Lashes falling out? Debunking the myths of lash shedding season

All the hair on our bodies sheds and re-grows. Each part of the body sheds hair in its own cycle. You’ve probably noticed this if you wax regularly. (Fun fact: underarm hair grows about 50 percent faster than the hair on your legs!)

You might be wondering, what about eyelashes? How many eyelashes do my clients (naturally) lose every day and how long does it take to grow them back?

If you often receive urgent messages from your clients claiming “all my lashes fell out”, lash growth and the shedding cycle are things you should consider starting to investigate.

Clients often say, “My lashes never fell out this much before I got lash extensions!”

Well, that’s because the natural lashes’ growth and fallout happen in a cycle. We are never left hairless, and we never truly notice that we are, in fact, losing hair all the time. It's just that when you have long, fluffy (and expensive) lash extensions on those natural lashes, it’s way more noticeable when a couple of them fall out!

The truth about seasonal lash shedding

It’s the talk of the town that during certain times of the year your clients’ lashes might go through an increase in shedding, especially in the late fall months. This common phenomenon is known as seasonal shedding. Why does this happen and why during this time of year?

The exact cause of seasonal shedding is unclear, but some studies confirm that seasonal lash shedding occurs most often during the fall months, such as September and October.

Why in the fall? Research shows that certain things that happen during the summer months likely play a role in why and how we shed more hair and lashes in the fall.

• During summer, intense heat may trigger more lash hairs to go into the resting phase (the telogen stage), suppressing further growth and stopping the lifecycle. This means that all the “resting” lashes during summer are ready to fall out over the next month or two in autumn.

• In the summer months, when our follicle in the lash line collects more sweat, sebum, and makeup debris than other seasons, there is a higher chance that the dirt and sweat block the pores and suffocate the natural lashes. This blockage can suppress the growth of lashes in the growth phase (anagen phase), accelerating the lifecycle of the lash and resulting in severe lash fallout in autumn.