Getting ready for your appointment

Skin that is calm, unbroken and not bleeding takes pigment evenly. Skin that is irritated, sunburnt, freshly exfoliated or full of caffeine does not. That is the whole principle behind everything below.

Four weeks before

• Stop any acid or retinol product on the area — glycolic, salicylic, retinoid creams. They thin the surface of the skin and change how it takes pigment.
• No chemical peels or laser work on the face.
• If you have Botox in the brow area, have it at least four weeks before, not after — the shape is mapped to where your brow sits, and moving the brow after mapping moves the result.
• Book around your period if your dates are predictable. Sensitivity is higher in the days before and during.

Two weeks before

• No sunbeds and no real sun on the area. Tanned or burnt skin heals badly and the colour you are matched to will be the wrong one when the tan drops.
• Have any brow tinting or waxing done at least a week before, and electrolysis at least five days before, then leave your brows alone — no tinting or plucking. Alison needs to see what actually grows there to map a shape that works with it.
• If you are having lip blush and you get cold sores, speak to your pharmacist or GP about an antiviral to take around the appointment. The treatment can wake the virus up, and a cold sore over fresh work damages the result.

The day before

• No alcohol. It thins the blood and skin that bleeds does not hold pigment.
• Nothing that thins the blood — Alison asks for no aspirin, ibuprofen or coumadin for two days beforehand, though never stop prescribed medication without your doctor’s agreement. Paracetamol is fine.
• Drink water and get a normal night's sleep. Both are more useful than they sound.

If you take prescribed blood thinners, do not stop them for a beauty treatment. Say so at the consultation instead and it gets worked around.

The morning of

• Eat properly. A real meal. Two hours in a chair on an empty stomach is the most common reason somebody feels faint, far ahead of pain.
• No caffeine. No coffee, no energy drink, no pre-workout. It raises sensitivity and increases bleeding.
• Come with wearing your normal make-up — Alison asks for this, because how you usually wear them — both are useful for different reasons, so do whichever you prefer and say which it is.
• Bring headphones, and something to drink.

What to bring, and what to expect on arrival

Bring a photograph or two of brows you like if you have them, and be ready to say what you do not like as well — that is usually more informative.

The appointment starts with the shape being drawn on in pencil and you looking at it in a mirror in daylight. Nothing goes any further until you have said yes to it. If it is not right, it gets redrawn. That is a normal part of the appointment, not a complaint.

Colour is matched at the same point, against your skin, your natural hair and your undertone rather than off a chart.

Allow two to two and a half hours for brows and around two for lips.

Things that will stop the appointment going ahead

These are not fussiness. Each one either makes the result unreliable or makes the treatment unsafe:

• No patch test done, or a patch test that reacted.
• Pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Being under eighteen — it is illegal to tattoo anybody under eighteen in England, and semi-permanent make-up is a tattoo.
• Active cold sore, active infection, sunburn, broken skin or a rash on the area.
• Isotretinoin (Roaccutane) within the last twelve months.
• Having had alcohol that day.

Some conditions need a note from your GP before the treatment can go ahead rather than ruling it out — diabetes, autoimmune conditions, anything affecting how you heal or clot, and current or recent cancer treatment. Raise it at the consultation and there is time to sort it out.

Prepare for afterwards too

Do not book anything that matters for the following ten days. No weddings, no photographs, no holidays. The flaking week is not a week you want to be in a photograph.

If you have a date in the diary — a wedding, a big birthday — count back at least ten weeks, so that the first appointment and the perfecting session are both healed before it.

Have a clean towel and a plain barrier balm at home before you go, so you are not shopping for them on the way back.