What You and Your Clients Can Do to Care for Eyelash Extensions in the Winter

Lash aftercare is important no matter the season. But, as the seasons change, your advice to your clients needs to reflect what they need to do to prolong their lash extension retention. As we are determined to educate you, you should strive to do the same for your clients by giving them the best aftercare tips so that when they return for their infill session, not only will they be happy with the longevity of their lashes, but you will have to spend less time performing an infill, meaning fuller lash sets or even additional appointment slots with other clients. Winter is a harsh season, so we’re here to discuss what your client can do to get the best out of their seasonal extensions.

Understanding Winter Changes

The arrival of winter introduces a unique set of difficulties for lash extensions, and understanding these potential issues is the initial stride toward effectively managing them. In the winter season, you might notice that the drop in temperature is causing a delay in the Lash Glue’s drying time, potentially leading to leaning lashes, closing fans, or extra stickies in your lash set. To counteract this, you may need to consider switching to a quicker-curing lash adhesive or making adjustments to the environmental conditions within your lash studio. 

Not only can winter weather disrupt the lash application process during treatments, but it can also affect how clients maintain their lashes afterward. To effectively monitor any changes in humidity during the winter, having a Digital Hygrometer is always advised. Read more about lashing in the winter in our detailed deep dive.

How Humidity Affects Retention

It's a common practice to use heating systems and even enjoy the warmth of a cosy fire during the colder months. However, it's worth noting that the decrease in temperature and the rise in dry air can result in dryer skin and hair, causing your clients' lashes to behave differently to normal. This extra dryness isn’t exactly a friend of your lash glue’s drying speed, as mentioned above.

While turning on the heating will certainly keep your clients cosy, indoor heating systems can actually deplete the moisture in the air even further, leaving lashes and glue in need of hydration. In addition to altering your room conditions with a humidifier, or switching to a more rapidly curing adhesive, remember that you can reapply Primer during your treatments if you feel your glue beginning to slow down, or reapplying Booster in the same way. If you’re doing either of these things though, ensure that any fresh glue bonds are out of the way so that you can avoid shock polymerisation. 

Lastly, slow drying glue leads to more fumes being released which can lead to chemical burns and discomfort for your clients, and it means that the glue bonds are more susceptible to becoming brittle when they meet the highly humid winter air outside the salon, so one thing you can do is to use Superbonder Sealant at the end of treatment to cure the glue, locking in moisture and adding elasticity to the glue bonds to tackle and brittleness.

Winter Effects On The Client’s Skin

Clients may be seeking more hydrating moisturisers as a result of the drier conditions of winter. Hydrating moisturisers reintroduce oils to the skin which are of course beneficial, but as we know, oily products are no friend to eyelash extensions if we want them to last. 

It’s a bit of a myth that oil breaks down glue bonds and leads to lash shedding – in actual fact, prolonged use of oils means that those oils can get in between the lash glue and the natural lash and cause them to slide off. A bigger issue though, is that if these oils aren’t removed completely prior to lash application, the lash glue simply won’t be able to form a strong bond with the natural lash so a good Pretreatment routine is so important in the winter. 

The ultimate foe is that oil can be difficult to remove, particularly from between the lashes, and  can create a clumpy and messy appearance of the lash set (in particular Volume lashes), and can also lead to conditions such as blepharitis. Due to this, it’s of the utmost importance that you go over aftercare advice with all clients thoroughly. 

Lastly, once your client comes back in for an infill, you will need to spend longer cleansing all those oils from their eyelashes, which really eats into your appointment time and means that they may not leave with the full and fluffy lashes that they dream of. Again, a consistent cleaning routine must be followed between treatments and, where possible, oil free moisturisers should be applied, without any contact to the lashes.

Makeup

As the holiday season sets in, more clients are prone to apply makeup for events such as Christmas office parties, business meetings or festive celebrations with family and friends. The holiday period can be a busy time juggling work and festivities, but this does not stop clients from looking their best and using makeup to accentuate their looks. In fact, clients may be more prone to use products such as hydrating foundation or eyeshadow primers to add a touch of moisture to their skin during this dry season. Using oil based makeup close to their eyes and extensions can be a recipe for disaster, especially if not cleaned correctly – makeup can build up in between the lashes making it difficult for you to remove at their infill appointments, and can also lead to infections of the hair follicles, which don’t really give that lovely Christmassy look. For more information on wearing makeup with lash extensions, make sure to check out this blog post.

Client Aftercare

You should take care to advise your clients on the information above so they can mediate any serious issues before they’ve reached the step of cleaning their eyelashes – whether you do this in person, put information on your website or social media stories is up to you, as long as the information is getting to them. 

In addition to giving them advice, having products on hand that you can sell to them is a good idea – our Clean Lashes DUO bundle is the perfect choice which you can retail in your salon as an aftercare package for your clients to use. The foaming Lash Shampoo used in conjunction with the Cleansing Brush will remove any deep set oils, makeup or debris from the client’s extensions when used daily. Packed with antibacterial tea tree extract, our specially formulated Lash Shampoo will allow your clients to prolong the longevity of their lash extensions. 

It’s worth making sure that your clients are aware that seasonal lash shedding could come into play during the winter – this is natural and can happen at any time of the year, but it’s quite common that our hair growth cycle speeds up in the winter months. For more information you can check out our blog post on this topic.

When leaving your lash studio, there is often little that clients can do to protect their lashes from the elements. This is another time that it’s best to use Superbonder, as then their lashes can get wet as soon as they leave the salon as you have sealed all the glue bonds instantly. Still, it is still a good idea to carry an umbrella in case of any rain or snowfall to keep the lashes clean and dry. 

In conclusion, with the efforts of you as a professional Lash Tech mediating the effects of winter in your lash salon and the advice you share with your clients, you can both work together to prolong the fullness and styling of their lash extensions by following these simple steps. Good salon practice and perfect aftercare will mean long lasting results with minimal issues when your client comes back for their infill session, just don’t forget to get them booked in for their infill at the end of their appointment!