In the world of eyebrow shaping, there are the laypeople (the ones who wax you at any standard day spa or mall outlet), and there are the superstars — Anastasia, Damone Roberts, and Miss Rashida B., among them. Rashida flits between Miami and Chicago, beautifying the brows of the truly fabulous in both cities. When she isn’t plucking, shaping, holding down her popular Chicago salon, The B Spot and getting namedropped in the likes of Vogue magazine and Daily Candy — Rashida’s keeping it real on Twitter as @beautyschooled. AND she’s got an awesome blog of the same name — where she drops knowledge and interviews professionals in the world of makeup and the beautifying industry.

My interview with Rashida was unconventional in the sense that we were cracking each other up and bonding like old friends (even though we hadn’t met yet!) So without further ado, here are some of Rashida’s best tips and quips.

I had to ask her about the infamous eyebrow weave video — despite the repeated promise of “celebrity status,” Rashida is not feelin’ it.

“I don’t recommend it. It doesn’t look good in person. Maybe you can use it for photography, to achieve a certain look for a photo shoot…” she suggested. Oh, Rashida you are being too kind.

What about the latest no eyebrows trend, as identified by the New York Times?

“I’m gonna say no to that as well, unless you’re a runway model. If you absolutely have to achieve that look, there’s this stuff called spirit gum which you can use to smooth them down.”

One of the things I loved about interviewing Rashida is, she is no nonsense. She broke down her feelings about waxing and threading, without hesitation. And she got this formerly wax-happy bella to think twice.

“Tweezing is my preference, but I’ll give you the facts. The saddest thing I’ve been hearing lately is about clients going to get their eyebrows waxed and walking away with scabs. That’s when you go to a place that isn’t professional. There should be a consultation form when you go into a professional waxing salon. They don’t do that. What if you’re dealing with a diabetic? Diabetics, you don’t wanna lift the skin off them for fear of infection. Are you on Retin A? Are you on Accutane? These are questions that need to be asked before you get waxed. And don’t get me started on the double dipping and the stick… if you think about it, they’re using the same wax for your eyebrows, your upper lip, and your bikini area. And they’re just double dipping the stick into the same wax.”

Um, EW. I never even thought about that before.

I had to mention a popular chain of wax salons that ahem — I had a ghastly experience with back in Miami. Now they’re offering “celebrity brows,” where you can go in and ask for let’s say, the Megan Fox brow. It sounded ridiculous to me. And Rashida agreed.

“That’s… insane. You don’t have Megan Fox’s face, or her eyebrow shape. You can’t go into an eyebrow shaping like that. Don’t think thin, don’t think thick. Beware of eyebrow trends. It should be all about your face, your brows, and what’s gonna look right on you. It happens all the time, where ladies will say to me “I want eyebrows like my friend.” Well, unless your friend’s gonna give you her face, that’s probably not gonna work.”

So what are the perfect brows, according to Rashida B?

“It’s all about your facial features, your brow shape, and your lifestyle.”

Lifestyle?

“Yes — if you want high sculpted brows, that might not work for an everyday 9 to 5 job. And if you’re a low maintainance person but you want high maintainance brows, you’re gonna have mad stubble for days.”

What about eyebrow stencils?

“They should pile them all up and burn them. I can spot ‘em a mile away. Oh, you’re Anastasia high arch #3, hi!”

What about threading?

“Threading is great if you have alot of thick hair. For your facial hair, sideburns, upper lip… great. But for your eyebrows, you probably don’t have alot of thick hair there. And they lie you down and tell you to pull your forehead. So when you let go, what happens? It looks great up there, but then your face relaxes. I don’t agree with any eyebrow method where they have you recline. That makes your face look completely symmetrical. It’s not a true reflection of what you’re going to look like later on when you’re out and about on the street.”

So if someone perhaps couldn’t afford Rashida’s services, and wanted to do their brows themselves?

“Find a picture in a magazine, of someone who has the same facial features and eyebrow shape as yours. Don’t try to be Megan Fox or Jennifer Connelly or whoever has the hottest brows. Find someone who looks like you. Then take a white eyeliner pencil, or a light colored concealer stick, and use it to create that shape on your face to make sure it’ll look right on your face. Then pluck the hairs that are covered by the white pencil/concealer. Don’t go overboard, don’t get obsessed with getting the one hair in one area… try to look at the big picture.”

I followed Rashida’s advice to the letter and tah-dah! My brows look GREAT. Another tip of advice from personal experience, sit in good light so you can really see the hairs you’ve covered with white pencil, and use a good pair of tweezers. For beauty needs like this, I am LOVING the Tweezerman Lighted Slant Tweezer.

My interview with Rashida couldn’t end without a question I also put to eyebrow king Damone Roberts — is there a particular famous person who’s eyebrows she’d like to work on? Hmmmm?

“Until Michelle Obama showed up, I didn’t have one!” she responded.

Ding ding ding! I knew that’d be the answer. Lord knows I heart the First Lady but it’s undeniable that her eyebrows could use some fresh talent and a little growing in. Rashida more than agreed.

“I’m gonna need someone to work on that, OK? Have you read my brow blog?”

I hadn’t, yet. But in case you were also concerned, click here to read Rashida’s take on Michelle O’s brows, which fully explains why they are the way they are.

As she explains at the end of her post, “Brows should be shaped in a manner that is best suited for the client, in a shape that flatters and compliments their individual facial features, never mind what the eyebrow stylist’s preferences are.”

