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Brow theory: Why you should get your eyebrows professionally shaped at least once in your life
As you can see by the before image up there, my eyebrows have a tendency to become quite wild and unruly in a fairly short amount of time, while also being a little bit on the gappy side. The likes of ladies such as Cara Delevingne and Lily Collins have been giving bushy brows their time in the spotlight, but the best brows of late have been the ones that are fuller but neater, so getting myself into a proper grooming routine is my new goal.
When I went in for my eyebrow shaping appointment at Theodora's Beauty Boutique, my brows had endured over two months with absolutely no upkeep on my part, which explains why they had started to creep towards the centre of my face Oscar the Grouch-style. This is not unusual for me, because I absolutely never tweeze (it makes me sneeze, so I can only ever get about three hairs before my vision becomes way too blurry!) and generally only go to the salon to get waxed every second month to save money (and because I live on the lazy side), so by the time I do get myself to a waxer they basically have to start all over again — and I'm totally okay with that!
There is no greater lift you can give to your face than getting a high quality wax — I swear my face actually feels lighter once the hairs are gone! Perfectly groomed brows manage to lighten your face, while somehow making your skin look clearer and younger (don't ask me how they achieve this magic). I'm not really one for filling in my brows (because they're so dark) — I've just started using a dark brow mascara daily to keep them in place, but my newly shaped brows require so little upkeep that I can pretty much say that at least when it comes to my brows #iwokeuplikethis. To say that I'm a little bit obsessed with my new awesome-looking arches would be a bit of an understatement. Theodora, you've got yourself a client for life!
Here are my top 3 reasons why you should get your eyebrows professionally shaped at least once in your life:
1. Professionals know when to stop
I think we've all experienced the struggle of trying get your eyebrows exactly even and plucking hair after hair until we go just a tad too far and ruin everything. Professionals tend to assess the situation before they remove any hairs and can tell when it is better to leave the hairs behind. When it comes to your brows, it is always better to under pluck than to over pluck and regret it.
2. Good trims are near impossible to do yourself
If you have particularly unruly brows like myself, then the thing keeping you from getting picture perfect eyebrows might just be the length of your hairs. Getting your brows trimmed is what gives you the sharp-angled edges neat looks love and also makes it easier to keep them groomed because you don't have to do a comb over to get them to stay in place.
3. Because eyebrow shaping is an art
Close your eyes and imagine drawing a life-like picture of a face, thinking hard about the lines you would draw and any shading you would put in. Open your eyes and try to draw that picture. Chances are that unless you've got artistic skills to begin with, what you imagined in your head and what you put on the paper were two very different things. Sometimes even though our brain can understand how to do something, our body is just not physically able to do it. Shaping your brows is exactly the same — just because we understand how one would objectively get amazing brows doesn't mean we're going to be able to do it for ourselves. A good brow technician will ask you about your routine (for upkeep) as well as what shape or look you'll ideally have before they get started, that way they can assess if that is actually achievable and can help you find a shape that suits your face for the most flattering look.
Even if you plan on getting your brows shaped professionally just once and then using that as a template to manage the upkeep for yourself, it is totally worth it. It has been less than a week since I got my brows done and somebody has complimented me on them every single day and it just makes me feel like even my makeup looks are better! For best results do your research first and check reviews online and don't feel bad for asking a lot of questions — they should know what they're talking about!
Check out Theodora's Beauty Boutique's Instagram for more amazing brow transformations and head over to their Facebook for more information about their services.


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After a six-year hiatus, the Richard Gahr High School marching band has returned to the field show competition scene and shattered all expectations. What began as learning basic forward and backward marching turned into a winning season of reinvigorated band pride.
Two weeks ago, band members traveled to Hemet and brought home honor to their high school after they won first place in the 3A Division of the 2013 California State Band Championships, hosted by the Southern California Judging Association.
New to Gahr High School this year, Darren Loney, director of bands, wanted to introduce the students at Gahr to another side of band. In previous years, the band had focused mostly on concert performance and technique, playing at football games and pep rallies as more of a formality than anything else.
The "band was a joke before," said member Jocelyn Chung, a senior. "People in band didn't even take it seriously."
Band practices during the summer began with Loney re-teaching the most basic fundamentals of marching band. "The students not knowing a lot was both good and bad," he said. "At least I had (fewer) bad habits to break."
Building the field show program from the ground up gave Loney the opportunity to refine everything from the way the band stood at attention to the precise 22.5-inch steps members should take while marching.
"We did warm-ups for days, and it was so tedious, but it made the biggest difference," Chung said.
The Gahr Marching Gladiators competed with their show, "Outbreak," for the first time at the Newport Harbor Field Tournament in October. When the band won first place overall, Gahr drum major Anthony Rocha, a senior, accepted the honor as his classmates yelled in excitement and surprise.
"Our band is the loudest," said Rocha. "It's actually kind of hurtful on the ears," he joked.
The 70-person Gahr band competed against schools that have had field show success for many consecutive years.
"Once we started learning the routine, we realized how far behind we were," Chung admitted.
But even though the band had to overcome a steep learning curve, Chung felt motivated, she said, because "we had a lot to prove to ourselves and other schools." Chung reasoned that part of Gahr's success actually stemmed from members' naïveté. "It seems like other bands may have reached a level of complacency in their performance," she said. The Gladiators, on the other hand, improved each time they played.
Bolstered by the students' unfettered determination, Loney and color guard director John Arroyo developed a unique and visually stunning show about an apocalyptic disease that slowly overtakes the band. The color guard waved large biohazard flags, and one by one, band members flipped panels on their uniform to reveal a red front, which represented a spreading infection.
"We presented an original show with a sophisticated concept, and it was all about the details," Arroyo said.
In the Southern California Judging Association's marching league, a band receives scores for music effects, music performance, visual effects, visual performance, percussion and auxiliary (flags and drill team), and teams are ranked based on their overall band performance, percussion and auxiliary. Despite the pressure, Loney and the band refused to worry about their score and placement.

subset: commoncrawl