Integridate Dating Topics

So thick. So luxurious. Just beautiful. I was excited to get eyelash extensions. This was back in December 2006. Call me stubborn, but I still believe these would have been worth every penny if they actually looked like the salon advertisement (www.xtremelashes.com)

So there wasn’t a special reason. I wasn’t going to the prom or getting married. I just always hated my lashes…well, not hated….I disliked my lashes and I’m so tired of buying new mascara (I know…the drama, right?). I had thought about the lashes for a long time (months, maybe even a full year). Justification did not come easy but I was trying. Heather Locklear talks about how she trained herself to sleep on her back so as to deter additional wrinkles via laying on her face 8-10 hours a night while asleep. I always felt stress when taking off my mascara, even before I had heard about “sleep lines”. All the rubbing….it was troublesome. I kept thinking about how I needed to make a change for the better. I needed to eliminate the rubbing all together. I made a list of the pros and cons. As far as I could tell the only con was the price tag. That was before the procedure. It was also before I paid the bill.

I thought about how much I spend on mascara each year. Lancôme Definiciles is $23 a tube. I probably buy a tube 5 times a year. That’s $115 plus tax every year forEVER. This doesn’t count the impulse purchase(s) I make several times annually on drug store mascara. Let’s bump that total to $145 plus tax. Ok, so either way, I wasn’t convinced. I needed to figure out how I could stand myself for purchasing faux lashes and actually get the lashes without too much internal discord. My husband said he’d give them to me as a Christmas gift and that was helpful….but still….not good enough. Finally, my sister made an excellent point. Getting eye lash extensions was cheaper than fake boobs. Why this little factoid helped, I’m not sure. I had daydreamed about getting lashes for months but took no action. When she mentioned the boob job, well….it all became crystal clear. I finally had the excuse I needed.

When I called to make my appointment, the salon woman gushed with excitement and instantly I felt like I had made the best decision….ever! It never occurred to me that the excitement might be the fact that the set costs $350 and required monthly, if not bi-weekly maintenance. That maintenance fee was never discussed, partially because the process was as uncomfortable as you might think. The idea of going back for more as well as paying for it wasn’t at the top of my list when I left the salon. The procedure included lots of stretching of the eyelids. You know how I feel about that. The faux lashes felt stiff and slightly sharp. The “technician” had the audacity to say some people fall asleep while getting them applied! The whole process took almost 3 hours and I did not fall asleep. I left in a haze thinking all the pain must have been worth it. I mean I wanted this all to work out. I wanted beautiful lashes.

See the problem with eyelash extensions is….well….if you already have skimpy lashes you’ll just end up with longer skimpy lashes. Spindly lashes if you will. It’s like if you had thinning hair and the solution was to glue individual hairs onto the few that you had….thus making your thin hair suddenly long. So obviously I skipped maintenance. The lashes fell out gradually over a few weeks. I had to pluck the last few because it looked like I had a spider’s leg hanging off my eye lid. So the eyelash thing is all done and over with, and my lashes are starting to grow back.