Kim versus the Eyelashes!

I will now share with you the embarrassing and sad story of me & my eyelashes.

My best friend in sixth grade was named Kathy, and she lived down the street from me. For some unknown reason, she had a habit of picking her eyelashes, actually pulling them out. She got me started doing this and I’ve done it ever since. Yes, I KNOW it’s weird. Like I said at the beginning, it’s embarrassing and sad.

My eyelashes are blonde to begin with, so they can’t really be seen at all without mascara. Unfortunately, mascara makes my eyelashes itch, which makes me pull them out even more. I rarely wear mascara anymore, so it looks like I don’t even have eyelashes at all. I do have a few – they are sparse after all these years, but they do still grow back.

To make matters worse, I have had eye problems, severely dry eyes, since my gastric bypass surgery two years ago. As a result, I’ve had to have punctual plugs put in both eyes. These are tear duct plugs, which keep your natural tears and eye moisture from draining out of your eyes and instead keeps the water/tears in your eyes. This causes my eyes, especially my right eye, to water a lot. Therefore, my right eye makeup and eyeliner disappears by mid-day every day. My left eye isn’t as bad for some reason, so I end up with one “beautifully” made-up eye and one bare one. Yes, of course, I have tried waterproof eyeliner and all the gadgets to make your eye shadow last all day. There must be something in natural tears that serves as a makeup remover!

So I tried false eyelashes. That didn’t work so well either. I wore them once to church and while we were standing and singing during worship, Artie started laughing and jabbing me. One of my lashes had come unglued and was barely hanging on. It was flapping around like a bat’s wing and I didn’t even feel it. I hurriedly yanked them both off in church and kept singing.

Amazingly, I did try them again after that experience. They have come unglued and made my eyes itch. I glued my eye shut once and had to use water and eye makeup remover to pry my eye back open. I finally found a brand I liked at Target and some decent glue. I have not, however, mastered the art of reusing them after I take them off, so it’s like $4.50 every time I wear them. I tried sleeping in them to save money and the next morning they were mashed flat against my eyelids. Not an attractive look.

I even went and paid $200.00 once to have eyelash extensions put on. It took about three hours and they glued individual lashes to my existing lashes. It looked really good for about two days, until one by one I picked all them out too. What a waste of money!!

I know I never should have started plucking out my eyelashes as a pre-teen. It was a bad habit, but there were worse habits I could have developed. Now my pale, tired-looking eyes are paying the price. (sigh)