A couple posts back I vaguely mentioned my experience with lash extensions that stemmed from a bad case of “wedding brain.” Wedding Brain = all brain power solely devoted to your wedding planning/day/projects. Side effects include every third word out of your mouth being “wedding,” feeling totally spaced out, drowning out everyone who speaks to you unless it’s about your wedding, forgetting to pee, breaking out into an erratic cleaning spree where you decide to remove all magnets, papers and photos stuck to your fridge because they’re “stressing you out.” (ahem … I may have had this.) So sometimes decisions were not made, how do I say this, wisely…?
With that being said, I made the decision to jump on the lash extension band wagon about a week before my wedding, and booked my appointment for Wednesday … our wedding being the coming Saturday. Guh. Again … wedding brain. I booked it with a close friend who’s trained with lash extensions and who I trust completely.
The process was LONG. Three hours. Mind you three hours laying down with your eyes closed, catching up with an old friend in the privacy of her home is not the worst thing; but because I had so much to do and so many things running through my head at the time, it felt extra long. Note I also have had pretty full lashes, and because they were for my wedding she was focused on making them extra, extra full. So I’ve heard normally a lash application is around two hours.
The concept of lash extensions for somebody who lacks lashes, or isn’t happy with their own is great. It’s such a time saver because no mascara is needed. I found I looked better with virtually no eye makeup on, just having the lashes. They’re so very feminine looking if they’re done right, but can also look drag queen-ish (which unfortunately I felt mine were the latter). For weddings, I think they are great, especially for photos – definitely a better option than adhesive lashes (which I despise), but my advice is to do a trial run first, and go for lashes that are more natural and make your guests focus on your big, beautiful eyes (and dress!), instead of just your lashes.
One thing I would recommend and I actually just made an appointment for right before we leave for our honeymoon (t-minus nine days!), is a lash lift. Basically a perm for your lashes, a lift lasts 6-8 weeks and is great for those like moi who have lashes that are stick straight. A lift only takes an hour to do, and for those 6-8 weeks your eyes look more open with beautifully curled lashes, and you can still use mascara plus your regular makeup removers and products.
So, am I for or against lash extensions? Well, I definitely won’t be getting them again. I’ll admit that the following Monday evening I ended up removing the extensions myself (I used a mixture of coconut and olive oil). This was obviously not a smart thing to do (can I still blame “wedding brain?”), since I lost a lot of my own lashes in the process, but I just couldn’t stand how unnatural they looked. Also note that while I had the extensions, after showering I always noticed some extensions would come out, along with my regular lashes 😦 They also bothered me at night time because I ALWAYS sleep on my stomach, but with the extensions I had to sleep on my back to make sure I didn’t bend them.
When my wedding photos come in I’ll be sure to post some so you can get a better idea of how the lashes looked. I spoke with numerous people beforehand and they assured me that in photos they’ll look great. But, unfortunately, in person, I found them high maintenance, annoying, too unnatural looking and just not “me”, not to mention damaging to my own lashes. It’s taken nearly two months and they’re just starting to look like they did pre-wedding brain.
This wasn’t meant to bash extensions in general – I’ve seen some great ones – this was just my personal experience and thoughts. I would love if you would leave me your opinions and/or experiences in the comments below!
Thanks for reading!
-L
robeandrose.wordpress.com 
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