Many female friends are keen on the "three-piece suit" for the New Year: perm, nail art, and eyelash extensions. New Year's new look, welcome a good mood, full of ritual before the New Year. Thick, slender and curly beautiful eyelashes can make the eyes bigger, more beautiful and more beautiful, no wonder it is a "must-have beauty artifact" for beauty lovers to celebrate the New Year and festivals and important occasions.
The most common way to use false eyelashes is through sticking and extensions.
Gluing false eyelashes is to glue the false eyelashes near the base of your own eyelashes, usually closer to the eyelid margin. The duration is short, and it is usually loosened and removed after cleansing on the same day.
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Eyelash extensions are also known as "seeding/eyelash extensions" or "semi-permanent eyelash extensions". In fact, instead of actually implanting false eyelashes into the skin, the false eyelashes are forcibly glued to the real eyelashes one by one with glue. About 40 to 80 false eyelashes will be attached to each eye. After carefully adjusting the curvature of each false eyelash, the eyelashes can be naturally thickened, and the extension lasts for 2~6 weeks at a time. Don't look at the small false eyelashes, the volume is not large, the cost is not low, and the consumption of each implant is from hundreds to thousands.
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In recent years, there has been a wave of popularity of magnetic eyelashes. Magnetic eyelashes are claimed to be free of glue, and are magnetically fixed at the eyelid margin, which is similar to the first two in terms of beautifying the eyes.
Source: A shopping platform
So which one is better to use and which one is healthier? Today, let's talk about false eyelashes to help you become beautiful and healthy at the same time.
False eyelashes
It is an invisible killer of eye health
The main component of false eyelashes itself is synthetic fibers (such as polyester fibers), and the chemical composition of the adhesive glue currently used is more complex.
The eye is an extremely sensitive visual organ, and these chemicals are highly irritating and have a great impact on the health of the ocular surface with long-term use.
What's even more terrifying is that if you encounter unscrupulous merchants using low-quality false eyelashes and glue, formaldehyde, lead and benzoic acid may be added to them. Lead is a heavy metal, and the long-term cumulative effect can lead to heavy metal poisoning, and the harm to the body is well known.
Formaldehyde is a colorless and irritating chemical, and in the list of carcinogens published by the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2017, formaldehyde belongs to class 1 carcinogens. Benzoic acid has been used as a dye carrier and preservative in industry for a long time, and long-term contact is quite irritating to the skin and eyes.
In addition to these, let's take a look at what other eye problems can be caused by long-term use of false eyelashes?
1
Keratulitis, blepharitis, and dry eye
It usually manifests as tingling eyelids, red eyes, dry eyes, foreign body sensation, photophobia, and tearing. Within a few hours of false eyelash extension, the glue containing formaldehyde may disperse directly into the ocular surface or cause the glue to penetrate directly into the hair follicle or block the meibomian gland opening of the eyelid margin, causing folliculitis and abnormal lipid secretion to lubricate the eyeball.
A 2023 study of 32 people with eyelash extensions found that 84.44% of people reported eye discomfort 1 hour after eyelash extensions, with 59.38% of them experiencing the most common foreign body sensation.
With the extension of use time, the tear film break-up time of the population was significantly reduced, and the incidence of corneal staining was greatly increased.
Source: Author
From a professional point of view, the reduction of tear film break-up time is an important indicator for diagnosing dry eye syndrome, while ocular surface staining means that the corneal conjunctival epithelium on the surface of the eye is damaged and damaged.
2
Eye allergies
It usually manifests as redness, swelling, stinging, itching, and tearing in both eyes. These symptoms may not appear until hours or days after the use of false eyelashes, and the main cause of this is an allergic reaction to the skin or corneal conjunctiva caused by various chemical irritations.
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Of course, some people may mention that they don't always do allergy tests on the skin before using glue, and it should be reminded that the nerve endings in the eye are extremely rich, and their sensitivity is not the same as that of the skin. As ophthalmologists, we see patients who come to us almost every day for eye problems caused by various allergens, but not all of them have skin allergies at the same time.
3
Subconjunctival hemorrhage
It mainly presents as scattered patchy hemorrhagic spots in the bulbar conjunctiva (white of the eye). This usually occurs after a violent mechanical damage during eyelash extensions or false eyelash removal. Minor bleeding may be fine if absorbed slowly, but significant bleeding clots indicate mechanical damage to the eye with greater force and should be avoided as much as possible.
4
Damage to the original eyelashes
The location of the false eyelash extension is near the eyelid margin hair follicle, and long-term chemical stimulation causes damage to the hair follicle, affecting eyelash regrowth. Many people will find that the real eyelashes and the implanted false eyelashes will gradually fall out together, and the upper part of the eyes will be bare, and their eyelashes will not be able to grow back. Even if there is a growth, it may appear very sparse and there is even a risk of eyelashes growing and damaging the cornea.
Some time ago, there were news reports that girls grew white eyelashes after using false eyelashes for a long time, and these consequences outweighed the losses due to the damage to the hair follicles caused by harmful chemicals.
Are magnetic eyelashes healthy without glue?
In recent years, the magnetic false eyelashes that can be glued without glue have become popular, and their selling points are said to have the following advantages:
Source: A shopping platform
The main principle of magnetic false eyelashes is to apply a magnetic black eyeliner to the eyelid rim first, and then fix the false eyelashes at the eyelid margin through magnetic attraction.
The main components of magnetic eyeliner liquid are iron oxide black, propylene glycol, decamethylcyclopentasiloxane, silane, hydroxymethylimidazolidinylurea, etc. Although these industrial chemical raw materials have no clear carcinogenicity, because they are repeatedly applied to the eyelid margin, there is also a high probability that they will cause eye allergies or clog meibomian glands or hair follicles, causing eye infections or dry eye syndrome.
In addition, magnetic eyelashes have another unexpected "killer feature": it can seriously interfere with MRI examinations.
Einat et al. did a study and found that magnetic eyelashes can not only produce a large number of artifacts that affect the clarity and accuracy of MRI images, but also may have the risk of falling out and being adsorbed to the magnet during the scan, and may even burn the person being examined.
Therefore, these potential risks deserve to be paid attention to and avoided.
Use false eyelashes
Pay attention to these 6 points
Knowing that false eyelashes have so many harms, many people must ask: Is it that false eyelashes can't be used? Of course not, but we must pay attention to the following points:
1. Minimize the chance of using false eyelashes. If you occasionally grow false eyelashes, you must choose a formal beauty medical institution and choose experienced personnel to operate;
2. Choose false eyelashes and glue that are of good quality, and decisively abandon inferior products that contain highly toxic ingredients such as formaldehyde and lead. If the product does not even have an ingredient list, it is recommended not to use it;
3. Customers with a history of eye diseases or allergies should try to avoid using false eyelashes;
4. Remove makeup thoroughly, do not leave glue or eyeliner residue, and often use eye wipes to keep the root of the eyelashes clean;
5. Do not wear false eyelashes all day, and seek medical attention immediately if there is itching, redness and swelling in the eyes;
6. People who wear magnetic eyelashes must remember to remove false eyelashes before MRI examination.
The last thing I want to say is: no matter whether the eyelashes are long or short, more or less, your own is the best. Beauty can't come at the expense of health. Let's take care of our eyelashes, love our eyes, and have a happy Year of the Dragon!
Source: Popular Science China
Edit: Mirror
Review: Dou Jing