But first, apologies/excuses: It’s been so long since I posted, because I’ve been studying French, HARD, doing tons of mountain biking to prepare for the big trip, AND switched web hosts, which was a LONG drawn out process because I left it up to my husband (no comment…..love you honey!).

So, item #4! A new local eyelash studio was running a great special for eyelash extensions ($79), and being the impulsive person that I am, I immediately booked an appointment online for the first open evening that I had….no questions asked.

I didn’t call and ask questions, I didn’t do any research, nothing…just thought, wow-that’s cool, gotta try it!  (and I wasn’t even thinking about it being one of my *try 50 new things before I’m 50* checklist!!!)

So I went to Amazing Lash Studio on a Friday, right after work.  Unprepared. I didn’t even know if I was supposed to take my make-up off until I walked into the room and asked!

I was. I was sent back to the bathroom to wash my face.

OK, so here’s a list of the other things I wasn’t prepared for:

1. For a new set of eyelashes, you have to sit with your eye taped shut for 45 minutes (that’s just for ONE eye), which is super unnerving. So the whole process takes close to 2 hours…of just lying there….STILL….with one of your eyes taped shut.
2. You can’t get them wet for ~48-72 hours!!!!!! This means you can’t wash your eyes, your hair, OR (GASP!!) work out enough to generate a sweat!  Apparently water/sweat/moisture causes the glue to reactivate, which could mean horrible clumping of the eyelashes.
   1. Um, okay, that was a BIG problem for me, as I was right in the middle of training for the big mountain biking trip, and had all intentions of mountain biking the next day…PERIOD. Nothing was going to change my plan. So, I carried a washcloth with me while I rode, and dabbed my forehead and all around the eye area, about every 20 minutes or so, to attempt to keep my brand new lashes from getting wet…I guess that worked, because I had no major clumping! SHEW!!! A couple of lashes were a little wonky and wouldn’t stay straight though!  See the pic below.
3. To maintain the eyelashes, you have to get fill-ins every …2-3 weeks? The beautician told me 3 weeks, but when I went to the counter to “check-out” and pay, she asked if I wanted to schedule an appointment for 2 weeks out, AND if I wanted to get a monthly membership for $50 a month (which would cover monthly fill-ins).  They try HARD to sell this membership….the salesgirl understood that i was NOT getting one, but I could see her manager (or the owner?) give her serious major stink eye looks for not being more pushy/persistent.
4. The lashes feel so foreign…..like you have big caterpillars on your eyes….that, I actually did kind of expect.

I did, however get LOTS of complements on my new lashes!!!!!!!!!!!!!  🙂  I didn’t get an awesome picture to illustrate, that’s for sure, but here they are:

Unfortunately, my training schedule would not allow me to take 72 hours off of sweating every ~3 weeks, never even mind the extra expense, so the idea of keeping the eyelashes seemed like it’d be WAY to high maintenance for my current lifestyle.  It was worth a try though! And fun!  OH….and I paid to have them removed before any fill-ins were needed.  Removal took roughly about 30 minutes.