How to Train Eyebrows to Grow in the Right Direction

You can train your eyebrows to lie in a better direction, but you can't reprogram the follicles themselves. The angle your hairs grow out of the skin is set by how those follicles are oriented underneath, and no amount of brushing changes that permanently. What you can do, starting today, is consistently guide the hairs as they grow so they fall into a better position over time, support faster and fuller growth so you have more hairs to work with, and stop the habits that are actively making things worse. That combination, done patiently over 3 to 6 months, produces real visible improvement for most people.

Can you actually train eyebrow hair to grow the right direction?

The honest answer is: partly. Hair direction comes from the angle at which each follicle is embedded in your skin. Think of the follicle as a pipe buried at a slight tilt. Whatever angle that pipe sits at, that's the direction the hair grows out. That angle is genetic and structural, not something a spoolie or a gel can permanently alter. People who have eyebrow hairs that grow upward, outward, or in competing directions often have a cowlick-type follicle pattern in their brows, where the follicles are embedded at angles that make hairs fan out or stand up rather than lie flat and sweep in one direction.

Where grooming and training genuinely help is in redirecting how the hair shaft lies on the skin's surface. If you consistently brush a hair in a certain direction while it's growing out, especially if you lock it in place with a setting product, the hair will tend to lay that way more easily over time. It's similar to how sleeping on your side every night can train your hair to part a certain way. You're not changing the follicle's angle, but you're conditioning the hair's default resting position. The effect is real but it takes weeks to months of consistency, not days.

If your brows grow in genuinely different directions on each side, or your hairs seem to go upward no matter what you do, that's usually a structural follicle pattern rather than a grooming problem. Those topics have their own nuances worth exploring separately.

Why brows grow the way they do

Eyebrow hairs grow at an average of about 0.14 to 0.16 mm per day, which works out to roughly 4 to 5 mm a month. Each hair goes through a growth cycle with three phases: anagen (active growth), catagen (transition), and telogen (resting/shedding). Unlike scalp hair, eyebrow hairs have a relatively short anagen phase, which is why brow hairs stay short without trimming and why regrowing a full brow after damage takes several months rather than weeks.

The direction each hair grows is baked in at the follicle level. Follicles are embedded in the dermis at a specific angle and pattern, and in the brows, they're typically arranged in overlapping zones: hairs near the nose arch upward, hairs in the middle arch and sweep outward, and hairs at the tail sweep downward. If your brows are growing upward specifically, a key reason is often how the follicles are angled in your skin. When that patterning is disrupted by genetics, trauma, scarring, or years of aggressive plucking, hairs can grow in disorganized or counterproductive directions. That's the cowlick phenomenon showing up in brow hair, and while you can work around it with good grooming, you generally can't surgically fix it without a cosmetic procedure like eyebrow transplantation.

Your day-to-day training routine

This is where actual change happens, and it's simpler than most people expect. The key is doing it every single day without skipping, because inconsistency is the biggest reason training doesn't work.

Morning: brush and set

1. Start with a clean, dry face. Oils and leftover skincare products on the brow area will make hairs slip out of position faster.
2. Use a clean spoolie brush and brush all hairs firmly upward and slightly outward toward the tail. Use short, deliberate strokes, not a single swipe. You want to lift and separate each hair.
3. Immediately lock them in place with a clear brow gel or a setting wax. A firm-hold clear gel (like a dedicated brow-setting gel or even a tiny amount of a hard-hold hair wax on your fingertip) holds the direction you just brushed. Don't skip this step: brushing without setting is largely wasted effort.
4. Let it dry fully before touching the area. Even 60 seconds of leaving it alone matters.

Evening: oil massage and re-brush

1. Cleanse the brow area gently to remove the day's product, makeup, and sebum buildup.
2. Apply your growth oil of choice (more on this below) using your fingertip or the spoolie itself, and massage it into the brow skin in small circular motions for about 30 seconds per brow. This stimulates circulation in the follicle area, not just coats the hairs.
3. Brush the hairs into your desired direction again with a clean or lightly oiled spoolie. You want the hairs sleeping in the right direction overnight.
4. Leave the oil on overnight. It doesn't need to be washed off before bed.

The reason the evening routine matters as much as the morning one is that hairs are slightly more pliable when they've been softened by oil and warmth. Overnight conditioning, done consistently, gradually encourages the hair shaft to default to the direction you keep placing it. Think of it like gently bending a piece of wire the same way every day: eventually it holds the curve.

Grooming rules that protect your progress

The fastest way to undo months of training is to keep damaging the follicles you're trying to work with. Here's what to stop or cut back on significantly.

