3 tips for Halal Eyebrows | How to shape your eyebrows without plucking! – Many Muslim sisters and women in general pluck their eyebrows. Eyebrows have been in the spotlight more than ever! Everyone wants that Cara Delevigne, Kim Kardashian, Lilly Collins eyebrow look. Well-groomed and full! Eyebrows act to frame the eyes and highlight your best features. The right eyebrow shape can brighten your appearance and make you look more youthful. The thing is, Allah has forbidden us to pluck our eyebrows. But why is plucking eyebrows haram and how can you have beautiful Halal eyebrows? I share the reason why Muslim women aren’t allowed to pluck their eyebrows as well as 3 tips to still have beautiful halal eyebrows without plucking or shaving them!
Why is plucking eyebrows Haram in Islam?
Plucking your eyebrows is Haram in Islam because by trimming, shaving, or plucking your eyebrows in order to appear beautiful, you are changing the creation of Allah and following the Shaytaan in his tempting of mankind to change the creation of Allaah. Allaah says (as interpreted):
“Verily! Allaah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners in worship with Him, but He forgives whom He pleases sins other than that, and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allaah, has indeed strayed far away.
They (all those who worship others than Allaah) invoke nothing but female deities besides Him, and they invoke nothing but Shaytaan, a persistent rebel!
Verily, I will mislead them, and surely, I will arouse in them false desires; and certainly, I will order them to slit the ears of cattle, and indeed I will order them to change the nature created by Allaah.’ And whoever takes Shaytaan as a Wali (protector or helper) instead of Allaah, has surely suffered a manifest loss.”
[Al-Nisa’ 4:116-119]
According to this verse, the changing of one’s eyebrow shape by plucking is seen as something the devil commands!
In al-Saheehayn it is narrated that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood said:
“May Allaah curse the women who do tattoos and those for whom tattoos are done, those who pluck their eyebrows and those who file their teeth for the purpose of beautification and alter the creation of Allaah.” (al-Bukhaari, al-Libaas, 5587; Muslim, al-Libaas, 5538).
Not plucking your eyebrows or changing anything about your appearance means accepting the way Allah created you. There are, however, certain things that you are allowed to change about yourself. For example braces, or plucking the spaces between the eyebrows. Mufti Menk did a wonderful video on this and he is my go-to when it comes to matters such as these since he explains and articulates his arguments so well. I hope you find it as useful as I did.
Why you should stop plucking your eyebrows
Not only is the plucking of eyebrows haram, it oftentimes does more bad than good! If your goal is to be more beautiful, just know that many things can go wrong once you start plucking. I used to pluck my eyebrows and once you start plucking, the shape and the way your hairs grow change. The hairs you pluck become more coarse and dark. I have this one particular eyebrow hair that grows like it’s sticking out of my head instead of laying on my skin. The root of the hair will also become a lot thicker, you’ll notice that the hair that grows back is worse than what you had before.
Your eyebrows will be uneven
Did you know that you almost always start with your most dominant side when you pluck your eyebrows? Meaning that if you are right-handed, you’ll start plucking your right eyebrow first. What often happens is that you pluck too much on your dominant side and once you move to your less dominant side, you’ll pluck a bit more sparingly. You are not perfectly symmetrical (no one is), and your mirror reflection is not 100% accurate. The result? Funky, uneven eyebrows that make you look a little less beautiful than you actually are! This isn’t the case when you have your eyebrows done of course but are you willing to pay money for something like that every few weeks?
Your eyebrows will be too-thin
There you are, plucking and plucking and plucking… until you have half of your eyebrows left! Please take a look at some pictures of Drew Barrymore or Gwen Stefani with the eyebrows they used to have. Eyebrows that are too-thin make your face look fuller which in turn makes you look a bit more fat. Of course, it is up to you how you want to look, but it is my personal opinion that no woman looks good with eyebrows that are too thin. I hope that trend never resurfaces but trends have a way of coming back years later.
How can I have Halal Eyebrows?
How to have beautiful Halal eyebrows without plucking, trimming, or shaving?
Before you go around walking with one monobrow, just know that plucking hairs between your eyebrows is actually allowed! This is the space between your eyebrows and therefore doesn’t count as part of your eyebrows. So if you want to pluck that part, that’s perfectly fine! If you don’t that’s okay too. I’ve seen plenty of Muslim sisters who have decided to not pluck at all anymore and honestly, I think they look beautiful. If you still feel the need to shape your eyebrows, I have found a way to do it without plucking, trimming, or shaving. In short, your possibilities are:
- Bleaching certain parts of your eyebrows to achieve that groomed look whilst keeping the tweezers away
- Using eyebrow gel & Make-up to give the illusion of groomed eyebrows by filling certain parts in and covering the other parts with concealer
- Accepting your natural eyebrows and just brushing them upwards so they don’t hang in your eyes.
Tip 1. Hair bleach for Halal Eyebrows
Are we still shaping our eyebrows? Yes. But are we plucking them? No! By bleaching the hairs you don’t like, you can shape your eyebrows the way you want to. This does take a bit more time and effort, and can still result in a disaster. But this is a possibility for those who want to stop plucking their eyebrows, but don’t want to look ‘ungroomed’. I’ve started this habit of bleaching them and it took me some time to really get good at it. It is worth it in my eyes. I still have my signature eyebrows that frame my face, without explicitly plucking them. This method is difficult. It really is, so take your time when you start bleaching your eyebrows and make sure you use hair bleach that is okay to use on your face.
