Blink Brow Bar, Fenwick, New Bond Street

£17. There, I've said it. It's out in the open. I spent £17 getting my eyebrows threaded. What can I say? It was a Saturday afternoon, I needed them done as a matter of urgency, I was in the West End and I plumped for Fenwick as I figured it would be less busy than any of the big department stores on Oxford Street. It was that or follow the man that loiters round Oxford Circus with the big yellow sign advertising threading, waxing and other grooming services.

Blink Brow Bar in Fenwick is located in the beauty hall. It's efficiently run with four or five threaders working at once. You can book in advance (even on line) or just turn up and if they're busy they can put you on a waiting list. On a Saturday afternoon I had a reasonable 15 minute wait, which unsurprisingly I was easily able to while away in the beauty hall (I now have two E. Coudray perfumes on my beauty wishlist)/

I was very pleased with the results. It was the least painful threading experience I've had, and the results were fantastic. My straggly, uneven brows were transformed, with my threader even managing to get the really short hairs (snapping a few threads in the process!). So overall, brilliant, and a nice browbone massage at the end too, but I'm just not sure the experience justified the £17 charge - it just seems extortionate to me, especially considering it only takes about five minutes and the results of threading are actually relatively short-lived.

Having said that, if I was desperate, I would probably go back again, as at least I'd be confident of getting good results.

What do you guys think - am I crazy? Where do you get your brows threaded and how much do you pay??

Blink Brow Bars are located in several department stores in London and across the UK - see http://www.blinkbrowbar.com/ for details.

Eyebrow threading - Glow Beauty Bar

I'd been wanting to try eyebrow threading for a while, and finally got the chance last week when I had a couple of days off up in Newcastle.

The Glow Beauty Bar is situated in the middle of the beauty department of Fenwick Newcastle on the ground floor, next to the food hall. I was apprehensive about having my eyebrows threaded on a chair in front of all and sundry (I've always looked at the women having it done and marvelled at their lack of self-consciousness!), but... well, needs musted and I guess it's just one step up from having your make up done at the beauty counter! Thus I found myself in the chair on a thankfully not-too-busy Monday afternoon.

The lady who did the threading was brilliant - she fully explained the procedure giving me a mirror to explain what she was going to do (I also found myself sitting in the chair before having actually agreed with myself that I was going to have it done - good skills on her part!).

First things first - oww!!! Yes ladies it really does hurt I'm afraid - and I had about three days of painkillers inside me due to painful ribs following a chest infection! But being someone with very dark body hair I have a very high pain threshold for waxing etc, and this wasn't really much worse - I just wasn't used to pain in that particular area - eyewatering to say the least, as you seem to feel each individual hair being ripped out! It only took about 10 minutes though, and I was happy to sit through it for the results....

SPECTACULAR! My eyebrows were very thin to start with due to overplucking, but somehow they managed to shape them, tidy them up and make them look fuller than before! They advised me which bits to grow (I seemed to have some very unsightly vanilla ice-esque gaps in one eyebrow - not deliberate i assure you!)

I think threading is a much better option than waxing for the eyebrows - in my opinion the skin in that area is too delicate for waxing, it often takes a layer off leaving the skin red and irritated. And plucking just doesn't give that great shape.

A week later, it seemed there'd been quite a bit of regrowth - well it's hard to tell if it was regrowth or just new hair, but it seemed spikier and harder to pluck from before. The lady said that a couple of more visits to the threading chair would be all it would take to get them into perfect condition and shape, after which just the occassional tidy up i guess. I have friends who have threading done and always have perfect eyebrows, so I'm going to stick with this one - the shape they've given me is amazing. I've included a picture to show the shape but please note my brows have been filled in with my trusty MAC Charcoal Brown eyeshadow using the 266 brush - unfortunately I didn't get a pic when I'd just had them done, but will try to remember next time. I also went a bit OTT towards my nose - they're not as thick sans powder as I made them.  In this picture I'm also wearing the NARS Tokydo duo on the lids and crease, and eyes are lined with MACs Beauty Marked.

Glow Beauty Bar is available in Fenwicks in Newcastle and London, also in Debenhams Clapham Junction and House of Fraser Victoria Street, plus a few other locations across the UK. Visit www.glowbeautybar.com

Cost £14 for eyebrows.