Stop over-tweezing

Plucking every day, even just to get a stray hair or two, is one of the most damaging things you can do to brow follicles. According to dermatologists, repeated daily plucking can cause follicle damage and scarring over time, meaning the hair either stops growing back entirely or grows back in a different, often worse, direction. If you're in a training phase, resist the urge to tweeze anything except hairs that are clearly outside your intended shape. Give new hairs room to grow in and prove themselves.

Be strategic about shaping methods

If you need to shape during a grow-out phase, shaving doesn't damage the follicle the way pulling from the root does, and regrowth tends to come back faster. Threading, when done by a skilled specialist, is a precise option that removes hair cleanly, but a less experienced practitioner can cause skin irritation and pull hair incorrectly, which adds to follicle stress. Waxing pulls hairs from the root repeatedly and should be minimized during a training phase when you're trying to protect every follicle you have.

Don't trim too aggressively

Trimming the tips of long hairs is fine and actually helps hairs lie flatter. But cutting hairs too short defeats the purpose of training: you need some length for the gel and brushing to work. Aim to trim only the hairs that stick out beyond your shape, not every hair that's growing upward.

Oils and serums: what actually helps growth

Growth support won't change your follicle angles, but it does give you more hairs, fuller hairs, and hairs that are less brittle and easier to train. These are the options worth considering, with honest expectations for each.

Castor oil gets a lot of hype, and it is genuinely useful as a conditioning agent that reduces breakage and keeps hairs more pliable. But it's not a growth miracle. Rosemary oil has more interesting science behind it for actual follicle stimulation, especially in scalp studies, and it's worth pairing with a carrier oil in your evening routine. Neither will restructure a cowlick or fix a scarred follicle, but both support the kind of healthy, dense brow growth that makes training more effective.

Minoxidil and medical options: when to consider them

Minoxidil for eyebrows is an off-label use, meaning it hasn't received specific FDA approval for brow application, but it has been studied in randomized controlled trials for eyebrow hypotrichosis (sparse brows). Research comparing topical minoxidil 2% against placebo and against bimatoprost (a prescription prostaglandin analog also used for lashes) shows real efficacy for increasing eyebrow density and thickness. This isn't a fringe approach; it's being studied in peer-reviewed clinical trials.

If your brows are genuinely sparse rather than just growing in an awkward direction, minoxidil 2% solution applied once daily to the brow area is worth a conversation with a dermatologist. The typical application is a small amount (often a single drop or the applicator tip) swept across the brow skin, not the hair shafts. Key things to know: it takes at least 3 to 4 months to see meaningful results, you need to keep using it to maintain gains (growth can reverse when you stop), and possible side effects include skin irritation, unwanted facial hair growth if the product migrates, and in rare cases systemic effects like a drop in blood pressure. Don't use it on broken or inflamed skin, and if you're pregnant or have cardiovascular concerns, check with a doctor first.

Bimatoprost (brand name Latisse, primarily used for lashes) has also been studied for eyebrows in the same comparative trials and shows efficacy, but it typically requires a prescription and carries its own side effect profile including potential pigment changes in the skin and iris. For most people who aren't dealing with significant medical hair loss, starting with rosemary oil and a good serum routine is a reasonable first step before moving to prescription territory.

What to expect and when to reassess

Here's a realistic timeline so you don't give up too early or keep going with something that isn't working.

The most common reason training doesn't work is follicle damage from years of over-plucking or repeated trauma. If you've been aggressively shaping your brows for years and certain patches simply won't fill in or grow in any particular direction, scarring at the follicle level may be the cause. At that point, topical growth products have limited ability to help because the follicle itself is compromised. A dermatologist can assess whether the follicles are still viable or if something like microblading (for filling in appearance) or a brow transplant (for actual hair regrowth in a new direction) would make more sense.

The other common obstacle is impatience. The eyebrow hair cycle means some of your hairs are in the resting phase right now and simply won't respond to anything until they re-enter the growth phase. That's normal, not a sign that your routine isn't working. Commit to a full 12 to 16 weeks before making any judgment about whether your approach needs to change. Most people who feel like "nothing is working" after two weeks haven't actually given the biology enough time to catch up.

If you're in a grow-out phase while training, the challenge of managing the in-between look is real, and using brow pencils, pomades, or tinted gels to fill and define your shape while new hairs establish themselves makes the process much more tolerable. If you are trying to grow out eyebrows without looking bad, the in-between stage is usually the hardest part, so focus on gentle styling that follows the direction your hairs already want to go in-between look. Think of the current state as a construction zone: temporary and worth the wait.