Do Eyelash Extensions Damage Your Natural Lashes?
‘Do eyelash extensions damage your eyelashes?’ is a question that is searched in one way or another on Google hundreds of times per month! The simple answer is ‘not if they’re done properly’ - but how can you avoid damaging the natural lashes with eyelash extensions?
When you’re a beginner lash tech, it can feel like there are so many things to remember to the point of being overwhelming! It’s also well worth taking another look at your best practices if you’ve been doing lashes for a while - the industry changes, and if we’re honest it’s quite easy to start cutting corners or using lashes that aren’t ideal for your client if they’re keen to have bigger and bigger lashes!
We’ve put together a list of our Top Tips to help you avoid damaging the natural lashes with eyelash extensions, to keep your clients’ lashes safe and happy!
1. Pick the Right Lashes - Thickness
When you choose the right lashes for the set you’re doing, you can apply fans of 30D+ without causing any damage - how? Surely that would weigh down your lashes! Well of course, if you’re using the wrong thickness you will absolutely cause damage in the long run!
Pick your lashes based on your client’s natural lashes - if they are very thick and strong you can get away with thicker extensions, but try to still use thinner lash extensions to really protect those natural lashes!
✨ Generally speaking, 0.25 will be too heavy for the vast majority of clients, but they do come as flat lashes, which means that they only weigh around half as much as a standard classic lash!
✨ The same applies for 0.20 lashes - they’re pretty heavy, so it’s better to err on the side of caution!
✨ 0.18 are the thickest I’d advise for your average classic set - they will give a full, dark mascara effect whilst being safe for the vast majority of clients.
✨ 0.15 will give a pretty mascara effect, and will be safe for everyone! (That being said, if your client has EXTREMELY fine lashes they still might not be suitable - let’s say they have recently finished chemotherapy and their lashes are just growing back, 0.15s may even be too heavy)
✨0.12 will give a lighter finish to your lash set - they’re perfect for adding a little bit of extra density without adding much extra weight.
✨ 0.10 lashes are classic lashes for all intents and purposes, but if someone has very strong natural lashes and would like a lighter volume set, you can use 0.10s for 2D fans.
✨ 0.07 lashes can be used for fans up to 6D
✨ 0.06 lashes are so similar to 0.07, but can be used up to 8D
✨ 0.05 lashes sit comfortably between volume and mega volume lashes, so can be used up to 12D
✨ 0.04 lashes can be used for fans up to 19D
✨ 0.03 lashes can be used for fans up to a massive 35D!
These fan sizes are worked out on a basis of how many individual lashes in that thickness would be equal to one 0.18 classic lash. We’ve used volumetric calculations to do this - S = 𝜋 x R.
It’s a long and technical explanation, but what it basically means is that you’re working out how many lashes would ‘fit into’ a larger lash. It’s quite easy to assume that 1 x 0.15 lash = 3 x 0.05 lashes if we are simply dividing, but what we actually need to do is look at the diameter of the base (that’s the lash thickness, 0.05 in this case) and work out how many of those fit into a 0.15 diameter. There’s your almost-equivalent weight!
2. Pick the Right Lashes - Length
As a general rule, the longest length you should be using are 3mm longer than the natural lashes - any longer and they can cause the natural lashes to twist or sit at a lower angle than they should, and can cause them to come out prematurely. This will affect the root in the long run and they lashes may grow back finer, or sometimes not at all!
If your client REALLY REALLY wants super long lashes and won’t take ‘it’s not the best idea’ for an answer (as so often happens) drop down a thickness or two so that at least in one aspect, the lashes are protected!
3. Avoid Stickies
Stickies should be avoided at all costs, not only do they cause damage but they’re painful for the client, too. While using lashes that are too heavy are something of a silent killer, stickies will let your client know for a fact that their lashes are being damaged!
We’ve got a more in-depth post about stickies and how to avoid them if you have time for a deep-dive, but generally speaking, you’ll need to make sure you’re isolating the lashes perfectly, not picking up too much glue on your extension, and that you’re working across both eyes evenly, to give the freshly applied extension a chance to dry a bit before you squash other lashes against it.
Even if you’re the MOST careful, you’re still highly likely to end up with at least a couple of stickies, so make sure you set aside 10-15 minutes at the end of each treatment to check for stickies and separate them!