If you do end up with uneven eyebrows because you went overboard, you can always dye it back to your own color. Sisters, I won’t lie to you, it takes time, effort and you need to do it a few times to become really good at it, but I really love my halal eyebrows. Grooming them this way makes me feel feminine, whilst still adhering to the rules given to us.
The steps to having halal eyebrows by using face hair bleach are:
- Fill in your eyebrows the way you would want them to look when you go outside.
- Now, take a black eyeliner and make sure you really fill in the part you don’t want to color so you won’t step inside the filled-in part. You have crazy eyebrows at this point, they are so filled in, they look like they are tattooed. That’s what you want for this step.
- Get a card, it can be any card but you need to make sure that the edges can take some bleach going on it.
- Take the card and press it over the parts of your eyebrows that you don’t want to color till the edge basically. If you would take the card of you would see a clear difference between the filled-in part of your eyebrows and the part you want to dye.
- You want to apply the hair bleach against the edges of the card so you can have a nice, sharp edge.
- Start above your brows! It’s easier to get the hang of it when you start above because the edges are usually a lot more sharpe there (unless you have a really rounded eyebrow shape)
- Once you feel like you have the hang of it, continue to the underparts of your brows and use the same technique. Be very careful here. The way you dye your eyebrow hair at the underpart greatly influences the shape of your overall eyebrow.
- It is better to apply less and ease yourself into this process of dyeing your eyebrows. Please, for the love of Allah, don’t overdo it because you WILL look crazy.
- Bonus tip: if you did go overboard, don’t worry. Use eyebrow dye in your own eyebrow colour to rectify what went wrong.
- Bonus bonus tip: are you familiar with eyebrow stencils? You can create your own! Use eyelash glue (just a little bit) to press the stencil on top of your eyebrow. Now, you should only see the stencil in the shape that you want for your eyebrows and the few hairs that peak out that you want to bleach.
Isn’t this still haram?
After this whole process, you’ll have halal brows. Some say that this is still haram. It may be. But in my opinion, bleaching the eyebrows in the above manner cannot be considered haram since the Shari’ah allows coloring and dyeing your hair, with the exception of using pure black dye in order to deceive others, of course, Allah knows best. I believe that everything is Halal until it is clearly stated that it is Haram. Trimming, plucking, and shaving have all clearly been stated to be haram, but dyeing is not. Sisters, people will always moon about things still being haram even though what you’re doing fits perfectly within the Islamic ruling. I just ignore them, I think you should too… (unless of course, they have references and actual prove).
Tip 2. Eyebrow gels & make-up & filling your Halal eyebrows
There is also the option of using eyebrow gel on your unruly eyebrows. You can also use a bit of hairspray on a disposable mascara wand to help the hairs lie in place or you can try the new Soap Brow Trend. And can ‘tweak’ your shape by adding hairs with a very thin eyebrow pencil. Concealer can cover those hairs that you don’t want to see and can create a very clean shape. Make-up can change almost anything. You will, however, need to apply quite an amount of make-up to reach the goal of beautiful eyebrows. If you put too much concealer around them, it’ll look like your eyebrows were cut out (not a good look). You can also choose to not fill in certain parts of your eyebrows to create the illusion of another shape (this mostly works on women with lighter hair color).
The steps to have halal eyebrows with make-up are:
- Put on your usual make-up and fill in your brows in the shape you want.
- Apply a light layer of concealer under the brow with a brush or with your finger (lightly, and always start off with little and build up if needed). This will bring instant shape and definition to your eyebrows.
- Use a thin, angled brush directly under the brow to draw a line. You can use the same brush or a more flat concealer brush to blend the concealer out, so it’s not as noticeable and covers all the hairs you want to cover.
- If you want to cover your hairs above your eyebrows to create the shape you want, then apply the concealer around the top portion of your eyebrow, too. Again, lightly and add when needed.
- You’ve framed your entire eyebrow with concealer at this point, now you need to blend until it’s finished. Blend well, because if you don’t, you’ll look cartoonish. Especially for the sisters who don’t use foundation, if you don’t blend well, the contrast between your normal skin and your concealed skin will be noticeable.
Tip 3. Accept your natural Halal eyebrows
Lastly, you can also decide to just love your natural, halal eyebrows. You are Allah’s creation so you are beautiful no matter what! Be your own natural, beautiful, halal self! That may seem like a stupid suggestion but sister, you already had halal brows since you were young and you have always been beautiful. Only when you started plucking your eyebrows, did they become haram and probably too thin and uneven. My little sister has beautiful eyebrows and I’ve spoken to her about what I did to my eyebrows and told her that’s not a road she wants to go down. If you are a Muslim sister, tell the other Muslim sisters in your life to not even start plucking. Protect them from it! Tell your stories and show your pictures of your too thin, uneven brows so they won’t even think about starting.
Dye them, use make-up and all that, but don’t pluck! For those sisters who decide to use this tip, I do recommend to just give your eyebrows a little comb before you leave the house. You want to make sure that they don’t hang downwards and in your eyes (some sisters are blessed with beautiful long eyebrow hairs). Comb them upwards, not downwards, because this makes you look tired. You can also use the Soap Brow Trend, that way you don’t even have to apply make-up to make them stand upright, but just soap!
Your Classy Muslim Sister on Halal Eyebrows
Do you have other tips for sisters who want to stop plucking their eyebrows? Please do share! I write about Elegance, Self Love, Modesty, and more! Do you want to help the other Muslim sisters in your life too? Share my blog with them and follow me on Social Media!
Kisses,
Your Classy Muslim Sister
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