Pamela Jeschonek is in the business of raising eyebrows. But in Pittsburgh, it's a business that hasn't quite taken off. At least, not yet.

A licensed aesthetician with years of experience, Ms. Jeschonek operates one of the few eyebrow boutiques in Pittsburgh, Everyday Esthetics Makeup and Eyebrow Studio in Ambridge. Specializing in brow couture, a process that analyzes facial shape and bone structure to determine the best brow shape, Ms. Jeschonek believes eyebrows are an art. With the correct shape and the perfect arch, a face can look even, balanced and beautiful.

"It's part technical prowess, and it's part art," she said. "I'm an artist with a tweezer."

When Ms. Jeschonek earned her license in 2002, there were no boutiques or salons specializing in eyebrows. In 2005, when cities such as New York and Los Angeles boasted dozens of these salons, Ms. Jeschonek opened her business as a mobile studio that eventually expanded into the region's first salon dedicated to eyebrow shaping. She also studied with Damone Roberts, known as the "Eyebrow King," at his studios in both Beverly Hills, Calif., and New York City.

"I think Pittsburgh is kind of a more casual town. It's a little bit more laid back," she said. "The bigger cities are more beauty-centric."

Sometimes, Ms. Jeschonek joked, that shows.

"I work on so many different people with the typical Pittsburgh brow," she said. "It's kind of tadpole-shaped. In the eyebrow business, we call it the 'sperm brow'... it's like a big head and a tail. Instead of a nice ascension, it just suddenly becomes this miniature line."

But Ms. Jeschonek has fixed many a botched brow. Customers often must schedule four weeks in advance to make an appointment at Everyday Esthetics. The first appointment costs $40 and includes a bone structure and facial features analysis to determine the perfect eyebrow shape for the client's face.

"The ideal face is the oval face. When you're trying to re-create that oval or take away features that the client doesn't like, like a rectangular face, the last thing you want to do is give that person a high arch," she said. "No face is completely balanced, but adding symmetry to the face gives the illusion of things being more even."

The process is very detail-oriented, she added.

"One hair can make or break the line of the brow. It's a very conscious effort to know which hair to remove."

Tweezing and waxing, the two techniques Ms. Jeschonek uses at her salon, are not the only ways to create the perfect brow. Threading is a popular method originated in India thousands of years ago and one that is slowly gaining ground in Pittsburgh.

"It's actually less pain than waxing and it's less pain than tweezing," said Jennifer Menhorn, managing aesthetician at Ross Park Mall's Miracle Eyebrows, a new salon dedicated solely to threading.

Eyebrow threading is gentler to the skin than tweezing and waxing, Ms. Menhorn said.

"There's a lot of people that have more sensitive skin. They're on acne treatment or they could be diabetic, have high blood pressure. There's so many different things that contraindicate waxing because of the trauma," she said.

"Every time they put the wax on that sensitive eye area and rip the strip off, it traumatizes the skin and it loosens the skin ... but with this, there's none of that. It's the most gentle method."

Threading is done by anchoring the thread from three points -- from the mouth or tied around the neck and with the two hands. A loop is created and taken along the eyebrow, pulling the hair from the follicle.

"All the hair comes out from the root, which is why the results are longer lasting. With waxing and also with tweezing, the majority of the hairs are just ripped from the skin's surface," Ms. Menhorn said.

Miracle Eyebrows opened at Ross Park Mall in July, and another salon at the Mall at Robinson will open in September.

"A lot of people haven't heard of threading at all. In Pittsburgh, [threading] is just starting to catch on," she said.

Eyebrow threading costs $14 for both eyebrows at Miracle Eyebrows. But the salon also offers hair removal of the upper lip ($8), chin ($9), sideburns ($10), neck ($9), lower lip ($7), forehead ($10) or a full facial hair removal for $39.

Keeping in line with its ancient Indian tradition, Miracle Eyebrows also provides henna tattoos for $14. Eyebrow threading and henna tattoos can be purchased together for $26.