Hot or not: Natural eyebrows

Celebrities such as Leighton Meester and Mary Kate Olsen have been spotted with thick, natural eyebrows lately. To me, there is something very youthful and carefree about this look. And in my humble opinion, it's much better looking than over-plucked eyebrows.

If you're thinking about trying out this look, keep in mind that natural eyebrows must still be groomed! Just because you have bushy brows doesn't mean you can abandon your tweezers altogether! Think about it, have you ever seen Mary Kate or Leighton with a uni-brow? No! And you wont.

So, when rocking natural brows:

• Keep the middle free of hair
• Trim any extra-long hairs
• Brush your brows into place
• Play up your makeup to balance out the natural look of your brows

I am so curious to hear what others about this look. Do you love it or hate it? Would you ever consider letting your eyebrows grow a little bit wild?

Have you tried threading? I'm fully obsessed.

Today I want to talk about my absolute favorite method of eyebrow maintenance -- threading.

This ancient method of hair removal originated in countries such as Persia and India but has gained considerable popularity here in the U.S., especially in New York City. It involves using a piece of tightly twisted cotton thread to pluck out unwanted hair.

Unlike tweezing, whereby each hair is plucked out one by one, threading can remove an entire row of hair in a single pass.

I had never tried this method of hair removal until a friend recommended it to me some months ago. After trying it once, I was hooked.

See, I've always had problems with the shape of my brows. I still remember the first night I ever plucked my eyebrows. I was around 13 years-old and it was the fourth of July. I sat on my bedroom floor with my mom's tweezers and completely butchered my once-bushy brows. I was left with a thin, crooked line of horribleness.

Throughout high school my eyebrows remained thin and misshapen. Around my sophomore year of college I finally decided to overhaul my eyebrows and grew them back. Over the following years, my eyebrows improved but I never thought they were perfect until I started getting them threaded.

Here are some photos of me getting threaded today at Unique Threading Salon in NYC's Chelsea neighborhood. 

In professional threading salons, practitioners hold one end of the string with their mouth.

You will be asked to gently pull the skin above and below your eyebrow so your practitioner can more easily pluck the hair beneath your brow. 

Just a few more things to say about threading -- normally people can go one to two weeks between threading sessions, depending on how fast their hair grows. I like to get my eyebrows threaded every week or so, because my hair grows pretty quick. 

There are a ton of threading places here in NYC, and where I go it only costs $6 to have my brows done. You can also get your upper lip, sideburns, chin or whole face threaded. Even if you don't live in The City you may be able to find a threading salon near where you live. Threading booths have been cropping up in a lot of malls nowadays. 

Just one warning -- if you have never tried threading it will probably be pretty painful at first. I have grown used to the pain over time, but when I first started getting my brows threaded I thought it was extremely uncomfortable. However, even though it hurt at first, I didn't really mind because the results were so good.

So, pretties, do you thread? What is your preferred method of eyebrow maintenance?