In every Primary Training, a trainee will ask…what if the client wants a weird eyebrow. Do you have to do it? I know they want me to say, NO! I watch their expressions turn to shock when I say, YES, you will do brows that you HATE!
I hear veterans in the permanent make up profession say they will never do a brow they don’t love because it is their signature. Well, that sounds admirable but it is not reality.
I can bring to mind a young girl that travels 1000 miles to me for eyebrows. She is a big girl with a large, round face and insists on two thin pencil lines. Certainly, I tried drawing on what I thought was a more appropriate brow for her face. She gave me an emphatic, NO, and told me she liked the way she drew them on and that was that.
I tell my clients when they come into my office that their vote counts as two. I assure them they are part of the process. I explain that their brows will be drawn and approved by them before I pick up my machine to tattoo them. This approach diminishes their fears and concerns about the unknown and the permanence of the tattoo. Now, they trust me. So, how could I go against their wishes and give them eyebrows they don’t want? It is their hard-earned money they are spending with me and yes, I may not like what they insist on having but if I don’t give them what they want, then I have violated their trust and in effect, lied to them when I told them their vote counted as two.
However, there are eyebrow designs that will never get approval from a professional. For instance, brows that are waaay too long cannot be tattooed. As this client matures, they will become longer. Brows that are waaay too low will only lower. They can insist on a brow design but it must be within certain parameters or it is a no-go. I have refused many a request but once I explained why it was not a good idea, they understood and became flexible.
Now, the bright side is this rarely happens in our profession. Ninety nine percent of our clients come in expecting us, as the professional, to design their eyebrows and look for our input. Even clients that have drawn on an unflattering brow for years and got used to it, are open to a new and more flattering design.
My mother always said, “Make your words sweet, because you never know when you will have to eat them.” Never say never when it comes to doing a brow that you hate.
Rose Marie Prudente-Beauchemin