Eyelashes

CNNGO posted an interesting story by La Carmina on Asia’s most extreme fashion trends today, which included references to long pinky nails in Southeast Asia, Guro (“emergency room chic”) in Japan, and “mantyhose” in India.

Among the extreme trends were novelty eyelashes.  The picture provided in the gallery was pretty crazy (less like lashes, more like a beard), but it inspired me to take a more detailed look at the various things people are doing to their eyelashes these days.

Here’s a quick overview of your choices, ranging from the fairly commonplace to the super radical:

Mascara

In an effort to appear more feminine, women have sought to accentuate their eyelashes since the Bronze Age.  The original substance aiding this purpose was kohl (“a preparation based on lampblack and antimony” according to Encyclopedia Britannica), which, in case you were wondering, was also what was used as eyeliner for that awesome look in ancient Egypt, according to Mistress of the House: Mistress of Heaven.

Cosmetic eyelash technology remained pretty stagnant for centuries- even in the Victorian era, when women redoubled efforts to lengthen their eyelashes, they were still resorting to home-brewed mixtures of ashes and elderberry.  According to lovetoknow, the first packaged cosmetic mascara wasn’t created until 1917!

These days, mascara has become super advanced.  Clearly you’ve seen the countless mascara commercials in your lifetime- each flaunting some new breakthrough ingredient, tool, or technique.  Thanks to technology, the modern woman can indulge in special, multi-step-application mascaras that lengthen our lashes SO MUCH, they create veritable WINDSTORMS with one blink. WHOOSH!

False Eyelashes

Sometimes, mascara just isn’t enough.  Enter the false eyelashes.  Even the Egyptians couldn’t pull this trump card: false eyelashes didn’t emerge until the 21st century (apparently thanks to American movie director D.W. Griffith in 1916).  While the traditional option has been to apply a false fringe over our existing eyelashes, the fairly recent Japanese “lash by lash” technique has made false eyelashes more realistic looking than ever.

Many wear false eyelashes hoping to convince others that they’re real, however there is also quite a market for novelty false eyelashes.  Here are some examples from My Diva’s Closet:

Fancy!!

False eyelashes are becoming increasingly abstract in nature.  Bianca Zen of My Fat Pocket did a wonderful piece on them, and I recommend you check it out- it exhibits an exploration beyond last-like embellishments with the use of lace and other materials.  Here are some of the pictures she included:

These are from Tokyo Lash Bar’s “couture collection”

These are Shu Uemura Fleur-Ever (Premium Edition)

[Photos form MyFatPocket.com]

Eyelash Perms

False eyelashes take a while to apply, and can cost a bit much (those Fleur-Evers are a steep $79!), so many women have turned to eyelash perms.  The fitmap explains that eyelash perming (thought to have originated in France, but developed and adopted widely in Japan- though eHow suggests it was developed in NYC and LA in the ’90s) is semi-permanent and involves using rollers and traditional perm solutions.

The news report below shows the process- it’s pretty straightforward:

General online consensus seems to be that an eyelash perm should cost between $30 and $70 dollars, which isn’t that much compared to $75 falsies.  At-home kits exist as well, and cost $10-$30.

Eyelash perming seems to be picking up in popularity- the only scary thing is that long-term effects are not yet known, and short-term effects include brittle, itchy eyelashes- or even complete eyelash loss.  Yikes.

Here’s a look at the process.  They try to make it spa-like.  Which helps… what with the tweezers and scary glue involved.

Eyelash Extensions

For those who wish to wear false eyelashes for longer than a day, there are semi-perminant eyelash extensions.  These are single strand synthetic lashes that are applied one at a time (basically, more permanent versions of the Japanese “lash-by-lash” technique).  ABC News has it that the trend started in Asia, and while two-month-long lashes cost $300-$500, ten-day versions only cost around $50.

A myriad of brands have emerged in the last couple of years, such as Xtreme Lashes, Lash Out!, Novalash, and Lavish Lashes, and seem to be playing up celebrity clients (Byonce, Nicole Kidman, Star Jones, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, J. Lo, Gwen Stefani, Lucy Liu, Naomi Campbell, Liz Hurley…), as well as certification training to beauty professionals, to encourage more widespread adoption amongst us common folk.

Eyelash Implants / Transplants

Implants… the final frontier.  This medical procedure, apparently first developed for chemo patients who had lost their lashes, is now being adopted by perfectly healthy women seeking that ever-so-elusive flirty feminine eye (a 2009 families.com article claims that 80% of eyelash transplants were for cosmetic reasons).  eHow explains that the procedure involves transplanting hair follicles from the back of the head to the eyelid.  It is an out-patient surgery using local anesthetic.

Eyelash Implants are only for die-hard eyelash afficionados though- at least for now.  Plasticized estimates the surgery cost to be around $3,000- PER EYE.  Furthermore, patients need to regularly trim and curl their new lashes, since they’ll grow just like normal hair.  There are pictures of some implants that are not properly groomed.  And they’re not pretty.  So I’m not showing them.

If you want to watch a Good Morning America piece on the surgery (starts at about 1:23), be my guest.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you’ve learned as much as I have.  I don’t know about you, but I’ll never look at eyelashes the same way again!