A Few Makeup Tips for Women With Alopecia

For women coming to terms with alopecia areata, the first aesthetic concern is usually losing the hair on your head. You can choose to wear head scarves, wigs or go au naturel – but what about your face? Knowing makeup tips can certainly give you even more confidence especially when eyelashes are lost.

Once you start experimenting with different makeup brands and application techniques, you’ll see a terrific new you in the mirror. Most alopecia makeup tips focus on your eyes.

Eyebrow Makeup Tips

You can use brow powders and sealer to create a natural-looking brow that lasts all day. A few tips:

• Don’t overdo it, a light hand applying the color will look much more natural. Choose a color that’s slightly darker than your hair. Powders are matte and provide more realism than a shiny pencil.
• Steady your hand by sitting down with your elbows on a table. Use an adjustable magnifying mirror.
• Use a tiny brush to draw individual hairs, too, to give your eyebrow more “dimension.” Study the eyebrows in makeup ads to visualize the natural growth direction of brow hairs.

Lashline and Eyelash Tips

• Try different shades of gel liner. Applied to the upper lid's wet line, the color and thickness give an illusion of lashes for an entire lash line or to fill in bare sections.
• Like teeny-tiny wigs for your eyes, false eyelashes are popular. You can modify them to precisely fit the shape and size of your eyelids and give you the look you want. Learning to apply them definitely takes practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard.
• Often, just using the outer third of a lash strip is all you need.
• Give adhesive about 45 seconds to become tacky before setting lashes onto the eyelid.
• Sit with elbows supported to steady yourself. Leaning over a sink is trickier for a beginner.

Eyebrow Shapes

You can do your eyebrows by hand every day, or you can choose stencils, temporary tattoos or even a more permanent solution. If you want to do it by hand, there are plenty of photos and videos online that demonstrate step-by-step how to do these things. Or why not treat yourself to a visit to your local cosmetics counter or cosmetology school to learn from a professional or a professional-in-training.

If the thought of adding eyebrows every day overwhelms you – or your schedule is just too hectic – permanent or semi-permanent makeup could be an option. Today, many women who don’t even have alopecia are turning to this solution as they age, to fill in thinning eyebrows. However, when planning on something as permanent as a tattoo, be sure to do your research and make sure you're going to a qualified, professional permanent makeup artist.

Non-Eye Alopecia Makeup Tips

Foundation, blush and eye shadow can all enhance your prettiest features. You can vary makeup shades to complement your natural coloring, clothes and hair color -- or headgear, if you aren’t wearing a wig. Just using the right shade of lipstick brightens your entire face. It can also draw attention away from your wig, if that’s what you want. Test makeup in natural light which will be different from the light inside a store.

Makeup is highly individual. Alopecia makeup tips for women, especially advice from women who are personally dealing with hair loss, can help you skip over some of the trial and error and achieve the look you want sooner. But there’s no substitute for practice.

Of course, makeup or not, there’s one more thing you need to do to make sure your face always looks its best: smile!

Do you have any tips you've learned as a woman with alopecia? Let us know about them in the comments!