I’ve always curled my lashes. I had one friend in high school who would just laugh at me while I used my lash curler, and to this day I cannot put it to my face without seeing her standing next to me, looking at me like I’m crazy. But why the heck WOULDN’T I curl them? It makes such a difference.
I’ve noticed that sometimes the curl doesn’t take. Why is that?! It’s usually when I need it most too…like maybe the morning after too much wine, or maybe just a night that was short on sleep. My lash curling regime is usually curl first, mascara second. Do you ever count when you have the curler on your eyelashes? Once I asked my daughter how she got her lashes to look so long. She replied, I don’t know. I just curl them for like 10 seconds. I smiled to myself because I’m pretty sure I count as well.
Every once in awhile, like on those days when the curl doesn’t take, I’ll do mascara and then the curler. Usually that leaves me with a crimp in the lashes, or else they are curled so ridiculously that I look like I’m on an episode of Dallas.
This week I tried something different though. Leslie had ordered supplies for what the girls were calling a lash perm. Almost all of our supplies that we order come by Fed Ex or UPS and we are so conditioned to having everything delivered to the front desk that we often forget some things still actually come by mail. This has gotten us in trouble with our mailman. He recently chided me for our apparent continual inability to check the mail on a regular basis…he actually spoke to me like a principal to a third grader who got in trouble. And with that tone, he explained to me that we often get packages and that they take up a whole locker that he could be using for someone else. So, naturally, now I have to check the mail every single day in order to redeem myself. And earlier this week, in our mailbox, were the lash perming supplies. I actually felt relieved that I had taken a package from the locker and was able to free it up to make the postman happy.
I left the box on Leslie's treatment bed. And you better believe every single staff member had her eyelashes “permed” within 24 hours…well, except Iris because if we curled her lashes anymore they’d hit her eyebrows. The evening I had mine done I went running in the rain. I can’t pass up a run in the rain, especially on a cooler summer evening. As I ran, continually wiping rain from my face I thought, Oh crap! Should I be getting my lashes wet? All I could hear was Elle Woods: Isn't the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you're forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the immonium thygocolate?!
Luckily the rain did not interfere with my lashes keeping their curl, unlike poor Chutney Windham in Legally Blonde.
So, this lash curling treatment is not actually called a perm, it’s called a lash lift. Here’s how it works: Adhesive is applied to eyelid to hold a silicone rod in place. There are several sizes of silicone rods that will fit all lash sizes. For example, someone with shorter lashes will use a smaller rod and those with longer lashes will use a larger rod. The lashes are then curled onto the rod and held in place by more adhesive. A perming solution is applied and sits for about 10 minutes. After the neutralizer is applied, the adhesive and rods are removed, revealing perfectly curled lashes that last 6-8 weeks.
It’s really pretty cool: my lashes look longer when I don’t have makeup on and they look REALLY long with mascara on. Last night my sister-in-law sat across the table from me and asked, “Why do your lashes look so long?”
Me: I got my lashes permed!
Her: They’re not extensions?
Nope!
Those are your lashes?
Yep.
What did you do?!
It’s a lash lift!