It's all too easy to put yourself in the hands of the professional and for consistently disastrous pluckers, this is probably the best step. But, as beauty professionals have themselves admitted, a person's eyebrow shape is something that is deeply personal, and a newly-plucked customer can often be unhappy with the results. It might sound silly, but eyebrow shape can change a person's whole face and even take 10 years off a more mature woman. The key to happy plucking is identifying what suits your face, while sticking to the proper guidelines and doing it yourself. Beauty School shows you how.

First of all, the unbreakable rules:

No matter what type of face shape you have, these rules must be adhered to.

1.Brows should never ever begin too far back or end too early. Two words: shocked bunny. Or to put it another way: you will look permanently surprised. The space between your brows should be equal to or a little wider than your eye.

You might have heard it before but the best way to find out where your brow should begin and end is to take a pencil and, firstly, place it parallel to your nose. This is where the brow should begin. Next, take the pencil and extend it diagonally from your nostril. Where it hits is (you got it) where your brow should end.

Short brows are a criminal offence, so take care.

2.Brows should be approximately as thick as a pencil or average pen, or a bit thicker. They should never be thinner than this as they will end up disappearing altogether. The end of the brow is just as important as the beginning . . .brows that thin off ridiculously at the end only end up being shocked bunny and you don't want that.

3.The experts are saying that thicker brows are back, but they should still have an arch no matter how slight. Otherwise you'll look like Richard Nixon. Hold a pencil parallel to the outside edge of your iris (the coloured part) and this is where your arch should be. Think less Jennifer Connolly and more Julia Roberts and you're heading in the right direction.

To pluck:

Invest in a good tweezers with a slanted edge.

Tweezerman has the market pinned down and deservedly so . . . available in pharmacies nationwide for around 17.95.

The best time to get plucking is after a shower or bath when your pores are open. If you're particularly sensitive, apply ice to the area. Before you begin, examine your brows carefully and think hard before you take out each hair. Do the tricks above and you will know where you should be plucking.

The best trick is to start with the strays that are nowhere near your main brow. Next, pluck the area between brows carefully and keep the pencil handy to ensure you're not going too far back. Remember, less is more, so move carefully and step away from the mirror every couple of minutes to give yourself a fresh perspective.

Pluck the main brow area with care, and remember it may only need a few hairs taken out from the arch area. Avoid above your brow unless strictly necessary. Proportion is important, so if you have a small, oval face you don't want very bushy brows. On the other hand, a broader face needs a strong brow to accentuate your features.

Always pluck in the direction the hair is going and only take one hair at a time. Finally, stop yourself in time. Some eyebrow hairs have a nasty habit of not growing back and you want a defined brow, not a disappeared one.