The phrase "you get what you pay for" is usually true in regards to beauty trends—even newer ones.
If you go to a high-end hair salon, you expect that the hairdresser isn't using cheap or unsafe hairdryers. When you go to an expensive tattoo shop, you're paying for an experienced tattoo artist who knows what they're doing.
I say should because microblading is unregulated by law, meaning that a lot of people don't necessarily get what they pay for.
It may seem insane to some, but for those who have lighter eyebrow hair or have trouble growing out their brows altogether, microblading is an expensive-yet-accessible beauty treatment that has the ability to change how one's entire face is framed.
Jami Ledbetter is one of thousands of people in the country who was born without eyebrows, which is why she was ecstatic to find that she had several microblading specialists in her area.
She used the Groupon certificate to book a microblading session with a woman whom she thought was a professional, but after the session was finished, she was horrified at the results.
"What it’s done to my self-confidence, it’s been hard," she explained to Fox 4KC. "I was even dating a guy, and he stopped dating me at that point."
Ledbetter explains that after the session, she was too embarrassed to leave her house, even to go to work or go shopping.
"It was pretty painful," she explains. "I tried to have a good attitude, but it burned a lot. It kind of felt bruised."
Ledbetter was then referred to licensed tattoo artist Kara Gutierrez, who often performs tattoo removal.
Ledbetter is now receiving a treatment called Li-ft to "help lift the pigment out of [her] brows."
The process involves tattooing the brows with the Li-ft and waiting for them to scab, which takes the pigment out.
The process can only be performed in 8-week intervals, which means that in-between sessions, Ledbetter will have to put up with the after-effects of the botched microblading sessions from before.
