How I fought the lashes and won

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I dream of being a Hollywood starlet. I actually wanted to be an Oscar award-winning actress. But truth be told, when I think of that dream, I think how smashing my hair, my dress, and my makeup would be up on that stage.

I don’t disagree with that dream. I think I would look smashing. Have you ever seen those before and after pictures of actresses? Have you ever bought the stars without makeup issues of the Enquirer? No? I guess that’s just me.

What I’ve learned, though, is that pretty much anyone can look beautiful with the right hair, makeup, and lighting.

I got to experience a taste of this last Thursday night thanks to Moms Nite Out.

There was food and drink and massage and primping by a salon called, appropriately enough, Primp.

I came pretty glammed up for the evening. I felt pretty good.

But… Primp was offering complimentary salon services: hair, nails, eyes. Never one to turn away free stuff, I signed up for one of each service. I had my hair curled and it was lovely. Twisty curls that spiced up my look just a bit.

And then came time for my eyes. I didn’t need eyebrow waxing so I thought eyelash enhancers sounded fun. I had no idea what they were. I just thought, hey, my eyelashes need all the enhancing they can get.

Little did I know that when you get your eyelashes enhanced, they actually glue fake eyelash pieces to your existing eyelashes. I looked great. I looked totally glam. I was ready for my close-up. I was ready to accept my award.

For just one night, I felt like a superstar. I’ve always been a bit of a simple girl. I enjoy looking nice but not really going to too much effort. This night, I didn’t need to put forth much effort at all and came out looking like the A list. Okay, maybe the B+ list.

I soon realized that what looks good at night when you’re out on the the town doesn’t always look good in the morning.

I tried to remove the lash extenders. I was told they would come off in a few days to a week. At the time, I thought that sounded great. By the next evening, I was done. I wanted to get back to the simple girl.

I googled and tweeted “removing glued lashes.” I tried eye makeup remover, olive oil, warm water, and some tugging.

Nada.

These lashes were literally glued to me. And no simple glue. I’m pretty sure it was big globs of black superglue. So I decided I needed to wait it out. The problem is these blobs of glue actually poked my skin and made my eyes hurt when I slept.

Every day, I tried something new. Every day, I pleaded for help on Twitter. And on Monday night, I reached my breaking point. I had a client meeting on Tuesday morning and I didn’t want to show up looking like a someone who had been out partying all night with half their eyelashes falling off.

With determination, I tried baby oil. I tried a warm washcloth. And I rubbed. And rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. And eventually those eyelashes came off and left me with very sore eyelids.

I hoped to wake up in the morning feeling better and I vowed to never be glam again. I woke up and showered and felt like myself again. Ordinary me.

After relishing in my naturalness and thanking God that I didn’t also pull off my real eyelashes in the process, I decided that I might need just a little bit of help to prepare for my client meeting.

So I finally decided that my favorite me is the semi-ordinary me. Let what I have show through but get a little help where needed. And no more lashes.