Once reserved for patients that lost their eyebrows due to cancer treatment, burns, or other medical reason, eyelash transplant is a rapidly growing cosmetic procedure. Women that once felt that they had no options to enhance their natural eyelashes except for constant mascara application or glue-on false lashes are now finding that they can have permanent, long, thick eyelashes. Throw away your mascara, eyelash transplants may be the long-awaited solution to short, sparse lashes.
Hair transplant at its finest
While there are several variations that have been tried for eyelash transplant surgery, the approach that has gained the most success (and also popularity) is very similar to the hair transplant technique used to treat pattern baldness. A number of hairs are selected from the scalp that are reasonable straight or have very little curl to them.
These individual hairs, root and all, are carefully dissected from the scalp under local anesthesia. In the eyelid, extremely small holes are made with a fine needle that will act as acceptance sites for the harvested hair. The holes must be small enough to accommodate only a single hair, and hold it snugly.
There is no suturing taking place at all. The process is much like transplanting a flower on a much smaller scale; the plant is held by the surrounded dirt until the root can take hold. The transplanted eyelash is held in place by the skin until the hair follicle can establish itself in the eyelid.
Fifty lashes
Did you that each human upper eyelid has between one and two hundred eyelashes? Fortunately since the goal of an eyelash transplant is not only to lengthen the eyelash, but also to thicken it, it usually only take about fifty well placed eyelashes to achieve excellent cosmetic results.
The harvested, transplanted hairs must be placed in such a way that, as they grow, the hairs follow the same curve of the native lashes. Speaking of growing, it is important to realize that, since scalp hair is used, transplanted eyelashes will continue to grow, like regular hair.
Therefore eyelash transplants must be cut, just like scalp hair, every one to two months. Moreover, transplanted eyelashes do not fall out like natural eyelashes will.
A bit expensive and involved
As you can imagine, the process of transplanting single hairs into the eyelash line is a long and involved process. Eyelash transplant surgery can take up to five hours for both eyelids. This is not only due to the delicate nature of the surgery but the high risk or unaesthetic outcomes if the hairs are not placed properly.
Hairs placed at different angles will not look good, put quite simply. The technical difficulty of the surgery explains the price: about $6,000 for both eyes. This includes the cost of the procedure, anesthesia, facility fees, medications and dressings. Since eyelash transplant is almost always a cosmetic procedure, the cost is almost certainly not covered by health insurance (some special consideration could be made for patients that lose their eyelashes due to medical causes, though coverage is unusual).
However, if you consider the cost of quality mascara and other lash altering devices over a lifetime, it is understandable why many women are seeking permanent eyelash transplant surgery.