I’ve never been a huge eyebrow plucker, but I also went to high school in the 2000s, so I can’t pretend that I don’t know my way around a tweezer. At one time, the area between my eyes and on my low brow bone/upper eyelid got pretty tough and used to frequent plucking. It got to a point where tweezing really didn’t hurt.

Now, after years of indifference and Cara Delevingne, I’ve let my brows grow wild and free. But eventually, I realized a little maintenance could turn my nearly literal caterpillars into the proverbial butterfly (or, more literally, into a feather).

I picked back up the old Tweezerman and went back at it, with those immortal words in my head: “This won’t hurt a bit.” I tweezed. I yelped in pain. All the sensitivity had come creeping back in my few years off, and let me tell you—it hurt just as bad as when your mom tried to tweeze you up when you were 14. Yes, it hurt like a mother-plucker (I’m sorry).

I was clearly not going to get through all 15 or so tweezes it was going to take, but I could get through one. One big one. One waxing strip.

Here's the thing: you still want nice, full, feathery brows—that’s probably why you haven’t been waxing. But if you don’t want a nice, full, feathery forehead, you should. So for the stray drunk hairs above your brows stumbling out into the empty parking lot of your forehead, there’s wax strips. Specifically, Bliss Poetic Waxing for your face. Gotta love the name (and the apparent restraint in not playing off the possible “stripper' puns) and for the fact that it's an all-in-one product. They come pre-loaded with wax, so no need to invest in a whole tub of wax, warmer, and popsicles.

Warm the strip between the palms of your hands (it’ll get warmer than you expect), peel off, stick on, let set for a second, then strip off. It’s momentarily uncomfortable, but not that needling kind of annoying pain that tweezing a sensitive area feels like (or really any area). In one fell swoop, you’ve got open skies on your forehead and a clear delineation between the end of your brow and the beginning of your hairline. Plus, you get that kind of gross-out satisfaction of a nose pore strip—seeing all those little offenders all stripped off at once on that sticky sheet thinking, “GOTCHA.”

I wouldn’t recommend waxing under your brow (and the area above the eyelid). This is the area you want to keep varied and natural—and plucking as needed feels safer as far as thinner skin is concerned. But if you’ve got over 10 hairs showing up unreckoned and all scattered around your face, wax is your friend. But other than that, you’re maintenance is over. Thanks wax strips. See you in another three months.

—Trace Barnhill

Photographed by Tom Newton. Read how to DIY a Brazilian... yes really. Or stick to brows (there's plenty to talk about there).