A Western Australia beauty salon has taken to Facebook to implore people to do their research before booking in for eyelash extensions. Why? Because some poor (anonymous) sod came to see her with lashes so borked up by someone’s wild incompetence that they disintegrated at the first touch.
You might be wondering how a beauty treatment as popular as eyelash extensions – which involves gluing individual false lashes to a client’s own eyelashes for a seriously fluttery look that lasts up to eight weeks – could cause such a terrifying, festy end product.
Turns out that complications from dodgy lashes are pretty common, considering that the industry is entirely unregulated. That means that any old berk with a repurposed dentist’s chair, some tweezers and a pot of PVA can advertise as a lash specialist.
Back in 2014, the ABC reported that optometrists were seeing a massive uptick in patients with chemical burns, infections, eyelashes broken off or falling out, and eye irritations, all caused by poorly-applied lash extensions.
Which leads us to now, and Emmaculate Beauty from Morley, WA. The salon is run by a woman called Emma, who says that a girl came to her wanting new lashes for her birthday weekend, but had such damaged lashes that they “were falling out when [she] touched them with the tweezers“.
She’s taken the opportunity to remind people keen for a new set of lashes to “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do your research“, saying that these were the worst lashes she’d seen in 7 years in the industry.
Y i k e s.
Emma captioned the photos:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do your research. This poor girl has been left with extremely damaged natural lashes. She wanted lashes for her birthday this weekend and i could not lash her because she has been left with no lashes….
Her natural lashes are sooooo damaged from the place she has been having her lashes done, they were falling out when i touched them with the tweezers. As well as inflamed eye lids and needing to see her doctor for infection, her lashes may never be the same again ???????? This should NEVER ever happen to your lashes, please do not be scared of having lash extensions applied, if you do your research and go to the right place your lash extensions can be applied for years and years without having a break!!Worst lashes i have personally seen in 7 years of lashing ???? I take a lot of pride in my work and this makes me feel sick it is still happening out there.
Plenty of people in the comments have shared their own horror stories, from snapped lashes to extensions that “stab and itch” their eyeballs to crusty infections. Apparently one girl had her eyes glued together with superglue and had to be driven to the hospital, which is enough to give me nightmares for weeks.
Moral of the story? Check those Google/Facebook/Yelp reviews, do your research, follow the hygiene advice, and if in doubt, just get a real good mascara. Nothing’s worth seeing all your lashes broken off into tiny li’l stumpies. 🙁
