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When it comes to facial grooming and taking years off your face you may be surprised to learn what an important role those quiet little hairs situated above our eyes can play. Eyebrow shaping is all the rage at the moment. At the International Beauty Expo held this September at Darling Harbour the “Eyebrow Workshops” drew the most interest and were totally sold out as beauty therapists and makeup artists flocked to hone their skills in creating the perfect brows. In recent months in the US, mainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, USA Today and even Oprah have all invited brow experts to share their knowledge with the public.
Closer to our home turf we caught up with a very successful lady who has caught the media’s attention with her unique specialty of eyebrow design – The Anastasia Method. Carolyn Fox was first introduced to this technique when she was visiting the US to attend the Academy Awards. Originally trained as a hairdresser in Adelaide she moved to the Gold Coast 10 years ago where she established her own salon. Initially her plan was to spend a year travelling overseas and working in London, but her mother encouraged her to open the business first and travel as a tourist instead. It turned out to be a wonderful idea and within months of opening Carolyn met the man who was to introduce her to the exciting world of the rich and famous.
INTRODUCTION TO HOLLYWOOD
Vic Heutschy, publicist for the film Phanom, which was being shot on the Gold Coast, came in for a haircut. He must have been happy with the results because he subsequently arranged for her to look after Catherine Zeta Jones, the female lead in the film, for the duration of the shoot. Carolyn’s ongoing friendship with Heutschy, a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts & Sciences, led to her first invitation to attend the Oscars the following year.
“The first year he invited me was the year Braveheart won and as much as I wanted to go, the business was still relatively new and I felt uncomfortable leaving it at that stage,” Carolyn said. More invitations followed and Carolyn has been fortunate to attend almost every year since.
“It’s an amazing experience,” she stresses, “but absolutely exhausting. The day starts around 8 am with a visit to the hairdressers and continues on until at least 11pm when the awards finish. From there it’s off to one of the after parties to continue the celebrations and rub shoulders with some of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities.
One of the perks of being an invited guest is the service for the day of your own seamstress. Her job is to ensure there are no unexpected problems with outfits chosen and if necessary, will alter garments on the spot, or as sometimes happens, sew the guests into their gowns.
“It was on one of these visits to Hollywood that I discovered Anastasia Soare and had my eyebrows done before the Academy Awards,” says Carolyn. Originally from Romania where she studied Architecture, Anastasia moved to the US and combined her talents. She designed an eyebrow shaping system and makeup techniques to achieve the perfect eyebrow and has now gained icon status among Hollywood’s elite and her Beverly Hills salon is a virtual temple to the perfect arched eyebrow. Oprah has been quoted at saying that having your eyebrows done by Anastasia is like having a brow lift, and ELLE magazine in the UK stated that Anastasia is to eyebrows what Brad Pitt is to six-packs as a legend.
As a result of her visit and experience of Anastasia’s transforming skills Carolyn returned to the US this time to train with Anastasia and then take this method to Australia and introduce it exclusively in her salon. The training took one whole week with an extra week of work experience within Anastasia’s salon. We asked Carolyn, to give us further information on what makes this method so special. “There is a lot of measuring to determine the exact shape that will best suit the client. This takes at least 40 minutes,” she adds.”
There is also a lot of filling in and camouflage of gaps of mistakes while the hair grows back. The Anastasia method requires an initial consultation when the brows are expertly measured and shaped to suit the individual’s profile and features. The client then is sold a kit that contains stencils, heavy powder colour for filling in the brows. These come in a variety of colours to suit each client. Special tweezers are also included as is a brow-bone highlighter and a brow gel for setting the eyebrows.
The client is encouraged to use their kit to maintain the shape. Other consultations may be necessary to achieve the right eyebrow.
Glamour perks aside, it is Carolyn’s dedication to her clients that initially gave her the incentive to further expand her business. Her new salon situated in the heart of Surfers Paradise incorporates hairdressing with the all over body experience of a Day Spa, offering her clients total hair, beauty and wellness packages, but it’s her eyebrow skills that is currently the hot topic and is attracting the most media attention.
WHY FOCUS ON EYEBROWS?
It is not incidental that focus on eyebrows is experiencing a huge comeback. The forecast from Europe is we are finally in for a change. Autumn will hale back a bygone era of screen sirens from the 1930s and 1940s. We will see pale skin, perfectly defined eyebrows, rosebud cheeks, the eyes softly smoky and sultry and of course lips will be berry reds.
Elegance with glamour is coming back. With this more contrasting look precision grooming will be a must to achieve the look that will be truly feminine and flattering. Perhaps it is timely to upgrade your eyebrow skills and take advantage of the frenzy for eyebrow perfection
© APAA 2004