The lower line: barely curved, not flat

Why the underside matters more than you think

I'm Jisun, the owner of London Brow in Seoul. People look at the top of a brow and talk about the arch, but the lower line is the edge closest to the eye, and it is the one that decides whether a brow fits the face. The upper line sets the mood; the lower line sets the fit. On a man's brow, where the upper line runs straight by rule, the lower line is where all of the softness lives. Get it flat and the brow turns into a bar. Get it round and the brow turns into an arch. Neither is what I draw. In a mirror, cover the top half of one brow with a finger and look only at the underside; that edge alone tells you whether the brow sits on the face or floats above it.

Barely curved: what that looks like

Here is the check I usually do first, and you can do it at home. Hold a pencil horizontally under one brow so it touches the lowest hairs at the front and at the tail. Look at the gap between the pencil and the hairs in the middle. If there is no gap, the underside is flat. If the gap is large, the underside is arched. The rule I follow for men is a small, even gap: the line lifts away from the pencil a little through the middle and comes back down at the tail. That is what barely curved means. It is a curve you notice only when you look for it.

Take a straight-on photo in daylight with the pencil in place. It is an odd photo to send, but it shows me your current underside more clearly than a description ever could.

Flat and curved on different faces

The curve is set by your brow bone, not by a template. On a face with a rounded eye socket the lower line lifts a little more through the middle; on a flatter bone it stays closer to the pencil. That is why I do not draw the same underside twice. It varies by person, and the same slight curve that looks right on one man looks either cut out or arched on another. What stays constant is the intention: a line that follows the bone closely enough to look grown.

How the lower line meets the straight upper line

The two lines work as a pair. The upper line runs straight from the arch to the tail. The lower line curves slightly beneath it. Because of that, the distance between them, the width of the brow, opens a touch toward the tail, which is another of the men's rules. If the lower line were ruler-straight as well, the brow would have the same width everywhere and read as a strip. The slight curve is what gives a straight-topped brow its shape.

In the consultation

Consultations at London Brow are translation-assisted over WhatsApp. Make the request specific: 'Please show me the lower line first.' In the room, once the sketch is on, hold the pencil under it the same way you did at home and look at the gap. Small and even is the aim. If the sketch sits flat against the pencil, or lifts far from it, say so before anything is fixed. The line is easy to adjust at that stage, and it is the one I want you to see first.

Common questions