I’ve always had glorious eyebrows. Dark, full, glossy – really, my only complaint was that they had a bit of a Frida Kahlo vibe toward the middle. It was nothing some strategic tweezing couldn’t handle. I’d also clean up the strays below the browline, but I was never one to overpluck.
And yet one day in my 30s I looked at a photo of myself and realized my brows had sort of. . .disappeared. No longer dark nor bushy, they were now just sparse and gappy. I had no idea what happened.
I got my thyroid checked. (Healthy, whew.) My derm prescribed Latisse. (It did nothing.) My friends and family reassured me that the brow loss was hardly noticeable. I appreciated their kind words, but my sad, sparse brows were all I saw when I looked in the mirror.
So I learned to fill them in with brow products like powders and pencils and fiber gels. Every day, I’d wake up and draw on my brows; it didn’t matter if I was going to the gym, the beach, on a hike. It felt very high-maintenance, but I refused to be seen without made-up arches.
I considered microblading, but it seemed so permanent. What if I hated the shape? What if the color faded from dark brown to a weird purple color over time (like an old black T-shirt)? Also, I heard it hurts, and I’m allergic to pain. Plus, everyone had an opinion: “It’s like a bad tattoo on your face, why would you do that?” “Penciling in your brows is cheaper!” And then there were my doom searches for “microblading gone wrong” – the results didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
But then I heard about the Nano Brow technique or nanoblading. As I quickly learned, there is no blade involved, and I was immediately intrigued. Keep reading to hear about my experience.
Experts Featured in This Article
Michelle Wu is a master therapist at Evertrue Salon.
Nano Brow vs. Microblading
The treatment is similar to microblading, in that pigment is deposited and absorbed into the top layer of your skin (the epidermis) in brush-like strokes. However, where a microblading specialist uses a tool with 14 tiny blades to manually apply the pigment, Nano Brow is done with an electric pen that holds a single needle.
Because of this, there’s less pain, less bleeding, more accuracy, and shorter downtime. Like microblading, Nano Brows treatments can be done on any skin color and in a shade that blends with any brow color. The single-needle accuracy also makes Nano Brow the treatment of choice for people who are prone to bleeding or have sensitive skin, or specific skin conditions such as oily skin, large pores, or laxity.
The results look more “crisp” than microbladed brows, explains Michelle Wu, Master Therapist at Evertrue Salon (where I ended up). Crisp was fine, but I was really looking for “no pain” and “accuracy,” so this all seemed very promising. Results for both treatments are expected to last six to 18 months, but I was told Nano Brows could last as long as 24 months. (Fun tip: Don’t use retinoids on treated brows, as topicals that increase cell turnover can make the pigment disappear faster.)
How Much Do Nano Brows Cost?
It’s certainly not cheap. The treatment starts at $1,050, as compared to $650 for microblading. The time commitment aligns with the cost: Nano Brows can take two-and-a-half to three hours, while microblading takes one-and-a-half to two hours. The single blade may be more precise, but that also means the process is slower. There’s also a common optional add-on for both treatments called “microshading” (roughly $200), which is a stipple-like process that adds definition and looks more like brow powder than individual hairs. For some people, adding on microshading is more of an aesthetic preference. But, for example, if you have dark brow hairs in some places but not others it can help even things out, visually.
Ultimately, Nano Brows felt like it could be for me and I decided to try it.
My Nanoblading Eyebrow Consultation
I booked my consultation at EverTrue Salon in NYC and met with a senior specialist named May. She listened as I shared my tale of brow woes, paying close attention as I showed her photos from a few years back when my brows were still living their best Italian-American life, along with a pic from high school before I ever picked up a tweezer.
She took a few “before” photos, then had me lie down so she could use a fine brow pencil to sketch out what my Nano Brows would look like. She drew tiny, hair-like strokes over the few brow hairs I had left, explaining what she was doing as she went. We agreed that my new brows should be closer together over my nose than they currently were, and that overall the shape should also be thicker (especially based on my old pictures). She suggested the tapered ends be just a bit higher than they naturally are; when I took a look at her finished results in the mirror, I agreed.
