As a lash artist, educating clients on retaining and caring for their lashes is a critical yet highly overlooked job responsibility. All of your styling efforts and time will certainly not go to waste with the right approach to your one-on-one conversation with your client about lash maintenance. Below are notable aftercare tips to teach your lash clientele:
- Be Wary of Water. Clients should try to avoid swimming, sweating, and sobbing during the first 24 hours after lash application. During this waiting game, encourage clients to sit back and relax to ensure that the bonds that the adhesive formed stay intact. It's the perfect excuse for self-care! Can someone say #treatyourself?
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Work, work, work on washing your lashes! In every client aftercare kit should be a lash shampoo (a mixture of distilled water and baby oil) for clients to use once daily to keep their lashes in pristine condition. Prompt your patrons to brush extensions with a reusable lash brush in a downward motion to keep lashes pretty and perky. Also, inform your customers that cleansing wipes are key in safe eye makeup removal for your bottom lashes and to ditch cotton pads (which can leave behind fiber residue).
- Switch Up Your Sleeping Position. Side sleepers, beware! A little known fact to lash extension novices is how integral their beauty sleep habits are to the overall longevity of their lashes. Encourage your clients to attempt to sleep straight on their backs (though restless sleepers may not heed your advice). For self-proclaimed side sleepers, suggest purchasing alash-friendly sleep mask.
- Look but don’t touch. Approaching refill time, when some extensions start looking inevitably wonky, remind clients to resist the urge to twist or even worse, pull lashes out (gasp). Natural oils will break down the bond of the adhesive. Lashes have their own life cycle and extracting extensions could potentially remove natural ones as well. Askew eyelashes can be ameliorated by gently working a spoolie brush in the desired direction.
- Treat yourself to a touch up. Lashes continually shed in their different growth phases so filling in any gaps along the lash line is essential in maintaining a voluminous lash look, particularly for volume lash extensions. For refills, prompt clients to stop in every two to three weeks for ultimate eyelash upkeep.