Which PMU Brow Technique Is Better?

If you’re thinking about getting permanent makeup on your brows, one of the first questions you’ll probably ask yourself is:

Which technique would be best for me?

Microblading?

Nano brows?

Powder brows?

Combo brows?

It makes sense that you’d want to figure this out first. After all, they’re your brows. You know what you like, what you don’t like, and what kind of result you imagine yourself waking up with every morning.

But choosing your technique before choosing your brow artist can actually be one of the biggest mistakes you make during your research.

Here’s why.

Fresh Brows Can Easily Influence Your Decision

Fresh permanent makeup results are everywhere.

They’re easy to find because fresh work is what many artists post the most.

And if you’re completely new to permanent makeup, it’s understandable to assume that brows will heal somewhat similar to how they look immediately after the procedure.

So when you see an absolutely beautiful fresh result, your brain naturally thinks:

If they look this good now, I'm sure they'll probably look somewhat the same once they heal.

Unfortunately, permanent makeup doesn’t work that way.

The way they look on day 1 can totally be different to how they'll look after 4 weeks and even more different after a year or two.

Fresh brows can tell you whether an artist can create a beautiful result on Day One.

They cannot tell you what that tattoo will look like once the skin has healed around it.

And that distinction matters enormously when you’re choosing something that is being tattooed onto your face.

Why Hairstrokes Usually Win the Fresh-Brow Beauty Contest

When comparing fresh techniques, hairstrokes are understandably one of the most attractive options.

Most clients want brows that look natural while still adding shape, fullness, and definition.

Freshly tattooed hairstrokes can accomplish exactly that.

They can look like actual individual brow hairs.

Compare that with powder brows.

Even beautifully executed powder brows still create a shaded effect. They imitate the appearance of brow makeup rather than creating individual hairs.

So when someone who knows very little about healed permanent makeup and compares the two techniques fresh, the thought process can easily become:

Powder brows look nice… but if I can have realistic-looking tattooed hairs instead, why wouldn’t I choose that?

And just like that, the decision has been made.

I want hairstrokes.

Except you haven’t actually finished your research yet.

Now Confirmation Bias Takes Over

Once you’ve decided that hairstrokes are the technique you want, your entire artist search can become biased toward proving that original decision correct.

You start searching specifically for nano brow artists.

Then you come across an artist specializing in powder brows.

Their work looks nice.

But…

Nope. I don’t want powder brows.

Next.

You don’t examine their healed portfolio closely because you’ve already eliminated the technique.

Eventually, you learn something extremely important:

You should be looking at healed results.

Great.

That’s already a huge improvement in your research.

But there’s still a problem.

Now you’re searching for the artist with the best healed nano brows because you’ve already decided nano brows are what you want.

You come across another artist with a huge collection of beautiful healed powder brows.

Again:

Nope. Wrong technique.

Next.

Eventually, after comparing enough healed nano brow artists, you may find someone with some genuinely beautiful healed nano results.

Perfect.

You found the best technique AND the best artist for your brows!

Yayyy 🥳🥳

Lol.

You thought.

Nice try, though. I’ll give you that.

You Never Actually Compared the Techniques Fairly

Here’s the problem:

If you decided from the beginning that hairstrokes were superior and then ignored powder brow artists throughout your research, how do you actually know hairstrokes have the best long term healed outcomes?

You don’t.

You compared nano artists against other nano artists. Then you chose which nano artist produces the best healed outcomes. You may have chosen the best nano brow artist but that still doesn’t mean the nano technique has the best healed outcomes compared to all the other techniques. 

That’s because you didn’t compare the healed outcomes you could realistically receive from all techniques.

So instead of choosing a technique first, choose the artist first. Then let the artist lead you to the technique.

Instead of immediately crossing powder brow artists off your list because powder wasn’t initially your favorite technique, analyze their healed work too.

Look at their healed results and genuinely ask yourself: if I was that client, would l be happy with those healed brows? If the answer is yes, keep a note of that.

Also ask yourself:

How many healed examples does this artist show?

How many of those healed examples do I actually like? 

How many do I not really like?

Write down the numbers.

Do the same thing for every other artist, doesn't matter what technique they perform. Look at their healed results and determine how many healed results in total they have, how many you actually like and how many you don’t really like.

Basically, you’re looking for two things:

1. A large healed portfolio

2. A high percentage of that portfolio consisting of results you personally love

Both matter.

Let me show you why.

Imagine You Found 4 Brow Artists

Artist A:

200 healed examples

You love: 20

You don’t love: 180

Only 10% of the healed work you’re seeing matches your personal taste.

That’s a pretty important piece of information.

The artist deserves credit for showing a massive healed portfolio, but if you wouldn’t personally want the overwhelming majority of those results on your face, why would you assume you’ll magically become one of the 20 examples you love?

Artist B:

100 healed examples

You love: 80

You don’t love: 20

Now 80% of the healed portfolio you’re evaluating consists of results you’d personally be happy with.

That’s a much stronger consistency signal.

Artist C:

50 healed examples

You love: 35

You don’t love: 15

That’s 70%.

Still pretty strong, although the overall sample of healed work is smaller than Artist B’s.

Artist D

20 healed examples

You love: 20

You don’t dislike a single one.

