When people ask me for help them with makeup, the first thing I ever teach someone is how to groom their eyebrows. Way before I delve into the details of all the right brushes and colors and makeup techniques, I talk maybe a little bit too passionately about eyebrows.

Having groomed eyebrows is the easiest way to look put together no matter what’s going on in your life. Even if you don’t wear a stitch of makeup, taking time to tame the brows will make you look that much more awake and on top of your game. I don’t know about you, but when my babies were little and I literally didn’t leave the house for days at a time, I still felt better about life when my eyebrows were groomed.

Is that ridiculous? Maybe. But when you’re covered in spit up and wearing last weeks’ sweats, it’s the little things that keep you from sobbing into your pillow at night.

You can do this two ways: pay someone to groom your eyebrows for you, or learn to tame them yourself at home. If you choose the latter you’ll need a few tools: an eyebrow brush, eyeliner or an eyebrow pencil, tweezers, scissors, eyeshadow, and an eyeshadow brush.

I’ll be honest, I go to a salon every couple of months to get a general shaping and eyebrow wax and then maintain them the rest of the time on my own with tweezers. I don’t want to pony up the cash to have someone do it for me, and it’s really easy to groom your eyebrows once you have the general know-how.

In this economy, who doesn’t love a little free beauty?

Here’s a little step-by-step instructional on how to groom eyebrows:

Step 1: Check out your eyebrows and see where the natural arch should be. It will be almost diagonal from the end of your nose; line up an eyebrow pencil with the tip of your nose, and rotate it horizontally until you have a diagonal line halfway between the brow. That’s about where the natural arch lies.

Step 2: Using an eyebrow shaping brush {or a comb/brush, whatever you already have}, comb eyebrows up.

Step 3: Take small cuticle scissors and very, VERY carefully snip off the excess brows. Don’t get too aggressive or you’ll cut your eyebrows clean off. Not that I’ve done that before or anything.

Step 4: Using eyeliner or an eyebrow pencil, draw a basic template of how you want your eyebrows to look when you’re done.

Step 5: Pluck under and a teeny tiny bit above your brows, using the template you’ve drawn as a guide. Periodically comb your eyebrows up to make sure you don’t have any stragglers.

Step 6: Comb everything down nicely and you’re done.

Can you even believe the before and after? It’s like a breath of fresh air smacked me upside the head. Can you see the difference? Having groomed eyebrows completely opens up the face and takes years off your life. Probably.

What about you? Are you a self-groomer or do you leave it up to the experts?