Thick and full brows are hot again, and this can’t be good news to many women who might only have sparse growth—or worse, only ink or eyeliner—over their eyes.

 

While women in the last two decades (especially baby boomers) went for permanent eyebrow tattoos to compensate for their balding brows, and the less brave settled for makeup, recent years have seen the rise in the number of western women going for a more natural and equally permanent solution: eyebrow transplant.

 

This is, however, a relatively new concept, even as modern scalp hair transplant techniques have been around in the last 10 years.

 

Aivee Aguilar-Teo, a dermatologist popular among celebrities who owns her skin laser and aesthetic center, says Filipinos are likely unaware that eyebrow transplant is even done.

 

“The problem with [eyebrow] tattoos, it alters the anatomy of the eyebrows,” she says. “When the patient gets Botox, she ends up looking fierce. We now have patients asking for [laser] eyebrow tattoo removal.”

 

Tattoos look good when new as the lines are quite defined, she points out. But after a while, the pigments begin to fade or turn bluish, such that the tattoos look too obvious. “After some time, they begin to smear. That’s our bodies’ natural reaction to these pigments.”

 

Causes of baldness

 

Several months ago, Aguilar-Teo launched her clinic’s Hair Restoration Center (Fort, BGC, tel. 4033245, 5562533, 8280197, 4031982; Alabang Bellevue, tel. 8221546/48) At the helm is Dr. Jose Crisanto, who came home after 20 years as a hair transplant specialist with the Elliott & Thomas Medical Group in New York.

 

According to Crisanto, or Dr. Third as the clinic staff calls him, there are several causes of eyebrow baldness.

 

“It was once fashionable [to have thin brows], so they plucked,” he says. “If you keep plucking, it’s the nature of hair that some don’t grow back.”

 

Another is aging: Like the hair on one’s head, age causes one to lose hair. It could also be caused by certain medical conditions. The rest can blame it on their genes.

 

“The function of eyebrows is that they frame the eyes,” says the hair surgeon. “If you frame something, the frame enhances it, just like a painting. That’s the aesthetic effect. It’s just like the hair on our head; it enhances the face.”

 

Just like having a full head of hair, fuller brows make a person look younger, Aguilar-Teo points out.

 

“Notice that when you do your makeup, if you skip [shaping] your eyebrows, something seems missing.”

 

Tedious phase

 

Both doctors agree that an eyebrow transplant may sound intimidating, just like scalp hair transplant. But they assure that it’s a simple procedure that takes only   up to 2½ hours, with the patient fully awake on local anesthesia.

 

Crisanto begins by harvesting hair follicles from the back of the patient’s head. He does this by making tiny incisions on the scalp. It’s a tedious phase that requires him and his team to create 200-400 grafts (depending on the amount required by the patient).

 

He then designs the shape of the patient’s eyebrows and makes small incisions where the grafts will be inserted. There’s an art to doing this, according to Crisanto, as eyebrow hair grows in different directions. The brows follow what he calls the “fishtail” appearance.

 

The patient can go home right after the procedure, and may not even be prescribed a pain reliever, depending on their comfort level. Like any wound, there will be puffiness for a day, but patients generally go back to their usual activities the next day, says Crisanto.

 

A patient is fully healed in five to seven days. But since it’s the follicles (roots) that are implanted, full results can only be seen from a month onward.

 

“Wait a few weeks,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that when you leave the clinic, you already have a full set of brows.”

 

“But once you do the transplant,” adds Aguilar-Teo, “you can already see the shape. You already know what it’s going to look like. In between waiting, you can apply makeup, eyeliner.”

 

Anyone can undergo the procedure, say the doctors. Some do both scalp and eyebrow transplant. Hair transplant is the most popular procedure among Filipino men.

 

Trimming hair

 

If you’re wondering if the hair would grow long since it came from your head, it will, says Crisanto.

 

“Hair grows like half an inch a month. When it’s transplanted, it will behave like the hair on your head,” he says. “But as a patient who’s concerned with appearance, you’ll always look in the mirror and trim it. It’s like your fingernails; you don’t grow it 5 inches. Once it grows a little, you trim to the length you want. Then you can style it, because you have material to work on already.”

 

Once the hair has grown, once more you can prune, shave, wax, thread, or shape it any way you like, just like ordinary eyebrows. You can even have it dyed, say the doctors.

 

If you have wavy hair, not to worry, says Crisanto. “If you trim it short, it won’t go wavy.”

 

Aguilar-Teo explains that the physiology of the human hair is that those on the back of our scalp tend to stay and don’t fall off. “That’s why you see people who have no hair on top but have hair on the back.”

 

While some patients ask to have their tattoos removed before transplant, it’s also possible to follow the same shape for their transplant.

 

“If they opt not to remove the tattoo, it can help as a guide, and will also improve the appearance,” says the surgeon. “Hair is all about appearance, whether it’s a transplant on your head or eyebrow. If you have something darker underneath the hair, it looks fuller.”

 

Unlike in the US, where patients have been bringing in photos of celebrities like Kim Kardashian as template for their eyebrow transplant, as reported in the New York Times, Crisanto’s Filipino patients have been coming in with their individual ideas.

 

“Transplant is permanent,” he points out. “Unlike an eyebrow pencil, you can’t wash it off. With our aesthetic eye, we advise patients on what we think will look best on them. But we listen to what they want.”

 

Since Asian hair is more wiry that Caucasians’ finer hair, this is an advantage, as it requires less graft. Darker hair covers more as well, he adds.

 

Fast healing

 

The procedure costs from P80,000 to P120,000. In Singapore, it costs three times as much, says Aguilar-Teo’s husband, Z Teo, a Singaporean doctor. It costs from $6,000 in the US, according to the New York Times.

 

Crisanto stresses that the procedure isn’t only aesthetic, as he has also performed reconstructive eyebrow transplant on a patient who has survived an accident.

 

“If you’re a keloid-former and you’re concerned you’ll get a keloid,” says Aguilar-Teo, “you don’t have to worry: You don’t get keloid on the face.”

 

The face heals very fast because of the blood supply. Crisanto adds, “That’s also why we don’t get so much scar on our face, because it has very good blood supply.”

 

It pays to know that the clinic you choose has the most modern techniques. But if you’re considering the procedure, the most important thing to ask your surgeon is his experience, says Aguilar-Teo.

 

“The most important is the number of patients he has done,” she says. “You learn from each and every patient. Experience is still the best teacher.”