This is the fifth installment of a New Year New You series following the life transition of Cantonment resident Tina Neese. The 43-year-old mother and grandmother has lost more than 30 pounds and cut off 12 inches of her flowing, black hair for a trendier look. In March, she cut her hair shorter and added highlights. She has also been seeking professional advice to improve her skin, hair and health.

Tina Neese started shaping and reshaping her thick, dark eyebrows at age 13 trying to mimic the shapes she would see on her favorite Hollywood stars.

“I would look at the stars and want to look just like them, and so I’d pluck my eyebrows to death,” Tina said. “Now, there are areas that don’t grow anymore.”

At age 42, her brows are thinner, just as the trend in eyebrows has shifted to thick.

As Tina continues a year of self improvement to update her look and improve her mind, body and spirit, she realized that her eyebrows were long over due for a redo. She also wanted her 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, to enhance her peepers with nicely-shaped brows.

So she sought out the help of Sonya Ferguson, a glamour technician at The Hair Do on Wright Street. The hair stylist and make-up artist is an expert on brow shaping.

“Eyebrows are like putting a frame around a piece of art work,” Ferguson said. “When you have a bad frame, your art work doesn’t look good.”

Poorly manicured or too thin eyebrows can also date you, she said.

This is why stars like Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Renee Zellweger pay thousands of dollars to brow expert Anastasia Soare to have their eyebrows arched to perfection. Sonya is a devotee to the eyebrow queen’s methods, which through waxing, tweezing, trimming and shading creates the look of an instant facelift.

“Shaping your eyebrows is like a mini facelift without the surgery,” Sonya said.

But there is a little pain involved during the waxing.

Sarah let out a big “Ouch!” when Sonya ripped away the waxed cloth attached to stray hairs under the outside of her brow. “I’m OK,” she said meekly.

Soothing her Sonya said, “Pain is beauty, honey.”

Sarah’s brows needed the most manicuring. Tina’s needed to be filled in.

“I use powder shadow instead of a pencil to fill in the brow. It gives it a softer look,” Sonya explained to Tina. “With the hot and humid weather we have here, shadow does better. Pencil tends to smear easier.”

After Sonya worked her magic on the women, they both loved the results.

“When I got home, I didn’t think my husband would notice,” Tina said. “He looked at me, and then he looked at me again and said, ‘You’re eyebrows look sweet.’ He looked at Sarah’s and said her eyebrows were really nice, too.”

Tina said her manicured brows make her feel more put together.

“It’s all the little things we do that makes us feel more put together whether it is a manicure, pedicure or something as simple as keeping your eyebrows done,” Tina said. “Who would have thought it would make such a difference.”

Here’s how Sonya did the mother and daughter brow makeover.

Tina’s eyebrows:
Problems:
• Since Tina never had a formal lesson in brow shaping, she was tweezing too much off from the inner brow.
• Like most people (even almost perfect Angelina Jolie) her brows were not shaped evenly.
• Years of tweezing thinned the outer brow, especially on the left side.
Solution:
• Sonya cleaned up the stray hairs around Tina’s eyebrows by waxing.
• She suggested that Tina allow the hair to grow back thicker on the inner brow for a better shape.
• She used a medium-brown pencil to add a few hair-like strokes through her brows, and to define the tip of the outer brow where hair was missing.
• She used a medium-brown eye shadow to fill in the brows to make them appear thicker.

Sarah’s problems:
• Sarah’s eyebrows had never been completely shaped, even though she tweezed a few hairs from time to time.
• Like most tweens, she had stray hairs that gave her brows an untamed look.
• Sarah’s brows are thick like her moms, but are fairer and the hairs are longer and curl on the end.

Solution:
• Sonya waxed above and below the brow to clean up the stray hairs.
• She combed the brow hairs down and trimmed them.
• She used tweezers to accentuate the arch.
• Since Sarah’s eyebrows also are not uniform, Sonya applied a light-brown shadow to even them out.

Sonya’s suggestion for essential brow tools:
• Anastasia’s Brow Ex-press palette for creating flawless, Hollywood eyebrows. The kit contains four brow stencils; two brow powders in various hair color shades (blonde or brunette) to custom blend a natural brow color; an angled brush; cream highlighter for application along the brow bone to lift and accentuate the eyes; and wax cream to hold a perfect shape all day. $38 at Sephora.com.
• Tweezerman Slant Tweezers. $18 to $20 at most stores or pharmacies or at Tweezerman.com.
• Tweezerman brow scissors (comes with a brow brush). $12 at Tweezerman.com.
• Eyebrow pencil in a color that coordinates with your hair. $1-plus, depending on the brand. Available anywhere cosmetics are sold.
• Eyebrow or regular eye shadow in a shade that coordinates with your hair. If you have black hair, go with a medium brown. Blonde hair, try light brown. Auburn hair, use auburn or light brown.