Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsRegrowth After Over-PluckingPromoting RegrowthHow Long Regrowth TakesFilling in Brows & RegrowthWhy Brows Won’t Regrow

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Regrowth After Over-Plucking

Promoting Regrowth

How Long Regrowth Takes

Filling in Brows & Regrowth

Why Brows Won’t Regrow

After shaving or over-plucking their eyebrows, many people wonder when and if they will grow back. In addition to excessive maintenance, other common causes of eyebrow loss (madarosis) include nutritional deficiencies, pregnancy, certain medications, infections, thyroid conditions, chemotherapy, and stress.Autoimmune disorders, such asalopecia areata, and skin conditions like aspsoriasisoratopic dermatitiscan also lead to eyebrow hair loss.

While losing your eyebrows isn’t life-threatening, it can be distressing. The good news is that madarosis typically isn’t permanent. There are several ways to get your eyebrows to grow back more quickly, depending on the cause of your hair loss.

In this article, we’ll go over what you need to know about promoting eyebrow regrowth, as well as how fast you can expect eyebrow hair to grow back and what to do about persistent hair loss.

Catherine Falls Commercial / Getty Images

Woman applying makeup to eyebrows

Eyebrow Regrowth After Over-Maintenance

One of the most common reasons for eyebrow loss is over-maintenance. This may include excessive tweezing, plucking, or shaving, which can damage the structure of the hair follicle and shaft. It can also lead to inflammation, skin irritation, and even scarring in some cases.

You may have heard that shaving or excessively tweezing your eyebrows results in permanent hair loss. However, this is typically not true. Most of the time, your eyebrow hair will grow back on its own and just as thickly as before.

How to Promote Eyebrow Hair Regrowth

There are several treatments that can help with getting eyebrows to grow back more quickly, as well as to improve thickness and fullness. Examples include:

How Fast Does Eyebrow Hair Grow?

Hair growth occurs in stages:

The hair on your head can take anywhere from two to eight years to go through theanagen phase. Meanwhile, the first stage of regrowth takes just two to three months for eyebrow hair. The catagen stage lasts up to three weeks, and the telogen phase typically takes around two to three months. This means that, on average, eyebrows take approximately six months to grow back.

Does Filling in Eyebrows Slow Regrowth?

You may have heard that filling in your eyebrows with eyebrow pencil and other cosmetic products can keep them from growing back. However, there’s no evidence that eyebrow pencils (or any other makeup) slows down eyebrow regrowth or affects eyebrow thickness. Typically, using makeup won’t affect your rate of hair growth.

In some cases, people may experience skin reactions likeallergic contact dermatitisafter using a particular cosmetic product. This could potentially affect your eyebrow growth, as skin conditions sometimes contribute to hair loss.

Why Won’t Eyebrows Always Grow Back?

Scarring madarosis involves more extensive structural damage and inflammation and is typically permanent.Examples of conditions that can cause scarring madarosis include:

If you experience scarring madarosis, there are cosmetic procedures that can help to improve the appearance of your eyebrows and boost your confidence. In addition to using stick-on eyebrows or eyebrow stencils, many people opt to undergo eyebrow tattooing, microblading, microshading, or eyebrow transplants for a semipermanent or permanent solution.

Summary

Eyebrow hair loss, or madarosis, can be stressful and affect your self-esteem. Typically, your eyebrows should grow back on their own within a few months. Depending on the reason for your hair loss, treatments like topical or injectable steroids, medication (such as minoxidil or bimatoprost), PRP injections, or vitamin supplements may help to promote your eyebrow growth. If your hair loss is permanent, cosmetic procedures may be the best option.

11 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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