I agree completely, and here’s hoping Michelle opens up her circle and finds additional people to help keep her as flawless as possible. Like um, Rashida perhaps? Hey, she’s right here in Chicago!

In summary, Rashida B is made of awesome. After this interview I had the good fortune of meeting her at the Blogalicious kickoff party here in Chicago, and it was SO much fun. Can’t wait to visit her salon and get the Rashida B brow treatment for real! You know I’ll review the whole shebang!

There were soooooo many comments and questions about eyebrow maintenance in the previous post on hair removal, I’m just gonna go ahead and answer a few questions right here right now. Otherwise it’ll be ANOTHER thing I was supposed to do three months ago.

I’ve done it all. Waxed, plucked, and lately — threaded. I’m a big fan of the threading. I am almost ashamed to admit the inspiration for my heading to the threader…. ok, I’ll admit it. Kim Kardashian. She’s got bangin’ brows! I can’t even hate. On the brows. That is all.

I also noticed that Bollywood stars, like Aishwarya Rai, have gorgeously manicured, thick, real, sexy brows. The kind that women in Indian and Middle Eastern cultures have — cultures where threading is an ancient art. I wanted strong, defined brows like that. Like the ones that gain admiration on Blu’s Eyebrow Blog (there’s a little nudity on that site, beware workplace readers). Eyebrows truly do frame your face, they are the windowsills to your soul. Keeping them neat, arched, and not over plucked has made a huge difference to my look. It’s a damn shame that I am terrible at maintaining my own brows. I really admire the ladies who do.

So basically, I got caught in a bad-eyebrow pattern — let ‘em grow out to the point of ridiculousness, then go to some two-bit strip mall wax joint, you know, the kind where the manicure chairs look like hands with red fingernails? I’d get me an $8 eyebrow wax. Half the time it would turn out alright, but ever so slightly jacked up. One side uneven. Once I wound up with the Vanilla Ice. I got burned. I had enough of the bad-eyebrow pattern, and I decided to give threading a try.

Here’s the thing. Threading is way too expensive in Miami, because there aren’t many people who do it here. At Peter of London, it cost me $35 for Luby, a very sweet, loving, attentive eyebrow expert, to whip my arches into shape. That was my first experience. It’s weird, because honestly you can’t SEE what they’re doing, or how they do it. It’s definitely an art I couldn’t master — I am no good with thread, or knots. I even tie my shoes sloppy.

Every so often, I’d see Luby out of the corner of my eye with thread stretched between her teeth and her finger. Then whizzz, I’d feel a row of tiny hairs disappear from my forehead. Almost any kind of hair removal involves a little pain, except shaving (unless you cut yourself, obvs), and depilatorys (unless you’re allergic or leave them on way too long which really sucks). And both of those methods aren’t recommended for eyebrows. To rank the experience in order of pain, with 1 being the most painful, I’d say:

1. waxing

2. threading

3. plucking

Although, jeez – plucking can really hurt sometimes too.

Over time, I’ve become more immune to the pain of threading. Luby was great, but I decided to give up Peter of London — it’s really a hair salon and it’s insanely busy. I wanted someplace intimate and professional. My eyebrow mission continued until quite recently, when I struck gold and found The Brow Shoppe. The name says it all. I recently reviewed it for Pretty In the City, and I interviewed one of the eyebrow experts, Taina. $35 for 15 minutes, and worth every penny. I don’t think I’ll go anywhere else. She whipped my brows into perfect shape by threading my forehead, and plucking the area just above my eye. I noticed she had a super fly leopard print pair of Tweezerman tweezers, too.

I’ve been meaning to get myself a pair of those, and I like these adorable, smaller sized Go Green tweezers (a new tree is planted for every one you buy, plus $1.00 from every sale goes to the National Arbor foundation. AND the packaging is made from 100% recyclable paper and printed in natural soy ink, for you environmentally friendly bellas out there).

For bellas with thinning brows, Taina recommended filling in the spaces with brow powder — Milani has a good, cheap new Brow Fix kit at your neighborhood drugstore. But of course Milani being Milani, it’s nowhere to be found on their website. (The beautiful Yummy411 went on a drugstore reconnaissance mission, so check out her pics so you know what to look for). To grow back brows, Taina recommended Rogaine, and there’s two amazing products she introduced me to – Renew Eyebrow Revitalizer, and Revitalash Eyelash Conditioner. I just got some of this raved-about stuff, so I’ll let you know if it works or not!

For removal of other facial hair, I’ve waxed aplenty. But if you ask me, upper lip waxing is just as painful as lower lip waxing, if you know what I mean and I think you do. I prefer not to wax my upper lip, or sideburns. Instead, I use the Sally Hansen Creme Hair Remover Kit.

It’s a super gentle two-step kit, it doesn’t stink like chemicals (it has a very mild vanilla scent), and I really like the conditioning lotion. And it’s $6.19 at Drugstore.com, and lasts for a LONG time. Can’t beat that. But like I said in the previous post, if you’ve got sensitive skin or are allergic to hair-removing creams, you’d probably be better off going to a professional who can use a cold wax, or a speciality wax for sensitive skin.

And for the record, I’m against bleaching your body hair — most of the time, all you’re doing is attracting attention to the hair. If you get caught in the wrong light, it’s written all over your face. And when it grows out, you might wind up looking like a bumblebee. So not cute. Trust. I speak from experience.

How do you deal with your facial fuzzies, bellas? Don’t deny — we’ve all got some!