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When I started using the serum this April, I didn’t think it was actually going to work. Everything I knew about eyebrow growth products from years of independent research and a career as a shopping editor told me that non-prescription versions were just small, expensive tubes of conditioner. But — already banana bread-ed and Zoom-partied out from weeks of quarantine — I was just bored enough to try.
My brows have been sparse for a long time; their tadpole tails too skinny and short, their heads not knitted quite close enough together. Like many a brow that lived through the slender arches of the ‘90s and early ‘00s, mine seemed unable to recover at the speed at which trends shifted towards big, bushy, and Rihanna-like. Before COVID hit, I was even shopping around on Instagram for a microblading artist who could convincingly fill my brows in with hundreds of ultra-fine facial tattoos.
When the world herded us all indoors, I dug up a tube of RapidLash’s RapidBrow EyeBrow Enhancing Serum that was sent over by PR probably months before (it only took a pandemic for me to actually test it). The brand recommends applying the serum twice daily, so morning and night, as the final stage of my skincare routine, I’d brush on a spoolie’s worth of the gel, combing my brows upwards and outwards. Since I wanted to encourage growth outside of the existing brow areas, I’d make sure to draw my brush strokes below and above the hairline, as well as nearer the bridge of my nose and past the tips on either side.
The other thing that had to change was the plucking. Plucking, which I had kept up with to manage “stray” and “unruly” hairs, can actually make a whole area shy to grow back. Quitting my tweezers cold turkey was easier than it would have been under pre-pandemic circumstances; I wasn’t worried about scraggly looking brows befalling judgemental eyes since they’d barely be seen in public at all.
Despite my doubts, the serum, in concert with my no-pluck policy, started to work. The upward brush strokes along my arches began to reveal longer and thicker hairs, and those quote-unquote “stray hairs” started to accumulate in a pattern. Of course, the journey wasn’t always pretty: My brows grew at different rates, with my right side looking practically complete while my left was just getting started.
Even as progress unfolded in the mirror in real time, it didn’t add up with what I thought I knew about brow growth serums. Like other skeptics, I believed actual growth could only result from the use of the prescription ingredient bimatoprost, known by its brand name, Latisse. And to some extent, my thinking was correct. Latisse is able to stimulate growth of lashes and brows in cases where hair has stopped growing altogether. But that doesn’t mean other formulas without the ingredient won’t work on existing (albeit struggling) hair areas.
If you’ve read about RapidBrow before, you’ve probably seen mention of something called the “Hexatein®2 Complex.” This proprietary blend — and other branded blends that come with highly scientific-sounding names and a veil of secrecy — are typically just a marketing tactic. But unlike other brands that lean on proprietary blends, RapidBrow reveals the entire contents of its patented blend on the box.
RapidBrow’s formula includes a handful of names familiar to the skin and hair worlds. Biotin and keratin, both of which are well-researched and proven to strengthen and support healthy hair growth, feature prominently on the ingredient list. They’re joined by a cocktail of peptides, a category also often used in hair growth products for its protein-supporting composition.
So, suddenly, I had eyebrows again. Full, even, natural brows with individually discernible hairs that were always near-impossible to replicate with a pencil or brow pen. From start to finish, I’m guessing it took around two and a half, maybe three months of imperfect, twice-daily use, and the transformation was astonishing — even to me. In a short period, I went from filling in and tweezing under-developed arches to having neat, full brows that require no maintenance other than the occasional comb.
The tube serendipitously ran out pretty much right at the same time it took for my arches to be fully cooked, and I’ve been coasting serum-free without any loss for a couple of weeks now. Still, I’ve already put an order in for a refill. For brows like these that have eluded me most of my life, I’m glad this product proved me wrong.
Shop now: $50; dermstore.com
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