Lipgloss + Aftershave Intro To Lashes: A Trilogy

One:  All Coked Up For Lashes!

Unless you have been living in a bubble, living under a rock, living on a prayer or livin’ la vida loca, you may have seen or heard about eyelash extensions.  You may have seen them while flipping through the pages of a fashion or industry magazine. You may have stared deeply into the eyes of a woman and thought to yourself, “Wow, she has great genetics with those perfectly styled lashes!”

Whether you’ve realize it or not, lash extensions are all around us, and they’re not about to go anywhere!  In fact, they have grown year after year since their explosion into the U.S. market in the early 2000’s. I want to arm you with the basic knowledge and understanding of eyelash extensions including where they came from, what they’re made of, why you need them in your life, and because I can’t help myself, random music references.  Because if you can’t express yourself through a creative medium like music, lashes, or this blog, why even wake up in the morning?!

Let’s start at the very beginning:

Julie Andrews would agree, “It’s a very good place to start!”

French Women Were Jonesing For Lashes – LITERALLY!  

It was reported in the late 1800’s that the Parisians had found a way to create the look of false eyelashes by having the hair from their head sewn into their lash line while utilizing a solution of cocaine to make the process “as painless as possible.”  The operator would work until the effects of the cocaine wore off and would need to finish at another sitting. Women were trying to “bring sexy back” WAY back then even if it meant, what I feel is, the highest form of pain and suffering next to childbirth or my feelings when I heard that Britney and Justin officially called it quits.  But that’s an entirely different blog post.

While women had been searching for the best solution through the 1900’s, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that some brainiac finally offered a safer, much simpler solution.  It has been rumored that individual eyelash extensions were developed in Korea though some will argue it was China. (Can you blame them? I’d want credit too!) The technique started to pop up at trade shows and was made more popular among the beauty industry around 2006.

Since 2006 with every passing year, the lash industry has exploded.  We’ve seen growth in the number of lash companies, training programs and classes, lash conferences, and lash awards.  Innovation is also growing – each year we see incredible product innovation and new application techniques pop up. While, the less efficient techniques and products fall victim to the new innovation and are rendered outdated.  Hanson had it right when they said “In an MMMBop they’re gone!” making way for new and innovative ideas to pave the way. And it’s only getting better! What a time to be alive!