We’ve all experienced it –just one sleepy eye rub, and all of a sudden you’ve lost three precious, irreplaceable, natural eyelashes! This is especially frustrating knowing that lashes take forever to grow back, and oftentimes are hard to keep strong when you have/had extensions in or wear fake lashes. Your clients may be asking questions to you, the lash expert, about how to possibly grow and strengthen their natural lashes, and I’m here to give you the answers!
There are multiple ways to grow your lashes, with some working better than others. Lash growth serum is very effective and can be ordered online. There are also natural alternatives such as oils and petroleum jelly, and your diet and makeup routine can help a great deal as well in strengthening your lashes and preventing damage. This article will tell you everything you need to know in order to help you and your clients grow the longest, most luscious lashes in town!
Using lash growth serum to grow your lashes
Lash growth serum is one way that is guaranteed to make your lashes longer, with visible results usually taking a few weeks. Most serums are liquids that are made for you to apply in a thin line at the base of your lashes once or twice a day. But how do these serums actually work?
The science behind lash growth serums varies depending on the key ingredient the serum uses to activate lash growth. The most common categories for serums are prostaglandin derivatives, vitamin-based and peptide-based. The magic happens when you apply the serum with one of the three primary hair growth ingredients to the eyelash follicles, which activates them and makes your lashes grow much faster and become stronger over time. It helps to expand the lash growth cycle from roughly three months to four or five, resulting in longer, fuller lashes.
The eyelash serum I’d most recommend can be found here on our website. This serum is non-irritating, formulated using clinically-tested peptides, and bolstered by ingredients such as myristoyl-pentapeptide 4, as well as several herbal extracts. It makes your lashes visibly longer in two weeks, and the full results of long, healthy lashes can be seen in just three months! With no nasty side effects like skin darkening or lash shedding, this serum’s a great option for quite an affordable price.
Natural alternatives for lash growth
While there are safe and effective lash growth serums out there, sometimes it’s hard to know what is or isn’t risky to put near your eyes. After all, we’re dealing with unnatural chemicals right next to one of the most sensitive and important parts of your body! Thankfully, mother nature can help us out with this, with numerous wonderful oils and plants. For the girls who like to keep it natural, here are some alternatives (which are oftentimes way cheaper) to help grow your eyelashes at home!
- Castor oil- This oil is one that can probably be found around the house and is rumored to help grow lashes. Although there is no scientific consensus on if castor oil does, in fact, help lashes grow, a study has shown that ricinoleic acid –a chemical compound that makes up 90% of castor oil- helps reverse hair loss. So, while knowing that castor oil is relatively safe around your eyes, and many people have testified lash growth after using it, this oil is definitely worth a shot! I’d recommend using a cotton swab or q-tip, and applying the oil to the base of your lashes twice a day.
- Coconut oil- We all know this oil is an absolute favorite among health nuts, which is probably because it has ever so many uses. Coconut oil can help protect your lashes from bacteria, and from falling out. This will give the appearance of much longer and fuller lashes–plus it’s very safe. This option is even great for the skin around your eyes! Just apply the oil gently to your lashes with your fingers before bed, and voila.
- Petroleum jelly- Petroleum jelly– or its household brand name, vaseline– is another popular option that does not actually directly stimulate eyelash growth. This being said, it offers a very protective layer to your lashes that can help keep them from being damaged or falling out, while hydrating them in the process. This is a product that I personally love to use, not only during the night but during the daytime under my mascara. It can help protect your lashes from direct contact with makeup, and give you a fuller look as well when you put it on!
- Aloe vera- This plant is another super popular natural remedy that seems to be used (rightfully so) for everything health and beauty related. One of the many awesome things about aloe is that it contains estrogen and progesterone, which are two hormones that help to stimulate hair growth! This household option is another safe one that can be applied before bed in a thin line at the base of your eyelashes, using a cotton swab. Many women swear by this one, boasting of results in just a few weeks.
How to use nutrition to grow your lashes
It’s pretty well known that what we put into our bodies will affect what comes out. So, this being said, doesn’t the food we eat have an effect on our lash health and hair growth in general? If you want to cultivate a healthy diet that will best provide you with lengthy, strong lashes, here are some tips on what to include.
Biotin is a B vitamin (also known as vitamin H) that’s commonly known to stimulate new cell growth, which is important for growing hair and new lashes. This is why a lack of biotin in your diet can result in hair and lash loss, and it’s also why so many lash serums have biotin as one of their magic ingredients. An awesome thing about this super-vitamin is that it can be found in a variety of our everyday foods! Foods that are most high in biotin include:
- Beef liver
- Eggs
- Sunflower seeds
- Sweet potatoes
- Almonds
- Tuna
- Spinach
- Broccoli
If you’re having trouble incorporating biotin-rich foods into your diet, another good option is to take daily Vitamin B supplements. These vitamins are very safe and have minimal side effects, even if you take a lot at a time.
Two more important nutritional tips for lash growth are to eat more protein and– you guessed it– drink more water! This advice may seem a bit overdone, but it’s very important for healthy eyelash growth. Your body needs to stay hydrated in order to have healthy hair follicles, and a protein-rich diet is equally important.
Additional tips for lash growth
In case you’re still not completely confident about growing your eyelashes, here are five quick tips that will hopefully help you have the longest, most luscious lashes around!
- Don’t sleep in makeup. This is a pretty obvious beauty tip, and we all have those rough, crazy nights, but going to sleep wearing mascara is one of the worst possible things you could do for your lashes. Your mascara is likely to flake off roughly during your sleep, and you’ll be sure to lose some lashes along with it.
- Be gentle when removing mascara. If your night-time routine involves you violently scrubbing at your eyes with a dirty hand towel, you’re pretty likely to lose a couple of eyelashes along the way. In order to remove mascara properly, be gentle, work in the direction of your lashes, and keep your eyes closed during the process.
- Go makeup-free more often. The less often you wear makeup (specifical mascara), the less often you’re rubbing at your eyelashes, caking on the product, and preventing the stimulation of hair growth. If you want fuller and healthier lashes, it’s a great idea to save the eye makeup for the weekends or special occasions.
- Stop rubbing your eyes. This one’s much easier said than done, but rubbing your eyes is one of the biggest causes of eyelash loss. Making a conscious effort to be gentle around your eye area (no matter how sleepy you are) will make a big difference in the fullness of your natural lashes.
- Don’t curl your lashes after applying mascara. While it can be tempting, curling your lashes after a nice, heavy coat of mascara is very bad for your eyelashes. Besides making your mascara look clumpier, doing this risks having your lashes stick to the curler and ripping some of them out. Curling your eyelashes looks great, just make sure to do it before putting on makeup- not after.
Final thoughts
There are many ways to promote eyelash growth, some being more quick and effective, and others more safe and natural. You might want to go in the direction of stimulating lash growth or lean to the side of protecting and strengthening your lashes that are already there. There’s nothing wrong with trying out a few different routes to see what works best for you. After all, everyone’s different, so what works for me might not work for you!
