A new procedure has finally made it to the U.S. that will help cancer patients and people suffering from alopecia. Healthy Living reporter Kristen Shaughnessy filed the following report.
Cancer patients and people who suffer from alopecia are sometimes surprised when they start losing their eyebrows.
A technique that started in Europe is now in the U.S. to help people dealing with either disease.
"Microblading is a semi-permanent makeup procedure," says Jenny Lind, a master permanent makeup artist at Baltic Brows. "It's when we implant pigment into the skin where the eyebrows should be. It looks like a hair stroke, it's very natural."
A microblading pen draws hair-like strokes one by one. The process takes about two hours.
Chantay Sewell is in the beginning stages of alopecia and says it is emotionally hard to deal with.
"We do live in a society that is beauty based," says Sewell. "So this is the first thing you see when I walk out the door is my face. And I'm not trying to be like shallow and vain, but you know it is a struggle between the patches of the hair, the eyebrows."
Jenny Lind's company Baltic Brows donates its services to those who suffer from alopecia and cancer, but microblading can be done on anyone with thin or thinning brows.
"I have very thin eyebrows and I have kind of a fascination with perfect eyebrows, the arch," says a patient, Ann Marie Legall. "And I've tried to accomplish it so many times with penciling and it's really hit or miss for me."
A topical numbing cream is used to minimize discomfort. The results last for about two years.