The quick answer
| Microblading | Ombré brows | Henna | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish | Individual hair strokes | Soft powdered gradient | Tinted stain |
| Lasts | 12–18 months | 18–24 months | 2–6 weeks |
| Price | R1 500 | R1 700 | R250 |
| Best for | Normal to dry skin | Oily skin, large pores | Trying a shape first |
| Downtime | 7–10 days | 7–10 days | None |
| Needles? | Yes | Yes | No |
Microblading
A hand tool with a row of fine needles draws individual strokes into the upper skin, following the direction your own hair grows. Up close, healed microblading looks like hair. It is the most natural-looking of the three and the reason most people book it.
Choose it if: you have normal to dry skin, sparse or over-plucked brows, and you want people to assume you were simply born with good brows.
Skip it if: your skin is oily or your pores are large in the brow area. Sebum blurs fine strokes over time, and what starts as crisp hair strokes can heal into a soft smudge. This is not a skill issue — it is how oily skin behaves.
Honest note: if you have oily skin and an artist promises you crisp hair strokes that will still be crisp in a year, be sceptical. A good artist will steer you toward ombré instead, even though it means talking you out of the treatment you walked in asking for.
Ombré / powder brows
A machine deposits thousands of tiny pigment dots, dense at the tail and softer at the front, producing a gradient like brow powder that never smudges. It is the most forgiving treatment and the most durable.
Choose it if: your skin is oily or combination, you have large pores, you already fill your brows in daily, or you want a defined, groomed look rather than a bare-faced one.
Skip it if: you want brows that disappear into your face entirely. Ombré always reads as slightly "done" — beautifully done, but done.
It also heals more predictably than microblading and holds its shape longer, which is why a lot of artists quietly prefer it.
Combination brows
Hair strokes through the front of the brow where you want softness, shading through the body and tail where you want definition. It is the best of both and, unsurprisingly, the most expensive at R1 900. Good for people whose brows are patchy in some areas and fine in others.
Henna brows
No needles, no downtime, no commitment. A henna-based dye stains both the hair and the skin underneath, so it creates the appearance of a fuller, more defined shape for two to six weeks — the skin stain fades first, the hair tint lasts longest.
Choose it if: you are nervous about permanent makeup, you want to test-drive a shape before committing, you have an event coming up, or you simply want low-maintenance definition without a tattoo.
Skip it if: you want to stop maintaining your brows. Henna needs redoing roughly monthly, which over two years costs more than one microblading set.
A genuinely good strategy: book henna first. Wear the shape for a month. If you love it, we use exactly that shape as the map for your microblading. If you hate it, you have lost R250 and four weeks instead of R1 500 and eighteen months.
Match the treatment to your skin, not the trend
The single most useful thing on this page:
- Oily skin, large pores: ombré or powder brows.
- Dry or mature skin: microblading holds beautifully.
- Combination skin: combination brows, or ombré if your T-zone is genuinely oily.
- Very thin, fragile or sun-damaged skin: a gentler shaded technique usually heals better than strokes.
- Not sure, or nervous: henna first.
What about mature skin?
Some of the most rewarding work I do is on clients in their sixties and seventies whose brows have thinned out with age or disappeared after chemotherapy. Mature skin often takes pigment very well because it is drier, and a softly shaded brow lifts the whole face. You can see a before-and-after of exactly this on the home page.
Cost over time
People compare the sticker price and stop there. Over two years it looks different:
| Treatment | Two-year cost | Visits |
|---|---|---|
| Microblading + one boost | R2 250 | 3 |
| Ombré + one boost | R2 450 | 3 |
| Henna every 4 weeks | R6 500 | 26 |
Henna is the cheapest to try and the most expensive to keep. That is not an argument against it — plenty of people prefer changing their shape regularly — but it is worth knowing before you decide.
Still not sure?
Send me a clear photo of your bare brows in natural light on WhatsApp (065 763 6831) and tell me how oily your skin gets by the end of the day. That is usually enough for me to tell you which of the three will actually hold on your face.
Full pricing for every treatment is on the price list, and if you want the detail on microblading specifically, start with microblading in East London: prices, healing and what to expect.
Frequently asked questions
Which brow treatment is best for oily skin?
Ombré or powder brows. Oily skin blurs fine hair strokes over time, so a soft shaded finish holds its shape far better than microblading.
Is henna better than microblading?
They solve different problems. Henna is a temporary stain lasting two to six weeks with no needles and no downtime. Microblading is a cosmetic tattoo lasting 12 to 18 months. Henna is ideal for testing a shape before committing.
What is the difference between microblading and ombré brows?
Microblading draws individual hair strokes by hand for a natural, hair-like result. Ombré uses a machine to build a soft powdered gradient. Ombré lasts longer and suits oily skin better; microblading looks more natural on dry to normal skin.
Can I get microblading over old permanent makeup?
Sometimes — it depends how dark and saturated the existing work is. It has to be assessed in person, and heavily saturated old work may need fading first.
Which hurts least?
Henna is completely painless. Between microblading and ombré, most clients find ombré slightly more comfortable because the machine is gentler on the skin than a hand blade.
Not sure which one you need?
Send a photo of your bare brows and I'll tell you which treatment will hold best on your skin — even if it isn't the one you were expecting.
Ask Rochelle on WhatsApp