In December 2016 I decided that I wanted to become a fully trained eyelash technician, not because I wanted to earn some extra cash but because, well… why not?
I spoke to my niece, Jordan and asked her if she was up for doing the course as it meant we could practice on each other, and she agreed. We enrolled for the one day course in April 2017. A few days after we had booked the course I became curious to how the lashes were applied. I watched a few Youtube videos and soon learnt that two steady hands were required and having a weakness in my right hand, well, now it was a challenge that I couldn’t resist!
I was nervous on the morning of the course, in case I physically couldn’t do it and was wasting my money. Normally when I try new things, it’s at my pace and on my own, so I have no one to judge me. The course started at 10am and when Jordan and I arrived, we were joined by 20 other women, all eager to learn! A Scottish woman called Lisa was our trainer, she was very welcoming and made us all feel at ease. We were handed a booklet which contained all the information about the course and what we would learn. We spent about an hour going through each page of the booklet with Lisa and she was very thorough when explaining, answering all the questions everyone had. Once we knew the important bits and the basics, that’s when the fun started! We were each given an eyelash extension kit that contained all the equipment needed and a doll’s head. We gathered around Lisa’s doll and watched how she applied each lash. Once we were shown the technique, we then went to our dolls to practice.
I found applying the lashes on the doll very easy, the strip lash I was using to apply the individual lash to, was spacious between each strand and I didn’t need my right hand to separate the strip lashes. I practised separating the lashes with my right hand anyway and it was very slow. It took me 3 hours to apply the lashes onto the doll, but it was the same for everyone in the group. Here’s some pictures below:
Once we had finished on the dolls, Lisa asked for six volunteers to allow us all to apply 4 lashes to a real person. As soon as my turn came up, I was nervous. I sat down with my equipment, my right hand started shaking and I was worried I was going to poke the girl in the eye with my tweezers. I called Lisa over before I started as I was doubting myself and told her I wasn’t ready. She quickly assured me that the girl’s eyes were closed and I was not going to hurt her. I felt a bit stupid for panicking but took in a deep breath and starting separating the girl’s lashes with the tweezers, using my right hand. OK, I know said when I was using the doll it was easy but my god it’s not! Natural lashes come in different lengths, angles and layers! The lashes on the doll were one thin strip, human lashes are layered and it takes some time to find a healthy lash that is not at the end of it’s life cycle. It took me 15 minutes to find a lash, which then I had to hold my right hand steady enough so that the other lashes around it wouldn’t fall in between my tweezers. It was hard but I did it! I mastered one more lash after the first one. I was so nervous I couldn’t do the other two lashes.
When everyone had applied 4 lashes, Lisa then showed us how to remove the lashes individually on one of the girls that had volunteered. After we watched this, we were then given our certificates. Lisa told us to practice as much as we could before charging anyone for the lashes.
After the course had finished I went back to Jordan’s to do her eyelashes. I have to say it was much easier and more relaxing doing the eyelashes for someone you know. It took me 2 hours to put a few on Jordan’s lashes but I found that I can do it. Eventually with more practice it should take me no more than 2 hours to do a full set and that my dear friends is a new challenge on it’s own! Bring it on! 🙂
Here’s a picture of lashes I applied on Jordan:
RATINGS
- Difficulty scale – somewhat hard
- Enjoyment – 😀
- Would I do it again? – YES!
**UPDATE**
Since completing the course in April, I’ve done a further two sets of lashes on two different people.
Fad I Had 