“Hey everybody, welcome to NatuLash, school of safe lash extension!” Each time I say these words it makes me a bit anxious because it's such a confident thing to say "safe lash extension." Different people might have different expectations of it, so let's talk today about what safe lash extension means to us.

So by saying that we do safe lash extension, we kind of imply that there is some unsafe lash extension. Let's go from this angle; it's a lot easier to explain the unsafe things we don't do.

The first kind of damage is irritation. It happens so often that many people don't consider it to be a big deal, but nevertheless, it is damage. It is not a normal reaction to lash extension if our eyes are getting red during the appointment and remain painful and red for a couple more days. It means that some techniques were not performed correctly or some irritation signs were ignored. In some cases, it can be caused by the physiological peculiarities of an individual. But it doesn't mean that we can do nothing for such a person. We can still keep the exposure to a minimal amount to avoid severe reactions. In the great majority of cases, irritation can be prevented during the appointment.

The second kind is also common. It is stuck extensions, when multiple natural lashes and extensions are glued together. Stuck lashes are quite essential since we work with glue, but it doesn't mean that we leave them on the client and let them go like that. But you'll actually be surprised how often that happens. That's why people start picking at their lashes out of nowhere. It's not really hurting them, but it creates a certain tightness or heaviness in the set. And when they get into the lashes with their fingers, they simply cannot stop until the extensions are pretty much gone as well as the natural lashes they were attached to. It creates gaps in the lash line, restarts the cycle sooner, potentially overwhelming the follicle. At NatuLash, we make sure to remove all the stickies; our lashes feel way lighter and more comfortable for the majority of the new clients who had their lashes done before.

The third kind of damage happens when we forbid our clients to cleanse their lashes, which results in the buildup of makeup, sebum, and bacteria, leading to strong irritation and eye infection. An infection is the known follicle killer, which is exactly how we lose our lashes to styes.

I also heard about cases of infestations with lash extension, but I hope that's no longer happening if it ever happened. The internet does its job, and lash clients are way more educated on lash extension nowadays.

The fourth kind of damage happens when, on the contrary, people cleanse their lashes too often, and when they don't use any skin care products afterwards. That causes the skin to dry out and weakens the follicles, since they're taking hair building blocks from the skin. At NatuLash, we determine an individual cleansing schedule of lash cleansing based on their skin type and the cleansing product they use. We offer a restoration serum for eyelashes and eyebrows that supports the skin or provide consultation on the products they have at home.

One hilarious rule that many salons and artists mention is sleeping without facing the pillow. To me, it's beyond the most dangerous thing to expect since we cannot actually control our body position while sleeping. We have to stay more or less conscious in order to do that, and the absence of a good deep sleep affects the work of our brain, immune system, and pretty much everything about our health. Obviously, we never forbid relaxed sleeping to our clients and adjust the set/application technique when necessary, which is quite rare, to tell the truth. In the majority of cases, it's not even an issue for good retention.

The quality of the products we use affects the safety of lashes pretty much directly. We have glue fumes that can get into the eye; nowadays, UV rays-cured glues are quite popular which are even worse, apart from the primers, bonders that contact with the skin. And marketing is blooming in lash sphere; everyone has their own brand of everything—shampoos, primers, glues. There are many products that don't do anything, practically water in the bottle for $30. Some products’ ingredient look like a quote from the list of regulated substances all over the world except for a couple of countries including us. Check out one of them in the picture below. That's why we learn how to read the ingredient lists when stocking products.

Lash fibers are also important when determining safety. Many brands promote their lashes as "ultra-lightweight" lashes, but it's quite misleading. These lashes are so thin that, in order to be more or less full, you need a huge fan of them, which works pretty much like a shovel. It grabs huge amounts of glue and seals dozens of extensions to a natural lash. It doesn't necessarily feel heavy at first. This amount of glue paired with a couple of stickies here and there is so easy to turn into a total disaster and a "lash break for a couple of weeks." How many of such disasters can our follicles handle? That's quite individual, from infinite to a couple. Pretty much like over-plucking the eyebrows, the concept is the same. We carry 5 variations of diameters for any kind of set, and we balance the darkness and the weight of the set to achieve the desired look without overwhelming the follicle.

Also, as a part of the beauty school curriculum, we have infection control discipline where we're taught how to set up the space correctly and follow safety protocols for each procedure in the salon. It includes SMA, disinfection, space organization, supplies storage, SDS for liquids, and other regulated processes. At NatuLash, we set up each station according to these.

By the way, there are lash trays out there that have "MSDS approved" stamp on them, which is simply wild.

These are the most frequent causes of damage. Of course, not all of them, and many are still not researched well enough to determine. To make our work easier and safer, I created maintenance checklists and guides for lash artists that we implement in our services and training programs. Also, I've developed our Quality Evaluation System (QES) that helps to more or less objectively evaluate the quality of each particular job. It includes evaluation of the natural lashes, eyelids, eyes to determine the difficulty of the work (to adjust the factors), and actual safety aspects for scoring (12 total). That helps to maintain consistently high quality of the set appointment after appointment. Our clients don't have to take breaks from lashes, their lashes consistently look good, and our students can become really successful using our approach to lashes.