Lash Extensions – The good, the bad and the ugly!

Big lashes. Long lashes. Full lashes. Sexy lashes. Curly lashes. Healthy lashes. Hell, who doesn’t want all that.

A close up of the lash extensions

I am one of the unfortunate ones in my family as it is the boys who are the ones with long, beautifully curled eyelashes that I get to stare at and envy every day. I attribute it to my heritage (Chinese grandmother) that I was rather blessed with short, pin straight eyelashes that wouldn’t curl even if I wrapped it around a hair iron.

I have tried heated eyelash curlers and warming my regular eyelash curler with a hair-dryer and you know what, I burnt and pinched myself, just like so many a blog post had warmed me would happen. But then again, like the saying goes “beauty is pain”, so we buck up and try again until we find something that works.

So a few weeks ago, my friend got married. I wanted to wear false eyelashes for the wedding so two days before I decided to practice putting them on (since I had never tried falsies before). Needless to say, for a first timer it was one of the most frustrating experiences ever. I am not sure if anyone has been through this, but after about 20 minutes of trying to get the lashes on and failing miserably (You could see half my lid between my natural lashes and the falsies), I screamed, tore them off and chucked it straight into the bin. Not one of my proudest moments as I don’t usually quit so easily, but those damn lashes that day just got the best of me.

So fast forward to after the wedding where I attended with au natural lashes, I found Lash Central on Groupon offering a full set of lash extensions for just R245. That’s a bargain considering most salons in my work area charge from R500 upwards.

I then called the Sandton branch to make a booking for the following day and after confirming a time, I decided to Google some more and found Joburg’s Darling’s review on Lash Central which you can read here. The reason I’m continuing with this blog post is because my experience was somewhat different. Before I continue I would like to make it clear that this is not a trash post on Lash Central, just my personal experience that I would like to share with my readers.

So the next day, off I went for my appointment. The premises were relatively easy to find but it was a small room in the back of a yoga studio. Roxy had just started up in the area and is still going to expand part of the studio into a fully-fledged salon like her branch in Bromhof. She instructed me to lay on one of those portable massage beds and assured me I was in great hands. Roxy then taped down my bottom lashes so that she could glue the individual lashes to the top of my eye. Roxy and I chatted and there was no pain or irritation during the process whatsoever. I had read online and enquired at salons that lash extensions take between an hour or two to complete depending on the sparseness of the natural lashes as each individual lash is glued onto the natural lash. Roxy advised me that they were synthetic lashes and she completed my full set of lashes in 30 minutes. I had a look in the handheld mirror and loved how full my lashes looked. Roxy then gave me a lash care card detailing what the do’s and don’ts were and I thanked her and went off on my merry way to an event in Sandton City just up the road.

Well the joy I felt was truly short lived.

Only the right side is completed

My new set of lash extensions

Later that night

About 15 minutes later my eyes started to water. I assumed it was because I was not used to having such long lashes and paid no attention to it. By half an hour later, while at the event, I was on the verge of crying. There was a poking feeling on my left eyelid and I could not open my eye fully. I asked one of the ladies to help me check my lashes and she brought over a mirror. One of the lash extensions was not glued down properly on my lashes and because it was synthetic and hard, it poked my eyelid like a needle. I sat there scratching away at the base of the specific lash, trying in vain not to pull out my own lash while doing so. I don’t know what was in that glue, but hell did it hold on like a rider in a rodeo. I eventually and painfully pulled it out with a few of my own lashes and then tried to tackle the second problem. Four of the lash extensions were stuck to my lower lash line right in the outer corner of my left eye. No matter how hard I tried I just could not get it unstuck with my fingernails. I contemplated cutting them loose with scissors, but that would have left half lashes sticking out the top and bottom and a greater chance of it scratching the surface of my eye. Another lady then came over and started tugging at it with a disposable mascara wand. She pulled each stucked lash individually really hard and while it was painful, it did come loose. Wow it felt good to be able to open my eye fully again. Thanks ladies.

When I got home later that night, I managed to get a good look at my lash extensions. Yes they were longer and fuller and sexier, but they were not glued straight on my lash line. Some of the lashes were glued higher than the others. Now while it was not very noticeable to the next person, those were the lashes that scratched my eyelid occasionally and made it pain and itch.

For the first week after getting my lashes it was a real pain in the butt to maintain. I wasn’t allowed to use any oil-based makeup remover, which was fine, but I struggled to get my liquid liner off and if I used any q-tips or wet wipes, the fibres and cotton would get stuck to the eyelashes. So I just stopped wearing liquid liner to enhance the longevity of the lash extensions. I am also someone who rubs my eyes occasionally and it has been somewhat difficult to remember not to touch it incessantly.

1 week later

It has now been almost three weeks since I have had the lash extensions put in and there has been little to no fallout. They still look amazing and I have no irritation whatsoever. Even after my ordeal, I will definitely go back to Lash Central Bromhof Branch (which is anyways closer to my work), pay the full amount, ask for it to be done precisely and have softer mink lashes put in to minimise the irritation. Hopefully second time lucky.

2 weeks later

Until that time though, I have purchased more fake lashes to try out in the meantime. Can’t be painful, can it?

If you would like to view the Lash Central portfolio, please click here.

LOTS OF LOVE

Belle BluSHH ❤