Eyelashes have been a symbol of beauty and grace for a long, long time. And we mean a looong time. The obsession with long eyelashes stems from the idea that lashes get shorter with age. And once upon a time, in Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder made lashes even more desirable with this weird theory.
The theory that eyelashes “fell out from excessive sex.” Not even kidding. 😳
1899
There were accounts of women having lashes implanted in their eyelids by needles. This way of implanting eyelashes was way more popular than you might think, even in capital cities like Paris.
Yikes.
1916
Falsies started becoming en vogue. Director D.W. Griffith was filming a movie called Intolerance with actress Sheena Owen, and felt that the costume needed more “oomph.” He ordered the wigmaker to make lashes from human hair and glue them to her eyelids using gum.
As can be expected, that didn’t end well. One morning, Sheena Owen showed up to work one morning with her eyes swollen nearly shut. Oof!
Obviously people found ways to improve the technology after that, but man. That must have been bad.
1940s to 1950s
Falsies became incredibly popular with starlets. Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe wore them in photoshoots to make their eyes look larger.
1990s
After a drop in popularity in the 70s and 80s (blush and dark lipstick were the style then), the 90s brought fake lashes back with a vengeance. They were an easy way to get that nostalgic, bombshell look that stars like Anna Nicole Smith and Pamela Anderson were all about.
2000s
Fake eyelashes became mainstream and extremely fancy. Madonna wore a pair of mink and diamond lashes worth $10,000 to promote her Re-Invention Tour. And J-Lo wore red fox fur falsies to the 2001 Academy Awards.
You can also get a number of lash-lengthening procedures, like eyelash extensions and eyelash lifts. But the glue from extensions and falsies, and the process technicians use to lift lashes, can all be very damaging to your lashes in the long-term. They could even make your lashes very sparse and harm the follicle, preventing future growth!
The good news is, you don’t have to risk your natural lashes or do anything crazy to make them grow longer, thicker, and lusher. Nowadays, you can use the ForLash serum for that!