Bangs and lashes

Vest: JCrew Factory | Necklace: CS Gems (c/o) | Top: Express | Bottoms: American Eagle | Booties: Vince Camuto

If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know that I got bangs over the weekend. It wasn't even pre-meditated! I don't know what came over me! I had a hair appointment on Saturday, and she asked me if we were just doing our normal trim. Out of nowhere I said, "I think I want to bring back the long, sideswept bangs!" 

Now, I know I used the word "bangs," but in my head I was picturing them being cut right about lip level, so they're more like nose length when dry. However, they ended up being cut nose level when wet. I thought it looked great in the chair, but as soon as I got in my car, I started to get anxiety remembering how fussy and high maintenance bangs were.

But, once I got home, I played around with them a little bit more, and I've started to embrace them. I used to have them years ago, but it was always an uphill battle with them. They were cute for one week, but the rest of the 3 years or so that I had them was spent trying to get them to look as cute as they did that one week. That was before I used dry shampoo though - one of the reasons I hated bangs before was because they got so greasy from my naturally oily forehead. I felt like they were flat and lifeless when I had them before, but that was also before I owned the best teasing brush ever to fluff them at the roots. So, in short, I'm hoping that I am better equipped nowadays that I will love them consistently this time around!

And, now that you know I have bangs, it will be obvious that the outfit photos you see the rest of the week were taken pre-haircut. ;)

Left: Before 3rd fill | Right: After 3rd fill

Since we are talking about salon stuff, I figured I would go ahead and give you one last update on how my lash extensions are doing. You can read through my previous posts here and here. Just to give you a quick recap on the timeframe:

Original (full) set: December 23rd

1st fill: 4 weeks later

2nd fill: 2 weeks later (to remove remainder of original set and apply all uniform lashes)

3rd fill: 3 weeks later

My 4th fill will end up being 2 weeks later, only because I will be out of town over the 3rd week, and I would rather have 1 week old lashes at my brother's wedding vs. 3+ weeks old lashes. My guess is that I will end up sticking with a 3 week cycle for fills. I could probably push it to 3.5 or 4 weeks, but the longer I go means the longer my fill appointment takes and the more expensive the fill is. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I found out that she is using .07 lashes on me - they're synthetic silk. She called them minkies. My original set was .15 (so double the thickness!). I've been asked if I see these as they fall out, and the answer is yes! And it breaks my heart a little every time I see one fall out. I had no idea lashes had such a quick lifecycle! But they simply fall out as your natural lashes fall out. I managed to take a photo of my original lash extension in comparison with the current lash extensions. If you look really, really close, you can see my natural lash still attached at the base of the extensions.

Left: Lash extension from original set

Right: Current lash extensions (2 thinner lashes applied to 1 of my natural lashes)

I asked if extensions damage your real lashes. I was told that it really depends on the size of the lashes. She picked .07 for me based on the thickness of my real lashes. Anything thicker than that, she thought would be too heavy for my real lashes to support, and then yes, they would damage my lashes. She said if I would have continued with the .15 lashes, I may have seen damage.

Lashes have a pretty short lifecycle - about 4-6 weeks. So, the good news is, in the event of a bad lash job, your real lashes would grow back within this time if you were to simply leave them alone. I trust that my esthetician would tell me if she could not lash me due to damaged lashes and allow my lashes time to grow back in if needed. It's obviously important that you find someone you trust.

One last tip - she said to make sure you don't use your eyelash curler while you wear extensions. This could damage your real lashes for sure.

I could see how they could start to look straggly closer to fill time, and it's especially annoying that my eyes are on different growth cycles so I feel like one lash always looks fuller than the other. They do take some maintenance - I'm incredibly careful about touching them or even laying on them, and I brush them right out of the shower, and maybe once again throughout the day if needed. But overall, I'm still pretty obsessed with them and have no deal-breaker complaints!

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