CEDAR HILLS — Ann Nixon said she wasn’t afraid to lie on a couch with Amelia Meneses wielding a long pair of tweezers above her eyes, gluing synthetic hairs to her original eyelashes.

She just wanted to look good at the end of the three-hour session.

“I don’t need it to look fake,” Nixon said. “I want it to look natural.”

When Nixon was a teenager she had a medical condition that caused hair loss, and she’s been self-conscious since about her skimpy eyelashes.

“When I heard about this, I was really excited,” she said. “I’m getting the sassy set, not the full set, so it won’t be a huge change.”

Meneses and her partner, Linda Bledsoe, assure her the new eyelashes won’t look phony. They’ll simply enhance her appearance by making her eyes look more open and more defined.

“We’ve had good experiences with the eyelash-challenged. We’ve worked with a lot of different people. One lady had her lashes singed off in a fire. We’ve had cancer survivors. Amelia and I are both redheads, so we have light eyelashes you can’t see. We’ve done each other’s,” Bledsoe said. “We love it. You don’t have to worry anymore about mascara. You just get up with these gorgeous lashes.”

Customers who come to an eyelash extension service pay about $200 for a full set of lashes — 80-120 individual hairs — that are painstakingly attached to real eyelashes.

Touch-ups are done about once a month for $45.

Outside of Utah, the price is much higher, Meneses said, between $300 and $600 for a full set of eyelashes.

“Ladies can go everything from a sassy set to really glamorous,” Bledsoe said, “from busy housewives with no time for daily maintenance to girls headed to the prom or a bride who doesn’t want to worry about crying on her wedding day.”

Meneses and Bledsoe have two studios — one in Cedar Hills at the Meneses’ home and another in Provo at 363 N. University Ave., Suite 108-A.

They opened in September and already have a loyal client base from high school-age girls to great-grandmothers.

They can do lashes in brown and black and order in other colors on request. They work with three different sizes and pride themselves on offering quality, safe work.

“We don’t do clusters, for instance, because they tend to pull out the natural lashes,” Bledsoe said.

They use a special, quality adhesive and a special dryer.

They’re adamant about training.

“We’re trained and certified. You don’t want to do this yourself or go to someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing,” Bledsoe said.

“It’s really important to be certified,” Meneses said. “You want everything sanitized, for instance.”

Eyelash extensions originated in Asia and have been available in the United States for the past couple of years, but demand for extensions is growing.

“It’s like an art form,” Bledsoe said.

By Sharon Haddock
Deseret Morning News
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com

Extend Your Lashes Press Release 1/15/2007 Click Here for PDF file

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 Daily Herald
1129 Faking it

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MARCIE JESSEE
These days looking like a supermodel — complete with long tresses, thick eyelashes and perfectly manicured nails — can be as easy as a trip to the salon. But what lengths are you willing to go to fake it? Whether your beauty weakness is your $600 hair extensions or a bi-monthly trip to the manicurist, check out these three ways to enhance what Mother Nature gave you:

Eyelashes

Some of us just weren’t blessed with luscious lashes and find ourselves pumping the mascara wand for some caked-on thickness. Of course, you can head to the drugstore for some sticky strips of fake lashes that last a day and cost less than $5. However, Linda Bledsoe, part owner of Extend Your Lashes, a Provo and Cedar Hills eyelash extension studio, said eyelash extensions can be a more natural-looking solution. Read more

Have you ever dreamed of having drop dead gorgeous longer & thicker eyelashes?

Have you searched endlessly for good mascara and failed miserably?

Have you battled tirelessly with hard to apply or fake looking strip eyelashes?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then ‘eyelash extensions’ may be for you.

Eyelash extensions are a popular alternative to fake eyelashes and are welcomed by women who want to achieve round-the-clock, low maintenance glamour. Eyelash extensions are a perfect addition to compliment your bridal makeup, as they will give your eyes that extra ‘oomph’ that you don’t get with mascara. It is also important to understand that fake eyelashes can sometimes look out of place in a classical style setting. Read more

JACKIE WHITE - KNIGHT RIDDER Newspapers

Pauline Shadden works out of a truck, wears jeans on her job and often views her handiwork from the top of a ladder. She is in the roofing business.

But when she bats her eyes, her lashes are aflutter with womanly charm.

She wears eyelash extensions, a rising beauty trend moving across the country.

The procedure in which artificial lashes are glued, one by one, onto real lashes is gathering momentum. Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell and Jessica Simpson are said to be wearing them. Ditto for Oprah and Britney. Rumors are that Jennifer Lopez has mink ones, and Madonna’s are said to be diamond-studded. Gift certificates for the procedure were included in this year’s Oscar gift bags. Read more

Wake up to naturally lush lashes everyday with semi-permanent eyelash extensions!

Eyelash extensions, in which synthetic lashes are glued individually onto real lashes, have become the latest cosmetic trend sweeping the nation. The procedure is gaining momentum at a time when women yearn for that 1960s Twiggy look and cosmetic companies are focused on developing new formulas and wands to make lashes look longer and thicker.

In the last couple of years, we’ve gone through an intense phase of fake eyelashes, and this is the logical extension, said Didi Gluck, beauty director of Marie Claire . It dovetails a little bit with the craze for hair extensions.

Application of eyelash extensions takes approximately 90 minutes and involves bonding 25 to 35 extensions of different lengths and thicknesses to each individual eyelash hair. A range of products and methods are used depending on where the procedure is performed. A Florida physician, Alan J. Bauman says he transplants hair from his clients scalp onto the eyes.

They give the eyes an instant lift, with no needles or injections, said Tram Kim Nguyen, Glamour beauty writer. You can roll out of bed looking great.

While the prices are not steep ”ranging anywhere from $250 to $500” the extensions last for up to six weeks, although most clients typically come back for touch-ups every two to four week to replace lost lashes.

It sounds high-maintenance, but it’s really for low-maintenance reasons, said Soul Lee of the Shu Uemura Lash Bar in New York. It will make your lashes look like you’re always wearing mascara.

As simple as the procedure is, it is still important to pay close attention to safety. Eyelash extensions should only be applied by licensed, trained technicians. Contact lenses should not be worn during the procedure. If the glue gets in your eyes, it may lead to complications.

This article was obtained from www.aboardcertifiedplasticsurgeonresource.com

Already a fast-growing fashion trend in Asia and Europe, eyelash extensions are finally available in the United States! This exciting new technique transform lashes into lush, beautiful, longer lashes through the application of a synthetic eyelash directly on to your natural lash - one at a time. Our lashes are Weightless, comfortable, long lasting and Water-proof. You will love them!

Traditional false lashes are in a strip or multiple lashes knotted together and applied onto the eyelid using a hard drying adhesive. They often cause discomfort and sometimes natural lashes to fall out. They lasted only a few days to a week and looked unnatural and felt heavy.

Eyelash Extensions are applied with an adhesive that dries soft allowing lashes to stay flexible and bouncy. Because the bonding is to each individual lash and not to skin, extensions will last significantly longer up to 2 months. They look and feel identical to human lashes.

In the News
Eyelash extensions have fashion followers all aflutter - Daily Herald
Eyes open wide with these lash extensions - USA Today
Looking for Luscious Lashes? - OC Flair