Why the tail is shorter on a man's brow

Check where your tail ends now

I'm Jisun, the owner of London Brow in Seoul. Before any talk about tail length, find your own. In daylight, brush the hairs the way you wear them and follow the brow outward to the last hair you can see. Then look at where that hair sits in relation to the outer corner of your eye: before it, level with it or past it. Many men's tails fade out before the corner, with a few faint hairs beyond. I usually look at that last hair first, because the design starts from it rather than from a template.

Take a straight-on photo in the same light. If you can, take a second one with your face relaxed and turned slightly, so the tail shows against the temple. The tail is the part of the brow a phone camera loses first, so the second photo often tells me more.

What a long tail does on a man's face

A tail that travels far past the eye does two things. It pulls the outer part of the face downward, which can read as tired, and it gives the brow the long, swept shape people associate with a styled women's brow. On a man that reads as drawn even when the color is light. Keeping the arch-to-tail distance shorter is one of the rules I follow for men's brows. It keeps the brow compact, the gaze direct, and the attention on the eyes instead of on the brow's end. It works together with the straight upper line, which also avoids the swept look.

Short does not mean cut off

A shorter tail is not a blunt stop. The strokes at the tail still lie flat and finish softly, and the width stays a touch heavier toward the back rather than thinning to a point, another of the men's rules. So the tail ends with a little weight and a soft edge at the same time. If you picture a brow that simply stops, that is not it. Picture a brow that ends where it means to, without a flourish. In a photo of your own brow, look at whether the last hairs trail off thinly or end together; that is the difference between a tail that drifts and one that ends.

When your tail already stops early

If your own tail ends early, I usually do not extend it much. The rule is about not making a man's tail long, and your hair already agrees. If it ends very early, before the outer corner of the eye, we talk about how far to carry the line, and the brow bone and the direction of your eye decide more than any reference photo. It varies by person. Two men with the same reference can end up with different tail lengths, and both can be right.

In the consultation

Consultations at London Brow are translation-assisted over WhatsApp. Say where your tail ends now, and ask one thing first in the room: 'Show me where the tail will end on the sketch before anything else.' Compare that point in the mirror with where your hair ends today. If the sketch ends close to your own last hair and finishes with a soft, slightly heavier edge, the tail is doing what the rule intends.

Common questions