Nano Brows Before and After Photos
My brows looked great: dark, full, clean. And true to their natural state, they were not fully symmetrical. I’ve always known my brows were sisters not twins, and May honored that while making sure they still framed my face. She suggested that I also get microshading as an add-on in order to better integrate the bald (ugh) parts of my brows with the hairier areas.
I was ready. I booked my three-hour Nano Brow appointment followed by a one-hour microshading chaser, and left happy and hopeful.
The Nano Brow Treatment
Four hours is a long time to lay on your back while someone messes with your face. I wasn’t sure how I would tolerate it. But I dressed comfortably and brought a protein bar and water since May promised we could take breaks. She applied numbing gel to both brows for 20 minutes, then got to work.
Since my eyes were closed the whole time, I can only tell you what I felt and heard. The Nano Brow pen sounded like a dentist’s drill, which at first was high-pitched and annoying but quickly became neutral background noise. Thanks to the numbing gel, the electric needle pen carving hair-shaped slices over my brow bone felt like nothing more than a fingernail gently (yet repeatedly) dragging across my skin. The biggest sensation I felt during the entire session was the periodic pressure of May’s gloved fingers wiping away excess ink. (Confession: at the moment, I totally feared it was blood and got a little panicky. Since I’m a people pleaser, I said nothing. But I emailed the salon after the fact and was told nope, just ink.)
I couldn’t even tell you when the Nano Brow work ended and the microshading began – that’s how painless the whole thing was. When I was finally done, May handed me the mirror…and I had eyebrows. They were a little thicker than we discussed, but she had already told me that they’d shrink as they healed. Likewise, at first, they were darker than they would eventually turn out to be.
My Nano Brow Recovery Experience
I left with a bunch of easy-to-follow instructions: Don’t get brows wet (rain, tears, sweat-nothing) for 24 hours; don’t get makeup or sunscreen near them for the next week (the chemicals and minerals could alter the color of the pigment until the skin is fully healed); and avoid facials, retinols, and other intensive skincare products for two weeks.
That was a Wednesday. My brows looked amazing. The next few days I rolled out of bed and went straight to the mirror, admiring my full, dark brows. Then I packed and left on a vacation to Ireland, where I woke up shocked on day five: My brows were peeling, but not at all in the way I expected them to.
You see when May told me to expect peeling as the traumatized skin shed and new skin grew beneath it (basically like a scab), I expected something like retinoid or sunburn peeling – white, flaky, dry skin. I figured it would be annoying but manageable and not too noticeable, especially with the tiny pot of healing balm she gave me. Instead, I was peeling in dark-pigmented flakes – and the skin left behind was quite obviously lighter. I looked like I was molting. Cute, right?
It took everything in me not to take a clean spoolie brush and scrub at my flaking brows. May had warned that rushing the process could result in uneven pigment saturation, and I definitely didn’t want that. Instead, I gently splashed water and mild cleanser on my brows when I washed my face and made peace with what I called my zebra arches. Happily, after a few days, the shedding was over, and I was rewarded with beautiful, natural-looking brows.
Why I Love My Nano Brows
After four weeks, I booked a microshading touch-up since there were a few spots that didn’t look perfectly blended. This time I was only at EverTrue for two hours, and when I hopped off the table, I gave May a big hug. I was so happy with my brows.
I went home and dramatically threw all my brow makeup in the trash. May told me the salon would automatically follow up in six months for a touch-up appointment but that I probably wouldn’t need it for a year or more. Honestly, every single day has been a big, beautiful brow gift. I’ll take it as long as it lasts.
For me, the result is perfect. My brows look natural, with a subtle lightness at the insides that gets darker toward the tips. Even better, I had to remind my partner and friends that I’d even had the treatment done – they didn’t notice anything different about me. All they saw was me, and now when I look in the mirror, that’s all I see too.
Melanie Mannarino is a writer and editor specializing in lifestyle and wellness content, including beauty and style. In addition to PS, her work has appeared in Real Simple, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and other media brands, and she’s the author of four books, including “The (Almost) Zero-Waste Guide.”
