I repaired my damaged lashes in one treatment

If you're like me, and your natural lashes are poker straight and incredibly fine, you might be addicted to having your lashes lifted and your eyebrows laminated. The time saving procedures achieve what even several coats of mascara and pots of eyebrow pomade can't quite replicate.

But I, like many, have found that my eyelashes have fallen out after repeated treatments - and it could be down to my time spent in the lash technician’s chair. In the past, I've noticed how my ultra-fine lashes fall out in the weeks following a curling or tinting treatment, leaving awkward-looking gaps that false eyelashes can't convincingly fill.

Beauty technician Maya Milani has over 10 years experience of helping people create their best lashes and brows, and is on a mission to educate us about the health of our eye and face frames.

Here, the Nouva Beauty founder explains why semi-permanent beauty treatments may be damaging your lashes and brows - and how you can avoid it.

Proof is in the product

Many lash technicians use a professional product called Perm in the curling and laminating process and it could be damaging your delicate brow hairs and lashes. "Perm is a harsh, strong chemical that even damages the hair on your head," Maya explains. If it can damage strands of strong hair, imagine what it’s doing to the finer hairs on our face.

Maye explains: "The harsh chemicals leave lashes and brows fried. Treatment sees the hair burnt, which is what gives the lift effect. However, a few weeks post treatment, you will probably find the brow and lashes change texture, become curly and weak."

The damage

You can tell your lashes and brows are damaged if your hair is easily breaking, with lashes growing in different directions. The texture will be different and it may curl due to the damage done by the Perm product.

"Many people don’t understand when they see their lashes and brows post-treatment that there is something wrong," says Maya. "They think that the curl and texture is due to post treatment aftercare. If a salon uses Perm free products this shouldn’t be the case."

Look out for the right products

Instead of Perm, Maya opts for biotin and keratin-based products. "I have never had a client have a disastrous experience," she says.

"Clients come back for their treatments and their brow and lashes are completely back to normal, they are even stronger and fuller due to the quality of the product.”

She also revealed that she has used these products to help repair damaged lashes that clients have had from using perm products elsewhere.

Caring for your hair

If you find your lashes and eyebrows are suffering, you can nourish them back to full strength - castor oil is your best friend. According to Maya, It can take between four weeks and three months to repair the damage.

My experience with Nouva Beauty

I felt nervous ahead of my lamination and curling appointment, with previous images of my lashes falling out and my eyebrows looking permanently surprised haunting me. Even before attending, I was concerned that my already fine eyelashes might struggle with the strength of the treatment.

Immediately, Maya put me at ease, talking me through the products she would use and her assessment as to what she felt would look good. She felt my eyebrows wouldn't need to be tinted darker, only shaping before lamination, while my eyelashes could go a few shades darker before curling.

Even hearing that she didn't feel my eyebrows needed to be any darker was a relief, as I agreed; it was good to be on the same page. Deftly, she shaped my eyebrows with an expert intuition that left me looking younger and less tired than I'd looked in a long time.

I'd never even considered before that my eyebrows could look as she'd made them. But perhaps what I was most impressed by was how they grew out; over the weeks that followed, they held that shape well and the growback was barely noticeable. More vitally, I didn't notice my eyelashes falling out at all.

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Furthermore, having had Maya's expertise, I left her salon with a guideline of how best to groom my eyebrows and fill them in when doing my own makeup going forward.

For more information on Nouva Beauty, click here.