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Trichotillomania (TTM or trich for short) is an impulse control disorder, which involves the recurrent and insatiable desire to pull out one's own hair. For me, it manifests as a need to pull out my eyebrows with a lesser desire to pull out my eyelashes and body hair. It gets worse when I'm depressed and it soothes my anxiety and I've been searching for solutions for my completely non-existent brows for months.
Before eyebrow wigs, I was using WunderBrow (a liquid eyebrow paint that’s waterproof and smudge-proof) to paint on brows. It’s great but it’s noticeably fake and time-consuming. I've thought about microblading, but it's cost-prohibitive and still allows for hair pulling.
Symptoms, treatment options, and personal experiences for various physical, mental, and health conditions and concerns.
And then, thanks to the Internet, I discovered eyebrow wigs. These are a huge game changer for the trich community. They are essentially what they sound like — fake eyebrows made from 100 percent human hair that you glue to your face with body safe glue (similar to fake eyelash glue). I was curious about them so I tested out two different brands: Cardani by Headcovers.com and Volition Beauty.
My game plan was to try each pair for 24 hours without changing up my routine or plans to see how they fared. First up were the Cardani #12 brows in blonde with the Cardani brow glue. When I first put the brows on, I cried. I honest-to-god forgot what my face looked like with real brows and I was overwhelmed. I felt natural and beautiful and could not stop staring in the mirror.
After snapping a few pictures, I took my new brows out for a test drive to get my hair cut and colored. My trip to the salon included twenty minutes of walking in New York City summer heat so I was worried they'd sweat right off, but they lasted through the walk, the cut, and the color without a hitch.
Throughout the day I could barely feel them on my face except when I reached up to run my fingers through the lifelike hair, which conveniently soothed my impulse to pull, mostly. At one point I noticed myself trying to pull out a wig hair, but quickly stopped when I realized that I was both pulling the adhesive off and not going to get the rush because the impulse derives from the feeling of hair leaving skin.
I went to bed with the brows on and woke up with one eyebrow intact and one on my pillow, but I didn't even care because I had spent a full 24 hours with real live eyebrows on my face and I was stoked.
Mission Eyebrows by Volition Beauty were created by a cancer survivor who wanted to find a solution for people with hair loss disorders and chemo patients, which is a mission that I am here for. I tried their brows in light brown. When I first put the brows on, I felt like Cara Delevingne. They’re big and bold and matched my auburn hair almost perfectly but were definitely larger than my natural brow shape and a little itchy. They also only come in one size, but could easily be trimmed with scissors.
I went to brunch with a friend and felt fashionable as hell, but the Mission Brows were unfortunately no match for New York City humidity. They began to peel off as I ate and I had to reapply glue a few times so as to avoid an eyebrow-in-my-omelette situation.
I am a photographer on the side and had an outdoor shoot that evening. No one guessed they were fake, but by the end of the shoot and the brows had mostly fallen off and I walked home with the my fingers pressing them to my face. I ended up reapplying the brows with the Cardani glue for dinner and that did the trick.
The next morning they were still fully intact thanks to the glue switch. The brows could have lasted a full day, but I dubbed the Lily Collins-inspired brows my "party brows" and put the more-me-looking Cardani brows back on for my office job.
I loved both of these brows. They made me feel beautiful and normal and I can’t even think about the power of these brows without tearing up. They are perfect for people with Trichotillomania. They offer both mental illness stealth and a general confidence boost, not to mention the Volition Brows gave me trendy brows I could never naturally achieve.
That being said, the Cardani brows are my favorite. The Cardani glue works better, the brows are very similar to my natural brow shape, and they come in more shape options than Volition.
All in all, I am thrilled with this new technology. As somebody who has spent a lot of my life loathing my reflection, I can firmly say the invention of eyebrow wigs and the work both Headcovers Unlimieted and Volition are doing is life-changing for those with hair loss disorders. I have spent the last year living with my mental illness on my face and for the first time in far too long I can’t stop loving what I see in the mirror.
More on brows:
- Here's Why This Fitness Blogger Revealed Her Alopecia on Instagram After 7 Years
- The Internet Is Loving This Tool That Stamps Your Eyebrows On For You
- You're Going to Be Obsessed With This Model's Unibrow
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