Well Hello! I greet you today with naked eyeballs for the first time in months. I finally let my eyelash extensions grow out, and I have mixed emotions about it. But I can also share with you my final thoughts on the entire process from start to finish. We’ve talked about the the pros and the cons and now we get to discuss my experience as far as whether eyelash extensions damage your natural lashes, so all in all my naked eyes are for a good cause.

If you haven’t read my earlier posts about the rest of my eyelash extension journey, then you can check out my first impressions HERE and then read about how I felt after my first touch up HERE where I discuss all the pros and cons.

For those who have already read those, let’s talk about what you’re really here to find out: Did my real eyelashes fall out and make me cry with shame and hang my head and hide in a paper bag have bald eyes and hate my life? The short answer is no, but that doesn’t mean that I got away 100% damage free either.

SO ARE MY EYES BALD?

As you can probably tell my eyelashes are about 95% intact. To be fair, they would have been 99% intact but a certain husband (not naming any names 😉 ) decided it would be a grand idea to mush my face with a pillow because we’re nearly 30 and we act like two giant children, and he didn’t realize how delicate my eyelash extensions are . . . and it caused the WEIRDEST thing. A few of the extensions bent and partially separated from my natural lashes. It hurt SO much. The whole next day it was sore and then when I washed my face the next night a cluster of about 4 lashes, with my natural lashes attached to them, came out. You can sorta see the area they came out of on the left side of my eye in the photo.

Other than that incident, I didn’t see much as far as the damage to my lashes and I had them on continuously for just over two months. I think that’s a good lesson. You have to be gentle to them! Maybe you aren’t so inclined to have adult pillow fights before bed, but even just in day to day life they definitely require a gentle touch. If you aren’t careful I could definitely see them causing more damage than they caused me.

Also, I think it’s important to reiterate that you should never pick them or pull on them or try to use an eyelash curler on them. All of those things will cause damage to your natural lashes. You should also avoid rubbing your eyes and be extra gentle when removing eye makeup.

The last time I went for a touch up I asked my technician if there was a certain amount of time that you can get the extensions done continuously, if she recommended taking a break, and how much damage I should expect. Basically she told me that a good technician will tell you when they start to see some damage happening to your lashes and will let you know that you should take a break for a while, and that at this point I could still continue getting them for a while because mine had very little damage.

She also mentioned that I have pretty strong lashes naturally, the lashes themselves are very thick and long so they can support the extensions pretty well. She said that shorter, finer lashes can start to fall out more quickly if you use extensions that are too long for them and that a good technician will also be able to tell you what length of extension your lashes can handle.

So long story short, make sure you go to a place that is very reputable with technicians who are professionally trained. That can literally make or break your lashes.

With that being said, if you have extensions on for a few months, you will FEEL like your eyelashes are non existent once the extensions are off. At least at first. When mine were finally gone (I just let them shed naturally I didn’t go and have them removed) I was like sweet baby jesus I am BALD. But because I’ve been blogging about it, I literally have photographic evidence that it’s not the case. They are mostly the same as before, I was just used to having very long and glamorous lashes for so long that they SEEMED bald in comparison.

Now I’m used to my natural eyelashes again (It took about a week to re-adjust) and I feel normal. Looking at the pictures of my lashes before and after helped a little though. I think some of the balding that people think they experience after eyelash extensions is just relative.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

Having eyelash extensions was fun, and I would probably do them again if I had a big event or was going on a long trip. The biggest annoyance I had with them was adjusting my skincare. As I mentioned in earlier posts about this, you can’t use oil based products with them. I really love my The Body Shop Serum in Oil and using coconut oil as a makeup remover, so that took some getting used to, and I’m glad to be back at my old oil-using habits again, especially now that the weather is so dry and cold.

While I came away from this experience with my natural lashes relatively intact, it is worth noting that you do need to be gentle and cautious with them andmake sure you go somewhere with highly trained technicians.

So in conclusion, do eyelash extensions damage your real lashes? They can, but if you do all the right things you can definitely avoid having sad, bald eyes.