Downturned eyes: why I lift the tail only a little

What 'eyebrows that look sad' usually means

I'm Jisun, the owner of London Brow in Seoul. People with downturned eyes often tell me their brows make them look sad or tired, and they expect me to fix it with a high arch. When I look, the eyes are rarely the main cause. More often the tail of the brow ends lower than the front, so the whole brow slopes downward, and that slope is what the face reads as sad. The eye tilt only adds to an effect the brow is already producing on its own.

You can check this in a mirror in a few seconds. Relax your face, brush your brows the way you wear them, and compare two points: where the front of the brow begins at the lower edge, and where the tail ends. If the tail end sits clearly below the level of the front, the brow slopes down. If it sits level with or a touch above the front, the slope is not the problem, and we should look elsewhere, for example at a heavy front or a tail that is simply too long.

Why a strong lift looks drawn on

The tempting fix is a tail that sweeps up and away from the falling eye. On paper it corrects the slope. On a face it creates a new problem: the distance between the outer corner of the eye and the end of the brow grows, and the tail now sits on skin where no hairs have ever grown. Hair strokes need neighboring hairs to blend into. A lifted tail with nothing underneath is a line on the forehead, and that is the look most people are trying to avoid when they ask for natural.

There is also what happens when you move. In a relaxed expression a strongly lifted tail can read as surprised or questioning, and above downturned eyes that contrast is stronger than it would be on a level eye. The brow is fixed; the eye is not. So a shape that balances the face in a posed photo can look wrong the moment you start talking. I would rather give up a little correction than risk that.

The small change I test first

The adjustment I try before anything else is modest: bring the end of the tail up to roughly the level of the front, not above it, and shorten it slightly if your own hairs stop early. Taking away a long, drooping end often lifts the brow more than adding height would, because the eye no longer follows the brow downward. I draw this version with a pencil, step back, and look at the face as a whole rather than at the brow.

Then I ask you to relax, talk, and look again. If the sad feeling is gone, that is usually where we stop. If it is not, I try a touch more lift at the arch, again in pencil, and we compare. The point is that a small change is tested before a big one is chosen. How much lift finally suits you depends on your hairs, your forehead and the rest of your face, so it varies from person to person and is settled in the mirror, not in advance.

Bring a photo of your usual expression

For downturned eyes, the most useful thing you can send me is not a posed photo but a natural one: a candid picture where you are talking or half smiling, taken from the front. That is the expression the brow has to work with most of the day. Add a straight-on bare-brow photo in daylight so I can see where your tail hairs actually stop and whether the tail currently ends lower than the front.

Consultations at London Brow are translation-assisted over WhatsApp, so a few plain lines are enough: 'My eyes turn down at the outer corners and my brows make me look sad. I do not want a high arch. Can we try a small lift first?' In the studio, ask me to show you the small version in pencil before any other option, then look at your own face in a relaxed expression and tell me what you see. Your reaction to that first version decides the next step.

Common questions