Eyelash Perm with Sovay @ Salon Sovay in Austin, Texas

Before Lash Perm

After Lash Perm

I love hair and I love eyes.  I personally prefer a pretty wave in hair...both in hair and lashes.  I suppose that's why a good portion of my cosmetology practice has focused on body waves and wavy eyelashes.  Here is a client who has had 2 previous eyelash perms here in Austin.  She had a good result one of the times but it lasted for approximately 2 weeks so the favorable results were temporary.  The second perm (performed by the same technician) also looked nice but the lashes "dropped" on one of the eyes the next day so that was a flop, too.
So when she came to me I was certain I would take aggressive measures with her lashes to ensure favorable aesthetic results and, hopefully, for at least a month to three months.  When I saw her lashes they were thick, coarse, and completely straight.  These "baseline" or "before" lashes have the best potential for an improved look after a lash perm so they are some of my favorite types of lashes to work with and style.  I used two types of glue on her.  The first glue is my clear colored glue which allows me to adjust the lashes on the perm rod a bit and does not freeze them in place like a stronger glue.  I followed this with my stronger glue applying a little bit to every lash anticipating that these coarse critters (I refer to stubborn lashes as "critters") would give me a hard time and pop off the lash rod while I was in the middle of applying my perm solution which is a big pain and forces me to stop the perm, take the perm solution off the lashes/rod, put some additional glue on, and then begin the process all over again with the perm and neutralizer.  This process will make most lash technicians give up on performing this service.  It can be very tedious.  Luckily, after more than five years of performing this service and overcoming all the frustrations (I think I have made every mistake) I'm still here trying to perfect this service.  I followed this protocol with her type of lashes:

1) I used two different types of glue on her.
2) I left the perm solution on for the maximum recommended amount of time (the entire 15 minutes).
3) I left her lash neutralizer solution on for 5 minutes.
4) I also used a lot of solution on her lashes as opposed to a light coating (which I reserve for the fine lashes).
5) I made sure I applied the perm solution at the new growth, as well...actually right where it touches the skin...this allows for an exaggerated "pop up" in the lash
6)Usually I don't take the lash perm solution all the way to the tip of the lashes because it causes the lash to flip back a bit and you loose some visual length but in her case (because she stressed how resistant to curl her lashes were, etc) I decided to take the solution all the way to those tips
7)Large perm rod as opposed to extra large (extra large rods tend to give a more conservative "C" curl as opposed to an exaggerated tighter curl).  I wanted an exaggerated curl with her.

In conclusion, I think her lashes looked very pretty after the eyelash perm.  We did not do an eyelash tint per her request so these results are a lash perm only - no lash tint.  We just did the service today and I told her to let me know how they look in a week to a month due to her unsuccessful history.  If I hear back from her, I would be happy to report the duration of perm efficacy...I'm hoping it is 1 to 3 months which is the average but time will tell :)    ~Sovay Reeder@ Salon Sovay