Jillian Sayarh remembers a time when getting your eyebrows done was just an extra special service for a manicure.
It led to some pretty interesting shapes that Sayarh would work around as a makeup artist.
Believing there could be a better way, she started using her talents to specialize in brow design.
“People were coming out with brows that were very thin or asymmetrical. In the beginning, around 2007, I was really doing almost entirely corrective work from situations like that,” says Sayarh.
“There weren’t a lot of people doing a great job. So I saw that as an opportunity.”
As the owner of The Brow Studio, Sayarh seeks to create the perfect eyebrows tailored to each client’s face and educate on how to maintain them. She was trained using a specialized technique from a brow expert in Los Angeles working on celebrities.
The Brow Studio opened its first location in Airdrie in August 2021, and has three additional locations in Calgary. Lash, waxing, threading and microblading services are also offered.
The art of the brow
According to Sayarh, the best way to have great brows is to start with a good base.
That’s where the COVID-19 pandemic has been helpful, with many women and men skipping treatments to grow in some of their past oopsies when at-home plucking.
As a result, The Brow Studio is seeing early success in Airdrie with many more seeking treatments to freshen up.
Sayarh says her method is so good, you don’t even need makeup afterwards.
“It is truly different for everybody…. Everybody has a different lifestyle; everybody has different needs and wants,” says Sayarh.
“By having your brows in good shape, you really don’t need to do as much with the rest of your routine. You will look amazing without having to go through a million different steps in the makeup process.”
A home in Airdrie
Opening up a new studio in Airdrie made a lot of sense for Sayarh because the community is growing.
She says there’s an increasing population in the community who are looking for local, luxury services and don’t want to drive into Calgary for them.
“I am from a small community myself, so I believe that we look for people in our own community to support,” says Sayarh.
“Airdrie has really welcomed us with open arms and we are so grateful because there were definitely moments of trepidation – especially when you launch yourself into something like this in the middle of a period of time that is so uncertain. We just feel very grateful to be moving forward and to have a community embrace us the way that they have.”
Planning for growth
The Brow Studio isn’t the only business who opened their doors in Airdrie last year.
Airdrie Economic Development says they welcomed 82 new commercial and 424 homebased businesses to the city in 2021, closing the year with record growth compared to 2019 and 2020.
It’s all part of their 2018-2028 Economic Strategy which outlines a plan to draw visitors, entrepreneurs and talent to Airdrie – while growing businesses and attracting new investment.
That’s a vision with which Sayarh and The Brow Studio align.
“Airdrie was that opportunity for us to move forward, to start putting one foot in front of the other and to progress as a business,” she says.
“We want to continue on the path that we are on. I want to continue building a group of brow artists and possibly expanding once again. There was a purpose in coming to Airdrie, so I am really excited to be out here and grow.”
