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Ancient Rome
To understand why humans even created fake eyelashes, we must first break down why long lashes were seen as a desirable feature in the first place.
At its core, this obsession with longer lashes stems from the idea that lashes get shorter with age. In ancient Rome (about 79 A.D), author Pliny the Elder helped make long lashes even more desirable when he implied they were linked to being chaste.
"Eyelashes fell out from excessive sex, and so it was essential for women to keep their eyelashes long to prove their chastity," Pliny incorrectly claimed. As a result, women strived to have the longest lashes possible.
19th Century
They did what?
In the 1800s, almost two thousand years after Pliny made that assertion, lashes came into favor again — and this time, sh-t got real. In 1899, for instance, there were accounts of women having lashes sewen into their eyelids via needles. And yes, it was a popular procedure, even in capitals like Paris.
Around this time, the more faint of heart attempted to glue human hair to their eyelids instead of threading it, but the method wasn't too successful, and the hair often fell off.
If only they'd known that in 20 years or so, they'd get some of the lash innovation they needed.
1910s Hollywood
There's a bit of a disagreement over who created the kind of false eyelashes we know and love today.
In 1911, a Canadian woman named Anna Taylor first patented artificial lashes, using a crescent of fabric implanted with itty bitty hairs.
In 1915, Karl Nessler, a hairdresser known for his permanent waves, opened a hair salon in New York and sold lash services, promoting false eyelashes at his salon as, according to the New York Times, "a guard against the glare of electric lights." He also hired chorus girls to sell them and bat their lashes at customers.
But it wasn't until 1916 that falsies started to become truly popular. A picky Hollywood director. D. W. Griffith, was filming the movie, Intolerance with actress Seena Owen when he took one look at her in Babylonian attire and thought, "Something is not right."
Reportedly, Griffith wanted Owen's eyelashes to be "supernatural" and practically "brushing her cheeks." Hence, he ordered the film's wigmaker to glue lashes made of human hairs onto Owen's eyelids using spirit gum. But, of course, this ended in disaster, with Intolerance costar Lillian Gish writing in her memoir: "One morning she arrived at the studio with her eyes swollen nearly shut. Fortunately, Mr. Griffith had already shot the important scenes."
In other words, the technology wasn't exactly great. Click here to watch Seena Owen in the film.
The 1920s and 1930s
"When a fair young thing looks at you mistily through her long, curling lashes, do not fall for it until you investigate," a columnist wrote in 1921, according to the Times. "The long, curling eyelashes may not be hers, except by right of purchase."
You'd think that false eyelashes were some Venus flytrap or torture device. But, of course, many people were still skeptical of false eyelashes in the 1920s, but it was a different story among the fashionistas.
Through the 1930s, Vogue gave them their stamp of approval with ads featuring more artful fake lashes, some laden with gold and platinum beads, Racked reported.
The 1940s and 1950s
Quite naturally, Hollywood starlets in the 1940s and '50s loved a good fake eyelash, with women like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth wearing them in photoshoots to make their eyes look more extensive and more, well, eye-catching.
What made them a generally better product in the 1950s was the introduction of plastic materials fit for fake eyelashes. No longer were lashes made of human hair or fabric, but durable thin plastic — which is how some are still manufactured today.
Click here to watch a fascinating 1949 factory video showing how they made the strip lashes.
The 1950s and 1960s
While the 1940s and '50s were all about glamour, the 1960s makeup aesthetic was more adventurous, innovative, and young.
Of course, one person at the center of this movement was the model Twiggy, whose signature look included large lashes that accentuated her already prominent eyes. Though the most iconic images of Twiggy showed her with lashes painted directly onto her face, she wore plenty of fake eyelashes, too.
Other models at the time followed Twiggy's lead, like Jean Shrimpton and Penelope Tree, who frequently appeared in the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, showing women across the globe just how extreme their beauty looks could be.
The 1970s-1980s
There's no real explanation for this — other than that fads come and go — but the 1970s and '80s weren't significant decades for false eyelashes. The makeup of the 1970s was much more muted and natural, and in the 1980s, things like blush and dark lipstick were more popular than massive lashes.
Some women, like Cher, did continue to wear them, as she would.
Mascara was more popular at that time. Click here to watch 1980-1984 Mabelline commercials.
The 1990s
Starting in the 1990s, fake eyelashes roared back into popularity. For women like Anna Nicole Smith, Pamela Anderson, and model Cindy Crawford, eyelashes were an easy way to achieve a sort of retro/bombshell 1950s glamour with, quite literally, the blink of an eye.
The Early 2000s
The method of application we use today started in South Korea and then spread throughout the globe.
In the 2000s, fake eyelashes got a very fancy — and costly — makeover. Jennifer Lopez wore fake eyelashes made of red fox fur to the 2001 Academy Awards; in 2004, Madonna started wearing a $10,000 pair of real mink and diamond lashes to promote her Re-Invention tour.
You'll learn more about the unfortunate real mink lash industry in the product section of this training.
The 2010s
Real mink fur began going out of style due to ethical concerns being raised about the treatment of the animals that the fur was coming from, and the desired look changed. Clients wanted curly black lashes, and real mink lashes cannot hold a curl and are not black.
Today, synthetic mink made of PBT (the same material as toothbrush bristles) is the most commonly used lash extension material.
Additionally, volume and mega volume lash extensions gained popularity around 2015. This expanded the possibilities of looks.
Erika Baum
Founder of BrandedLASH and licensed aesthetician and lash trainer
Contact me at erika@brandedlash.com or text me at (720) 729-3555 anytime!
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