Eyelash Perm

Am I the only one who didn't realize this exists?!?!? One afternoon over the holidays my sister, Kelly, and my mom and I went to the salon to get manicures together. While being pampered, we couldn't ignore the crowd of people circling around a girl sitting in a chair in another part of the room. Those confined to their chairs were straining the necks to see what the fuss was about, and then finally our nails dried and we got a look too--you guessed it, she was getting her eyelashes permed!

The treatment takes a little over an hour, so I didn't get to see the results, but Kelly and I promptly made an appointment to do the same later that week.

The eyelash perm, touted as a budget-friendly alternative to extensions (which are upwards of $100-$150 and have to be redone every 2 weeks), costs about $35-$40. The process is rather simple and is nothing to be nervous about. Once all of your makeup is thoroughly removed, the technician puts in rollers and brushes on perming solution as they would for an ordinary perm.

The rollers come in three sizes--small, medium, or large. My sister has long, thick lashes and was able to use the large rollers. Me? I squeezed by with the medium, though sadly I think the small ones would have worked as well. The rollers are a dense foam, slightly sticky and felt awkward but did not hurt at all. Your part of the deal is simply to keep your eyes shut for the next hour or the whole process will need to start over from the beginning. I imagine since I wear contacts and thus have no problems with my eyes being touched and overall messed with, I had no problem keeping them shut (except for the flinching when I got my eyebrow wax done at the same time!).

Then wait, wait wait...for about 75 minutes, part of that time with saran wrap over your eyes. They took Kelly and I out from the back room into the main room with all of the massage chairs. I could feel the gawking stares but I pretended like it was completely normal and just enjoyed the massage. Once time was up, one more solution was applied to our lashes and then a quick rinse over the sink and ta-da! Lashes are permanently curled for the next 3-4 weeks.

No one noticed that my lashes were any different, and though our dad feigned a "They look good!" I imagine he only said as much because he knew we were having them done (aww). Personally, I do think that it opened up my eyes, though nothing more drastic than if I had curled them the old fashioned way. I want to say that an eyelash perm is the best kept beauty secret and you should run out to your salon and get one done today, but I have to say you might be the only one who notices!

A special thank you to Kelly for allowing me to post her picture!