Let's Break Down the Truth About Eyelash Shedding

When most Lash Technician start doing lash extensions they may often come across clients with the statement that the eyelashes from other Lash Artists lasted for months compared to yours. Frankly, this may make you feel crushed and discouraged, you may think you're doing something wrong or using the wrong products. In most lash training courses a brief overview of the lash growth cycle will be discussed and usually the necessity of doing infills every 3 - 4 weeks, but still, the subject needs to be discussed a little more.

First, a quick reminder of the natural lash growth cycle. Our bodies are a very complex unit where every cell has a specific function and expiry date, the same is true for our hairs too.

The Hair Growth Cycle

The average cycle of our natural lash life expectancy is around 9-10 weeks. This starts with the ANAGEN stage - those tiny, sometimes very unmanageable baby lashes. Let's talk about these lashes.

There is a lot of controversies when it comes to lash extensions and baby lashes, the main questions asked is: "Should we apply eyelash extensions on them or not?"  Well, definitely yes. In the past, when the only choice of extension was Classic, very thick and heavy extensions to choose from, it was not recommended. Today, there is so much range and different thicknesses and weights of lashes to choose from. All you need to consider though, is not to overload the baby lashes, go for shorter and thinner extensions such as Mega Volume Chelsea 0.05 Lashes, these lashes are super light weight and come in a variety of lengths.

The next stage for the lash growth cycle is CATAGEN. This is when our lashes start to become thicker, but may still be growing. These are the perfect and ideal lashes to apply extensions onto because they will last the longest.

Lastly, the final stage of the cycle is TELOGEN. By now, the lashes are fully grown and are almost ready to shed and be replaced by the baby lashes beginning the anagen phase. Lashes in the telogen phase can be tricky to work with, you wont be able to tell if that lash is about to shed tomorrow or in a few days. This is why you may have clients complain of lash shed.

Annoying as this is, all of our lashes are in different growth stages constantly. Every lash is in a completely different stage and you cannot necessarily tell when they're about to shed from the final telogen phase. It is perfectly normal for everyone to lose 2 to 5 lashes each day. Explaining this to your client is perfectly okay and in fact, you can assure them that no lash set will last months, especially without an infill.

Hopefully, this short blog post will prove useful to Lash Technicians out there looking to brush up on their knowledge of the natural hair grown cycle of lashes. It's important to know this information, not only for yourself as a Lash Artist, but also knowing exactly how to explain and relay this information to your clients who are worried about lash shedding.

TOP TIPS

• Keeping up with your Pretreatment, Lash Glue condition and Lash Aftercare is important for lash retention of course. Make sure you're using the correct products so you can have perfect lash extension retention. After all, natural lashes may fall out due to their growth cycle, but you do not want to lose lash extensions from healthy natural lashes prematurely.
• Clients should use Lash Shampoo once a day to clean their lash extensions from dirt, oils and make up residue. This will help retention and the health of their natural lashes.
• Spend some time going through the lashes with Isolation Tweezers after the treatment to look out for stickies. Stickies can be dangerous to natural lashes as they can pull on the natural lash and make it fall out prematurely.