Fashion Trend Linked To Serious Health Problems

Health Wellness

Do you know when false eyelashes were invented or who invented them?

In 1916, film director D.W. Griffith was filming one of his early epic films – Intolerance. His female lead was actress Seena Owen. Reportedly, Griffith wanted Owen to have eyelashes that graced her cheeks in order to make her eyes appear larger on the black and white film stage. Griffith had a wig maker weave human hair through a fine gauze and then had it gummed to Owen’s eyelids.

Since that time, many an actress and actor has been made up with false eyelashes for the silver screen. There have been many improvements on how false eyelashes were made and applied, but they remained expensive for a number of years making them available to the wealthy. At one time, false eyelashes were a symbol of wealth, worn by wealthy women.

By the 1960s, false lashes became more popular and affordable. Like many fashions of the 1960s, false eyelashes joined in the wild fashion trends of the time. A few decades later, false eyelashes seemed to fall out of favor.

However, they seem to be making a surge in fashion trends today. I’ve noticed a growing number of younger women (from high school to millennial age) are dawning on false eyelashes. Personally, I find them detracting and unattractive, but then that’s just my opinion.

Yet, with the growing fashion trend of wearing false eyelashes is a growing health concern, as reported:

Health authorities want to alert the community of an increase in lice on false eyelashes, especially eyelash extensions.

Eyelash lice are not the same as lice on one’s head. Eyelash lice are also different from eyelash mites – a small, microscopic mite that is very common, and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Eyelash lice are small and living organisms that feed on fat or sebum in the follicles.

“If they have too many, you can see them walking. The lice also may look like sand,” said Daysi Martínez of the Lice Clinic of America.

“With mites, hygiene has a lot to do with the issue,” said Judy Díaz and Tien Du of Lice Clinic of America.

Here’s what many people don’t realize – everyone has mites that live on their skin. They are tiny microscopic organisms that feed on our dead skin cells. When people wear false eyelashes, the mites can increase if proper hygiene is not observed.

In the case of eyelashes, the mites feed on a compound called sebum found in the hair follicles. Without proper hygiene, these mites can readily multiply onto the false eyelashes. As these mites, or lice, multiply, they can readily spread from person to person like any highly contagious disease.

Therefore, it is extremely important for anyone wearing false eyelashes to practice good hygiene in keeping their eyelashes and surrounding area as clean as possible.

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