Perhaps you are someone who grooms your eyelashes and eyebrows every day. You enhance and tweeze them to your liking. Or, perhaps, you don’t think much about your eyelashes and eyebrows. You can apply mascara occasionally, but you prefer a more natural look.
Either way, you can develop habits that make your eyelashes and eyebrows thinner over time. See, eyelashes and eyebrows contain hairs that have growth cycles. Science says that the growth sequence consists of three stages: growth, migration, and relaxation.
Unfortunately, certain behaviors can disrupt these stages, causing more eyelashes and eyebrow hair to fall out. Let’s look at six ways you may be unwittingly contributing to this loss.
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The Science Behind Hair Growth Patterns
Eyebrows and eyelashes are prominent features of your face, and when they thin out, it can be a concern for many people. The edges of your brows aren’t as full as they used to be. Plus, you don’t seem to have as many eyelashes as you did a few months ago.
A variety of medical conditions can affect hair growth patterns, including conditions such as: alopecia areata, polycystic ovary syndrome, various medications, and hormonal conditions—including pregnancy and menopause. Until 50% of women who are 50 and older experience thinning hair, usually noticeable on the scalp but also affecting the eyelashes and eyebrows.
However, all body hair goes through growth patterns. These cycles explain why the strands always seem to be there or appear thinner than before. The anagen phase is when the hair follicles grow, while the catagen phase is when they migrate. At this stage, your hair is not growing but preparing for the next step. The last stage is telogen, when the fibers fall out and they are replaced by new ones.
Different hairs go through these growth stages at different speeds. Eyelashes take between five and 12 months to complete the growth cycle. Your eyebrows also go through a shorter cycle than the hairs on your head. Your eyebrows are spending four weeks in the anagen phase and remain in the telogen stage for up to three months. About 90% of your eyebrow hairs are resting while only 10% are growing. This makes it harder to regrow them after a loss.
What Bad Habits Are Damaging Your Lashes?
No one wants to lose their eyelashes. However, some of the things we do to make our eyelashes more attractive can cause them to die. While there’s nothing wrong with using cosmetic enhancements, you want to be careful about certain practices and products.
Take mascara, for example. Now, you may be wondering, why is mascara bad for my eyelashes? Don’t they look thicker and longer? Yes, a good mascara can do this. But using waterproof mascara every day can cause confusion.
If you’ve ever tried to remove waterproof mascara, you know it’s not easy. You need to use harsher products and scrub vigorously. Doing so can weaken your lashes, making more hair falls out before they should. . Constantly wearing waterproof mascara can also make your lashes more brittle, which can lead to breakage and loss.
Sleeping with your eye makeup on can also be rough on your lashes. When you sleep with cosmetics on your skin and eyelashes, it can cause irritation. As a result, you may rub your eyes more. Repetitive movements can dislodge eyelashes from the follicles before they can be shed naturally. In addition, borrowing someone else’s makeup can irritate your skin and spread infections like pink eye.
Getting eyelash extensions is another habit you may want to reconsider, as it can affect your natural eyelash growth. Eyelash extensions are a popular beauty trend, but if they’re too heavy or applied incorrectly, or if you’re allergic to or irritated by the glue, they can cause your lashes to fall out prematurely. They can also lead to itching and irritation of the eyelid, and additional rubbing can cause eyelash loss.
What Bad Habits Are Ruining Your Eyebrows?
Grooming your eyebrows can be tricky. One day, the thick and thick look is in. Next, it is more on trend to sport a thin and contoured look. It’s no wonder people fall into terrible habits that are hard to break.
Overusing your tweezers is one of them. If you have naturally thick hair, you may also have thick eyebrows. Confessing to them may be at the top of your list. But it’s not a good idea to pull out the tweezers every chance you get.
Every time you pull a hair, the follicle is irritated. Repeated damage to the follicle can cause hair growth to stop. If you over-pluck, you may notice areas of your eyebrows that don’t grow back. Damaged hair follicles may not produce new hairs for up to four years—and sometimes the hair never grows back.
Stress can be another factor that contributes to hair loss. So stressful interfere with hair growth spinning when you lack sleep, eat poorly, or avoid response to conditions such as anxiety. Your hair follicles go into the resting phase for a longer period of time, preventing new growth from occurring.
Some individuals who struggle with anxiety may develop a habit of pulling at their eyebrows and eyelashes. This condition is called trichotillomania, sometimes called trich. It is most common in adolescents and young adults, but the causes are not fully understood.
Other harmful habits include visiting the salon too often to get your eyebrows waxed or threaded. Like overplucking, these procedures can heat the hair follicles. An occasional wax is okay, but too much can prevent eyebrow hairs from coming back.
What Can You Do To Strengthen Eyebrows and Lashes?
The best thing you can do for your eyebrows and eyelashes is to leave them alone. Yes, this means going makeup-free and hiding tweezers. However, avoiding repairs altogether is impractical.
What you can do is practice good hygiene habits, such as consistently avoiding harsh cosmetics and removing makeup before bed. You can too use growth serums with bimatoprost periodically if your hairs are too thin. Latisse is FDA approved, and the serum has been proven to improve eyelash growth. While it is not yet approved for eyebrows, some studies show Bimatoprost may also be effective for eyebrows.
If you are under stress or think you have anxiety, do not mind. Talk to a health care professional to get help. Often, mental health conditions cause treatable physical symptoms.
Growing Healthy Hair
Hair loss can be embarrassing, lowering your self-esteem. But in many cases, the thinning of eyelashes and eyebrows is reversible. If changing your habits isn’t working, it might be time to schedule a consultation with a medical professional. They will test you for conditions that cause hair loss. With treatment, you can restore your hair and confidence.