100%.

Artist D wins!

…right?

Not so fast.

Twenty Perfect Healed Results Aren’t Necessarily Better. 

This is where portfolio size becomes extremely important.

You cannot automatically conclude that you’ll have a higher chance at loving your healed results simply because you loved 20 out of 20 examples they showed you.

Why?

Because you don’t know what you’re not being shown.

Maybe Artist D hasn't performed that many clients yet and is an extremely talented newer artist.

If that’s the case, amazing. They may have a very promising career ahead of them. And if they’re charging beginner or intermediate pricing, you may even decide that their smaller portfolio and cheaper pricing is worth the additional uncertainty.

But what if Artist D advertises:

• Many years of experience

• Thousands of procedures performed

• Awards

• Certifications

• Celebrity clients

• Premium pricing

• A long waiting list

• Teaching other artists

…yet somehow only has 20 healed examples available for you to evaluate while charging you premium pricing. 

Now I have questions.

Why do they only have 20 healed results? 

Oh I know, maybe the clients aren’t coming back. 

Yeah that’s must be it. 

Except that these procedures are heavily marketed as a two step process: the initial appointment plus the touch up. 

When clients come back for their touch up, this is the chance we artists get to document the healed results. 

Not to mention many clients come back for 2 or 3 additional touch ups throughout the years.

Confident artists are usually proud to share how their work looks once it’s healed. Many even organize healed results into dedicated Instagram highlights because they understand that’s what future clients should be evaluating.

They usually label healed results as follow:

Healed after inition session

Healed after a touch up

Healed after two touch ups

Healed after a year

Healed after 3 years

and so forth.

After all, every experienced permanent makeup artist knows one important fact:

Brows never heal exactly the way they looked on Day One.

That’s why healed work deserves just as much attention as fresh work—if not more.

An artist who is not afraid to show their healed work is being transparent on how their work tends to heal. 

A Small Perfect Portfolio Can Be More Misleading Than a Large Imperfect One

Let’s go back to Artist A and D.

Artist A showed you 200 healed results.

You only liked 20.

Artist D showed you 20 healed results.

You loved all 20.

It’s tempting to assume Artist D is obviously the better artist.

But there’s another possibility:

Artist A may simply be more transparent.

Artist A is willing to show you a much broader representation of their healed work—even results that aren’t necessarily their most impressive. That doesnt make them the better artist as far as skill goes, but at least they're being transparent about their work.

Meanwhile, Artist D could be selectively showing only their absolute best healed cases. That doesnt make them the better artist either. As far as we know, artist D could have about the same skill level as artist A.

Do we know that for a fact? 

No. You can believe artist D is the better artist just because you love all of their few healed results they have posted.

But this is a tattoo on your face.

You don’t need to give an artist the benefit of the doubt when you’re the person assuming the risk.

Be picky as hell.

Why are you trying to risk your chances by going to someone that has only shown just a few healed examples?

This Is Why a Large Healed Portfolio Matters

The larger the healed portfolio becomes, the harder it is to rely entirely on a handful of unusually successful healed cases.

Personally, I would want to see at least around 50 healed examples before feeling comfortable making meaningful comparisons. The more examples the better though.

Then ask yourself:

What percentage of this artist’s healed work would I genuinely be happy wearing on my own face?

Not:

Which fresh transformation impresses me the most?

Not:

How popular are they on social media?

Not:

How many celebrities have they worked on?

Not:

How expensive are they?

Premium Pricing Should Come With Premium Evidence

This becomes even more important when an artist charges premium prices.

Look at the entire healed portfolio.

Because an artist showing 100 healed clients you consistently love tells you much more than an artist showing 10 absolutely flawless healed clients while leaving you completely in the dark about everyone else.

So… Which PMU Brow Technique Is Actually the Best?

There isn’t one technique that’s automatically best for everyone.

Powder brows do tend to be the best for most people as far as long term healed results go. But not necessarily for everyone. Some clients can greatly benefit from a combo or a nano brow. Each is determined on a case by case basis and the best artist to help you make that decision is the one you’ve concluded has the highest percentage of healed results you love. 

But don’t take my word for it. Or anyone’s word for it. 

Do your own research. 

Compare artists by their healed work. And ask yourself: Which artist shows the most healed results? Which artist has the highest percentage of healed results you genuinely love? .

Look at powder brows even if you originally wanted nano brows.

Look at nano brows even if you thought you wanted powder.

Look at combo brows.

Look at microblading.

Give every technique a fair chance based on how it actually heals, not just how impressive it looks immediately after the procedure.

Then find the artist who has:

A large healed portfolio + the highest percentage of healed results you would genuinely be happy having on your own face.

Don’t choose the technique first and then search for evidence that validates your choice.

Choose the best artist first.

Then let that artist lead you to the technique.

However, this next point is very important:

An impressive-looking healed portfolio doesn’t automatically mean an impressive artist.

Beautiful healed photos mean very little if the work is stolen, edited/altered, carefully selected shots, or hiding problems with shape and symmetry.

So before you book, learn how to look beyond the pretty pictures and evaluate what you’re actually seeing.

I highly encourage you to read my next article: Don't be misled by perfectly captured shots, photoshop or stolen work. 

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