Eyebrows can make or break your face, and angry-looking eyebrows can make you look intimidating to many people.
People can get a brow lift to make their eyebrows look less angry. Brow lifts elevate the eyebrows and lessen furrow lines. Other less invasive options include Botox, reshaping your eyebrows, strategically plucking eyebrow hairs, and lightening the brow hairs.
Why Do My Eyebrows Look Angry?
If your eyebrows look angry, it’s because they collectively form a V shape. Humans associate V shapes with anger, so cartoon villains are always drawn with classic V-shaped eyebrows.
Furthermore, a prominent eyebrow arch creates an inverted V shape that can also look angry.
Wrinkles
Wrinkles, particularly between your eyebrows, can make you look angry. Even if your eyebrows are high and do not have sharp angles, wrinkles can make you look angry or upset.
Most people develop wrinkles as they age. However, other factors, like dehydration, smoking, etc., can cause premature aging and wrinkles at a younger age.
Aging
Aging can make your eyebrows move downward. Aging makes your soft tissues and skin lose elasticity. Plus, people’s facial fat decreases and shifts downward as they age.
People develop wrinkles faster as they age. Repeated facial expressions, especially ones that make the skin between your eyebrows fold, can cause wrinkles near your brows that make you look angry.
Natural Brow Shape
Some people are born with naturally “angry” looking eyebrows. They may be born with thick, dense, arched eyebrows.
How to Make Your Eyebrows Look Less Angry
Brow Lift
Eyebrows usually make a person look angry because they rest very low and near the person’s eyes. It is especially true if the eyebrows are thick and slant forward and downward to the nose.
A brow lift is a cosmetic procedure that raises your brows. It elevates the brow and forehead’s skin and soft tissue to enhance the eye area, brows, and forehead.
Brow lifts are ideal for people with brow asymmetry, low and sagging brows, or “angry” looking brows. Some people only get brow lifts, but it often accompanies other procedures like facelifts or eyelid surgery.
Different brow lift techniques create different results. A surgeon may use one of the following techniques:
Hairline Brow Lift
This technique is usually for people who have a high and receding hairline. To perform the procedure, a surgeon will create an incision between the top of the forehead, starting at the hairline. They will then remove a bit of tissue and skin from the top of the forehead to avoid pulling back the hairline.
Be aware that it is possible to get a scar along your hairline. However, that depends on how you heal after the procedure and your natural skin color. Darker skin colors aren’t a good candidate for this procedure.
Coronal Brow Lift
People with frown lines or furrows in their forehead area are ideal candidates for a coronal brow lift. However, people with excessive hair loss, thin hair, and receding hairlines should probably not get this procedure.
A surgeon will create an incision across the top of your head and behind your hairline. It usually is on the top of your head, but it can also be from ear to ear. The surgeon will then lift the forehead to its new position, usually with your scalp in front of the incision as it overlaps the scalp behind it. The surgeon will remove the overlapping scalp and sew the remaining scalp together.
Endoscopic Brow Lift
People with short foreheads are often ideal candidates for this technique. Most patients, especially women, prefer this technique because it is less invasive. Additionally, there is a lower risk of scarring (Karimi et al., 2020).
A surgeon will create a few small incisions behind the hairline. They will then insert an endoscope through an incision to look at the underlying tissues and muscles. The surgeon will use another instrument inserted through one of the incisions to lift the forehead tissues. The surgeon may use small screws, sutures, etc., to anchor them into place. The surgeon may use small clips or sutures to close the incisions.
Most brow lifts take 1-2 hours to complete.
A surgeon might loosely wrap your forehead after a brow lift to minimize swelling. In some cases, they may insert a small tube in an incision to drain excess fluid or blood.
Lighten Your Brows
Extremely dark eyebrows can make your eyebrows look harsher and denser than they really are. Lightening them could make them look softer.
Ideally, it would be best if you asked a professional to lighten your eyebrows for you. Bleaching your eyebrows by yourself can be very tricky, and you run the risk of ruining your eyebrow hair and skin.
Plus, a professional could bleach your eyebrow hair to make sure it is only slightly lighter. If you try to bleach it on your own, you could wind up with blond eyebrows (which is not ideal for dark hair).
If you wear makeup, you could try to choose softer shades to fill in your eyebrows. For instance, you can choose charcoal black eyebrow pencils or powders if you have very dark brown eyebrows.
Pluck and Trim
People who have unibrows or eyebrows that are close together often have an angry appearance. Creating more space between your brows can make you look kinder and more approachable.
Most people’s eyebrows should start at the outside corners of the “ball” of their nose. You can use a pencil to create a line from your eyebrows to your nose. You can look at the photo below to get a better idea.
It is a good rule of thumb to know where your eyebrows begin, especially if you have wide-set eyes. However, you may want to make them a bit further apart if you have very close-set eyes.
If your eyebrows start further into your face than in the photo below, you can try to pluck eyebrow hairs to add space between your eyebrows. Make sure to pluck slowly to avoid overdoing it.
If you are not confident, you can visit a barber or salon. Most of these places will have a professional available who can pluck and trim your eyebrows for you and make sure it suits your face.
Straight Eyebrows
Very arched eyebrows can make a person look angry, even when their faces are relaxed. Opting for straighter eyebrows could help make you look softer and calmer.
Trying to make your eyebrows less arched can be tricky, especially if you have very arched brows. You may be better off asking a professional to pluck, thread, or shave your eyebrows for you.
If you wear makeup daily, you could shave the arches and ends of your eyebrows off. Many women do this and use makeup to make the tails of their eyebrows straight.
However, it may only be ideal if you are good at putting on makeup because most people use an eyebrow pen/pencil to create hairlike lines. It is also important to note that it usually looks good in photos, but it may be too obvious in real life.
Botox
Many doctors can use Botox to give you a brow lift if you do not want to get a traditional brow lift. It elevates your eyebrows and treats frown lines between your eyebrows.
Botox relaxes the underlying muscles between your brows and smooths out your skin, letting your forehead muscles pull up your eyebrows. Some patients may get extra Botox injections at the ends of their eyebrows to raise them as well.
The procedure usually takes less than an hour to complete, but you will be in and out of the doctor’s office. Most people see results immediately, but some people need to wait for a few days or one month to see obvious results.
The treatment usually lasts for 3-4 months, but some people’s results will last for up to 6 months.
