look pretty bad here but I'm feeling horrible at the moment and not exactly trying to focus on looking cute (as it's literally impossible). :(

I just wanted to warn everyone about the possible effects of threading, which you should be wary of especially if you have sensitive skin. Also I'm not sure if it's Himalayan's fault or what but I'm not going back there again. I don't think I'll ever thread my brows again, it just doesn't seem like something that's good for me.