Thinning Eyelashes

Root 43 - Why I avoided mascara my whole life, and why that was stupid.

I didn’t often see my mom without makeup on. She put in on first thing in the morning, and took it off last thing before bed. Which is why, one day when I saw her bareface, I found it noteworthy.

“Why are your eyelashes so small?”

“I don’t have my makeup on.”

“Yeah, but…they’re smaller than mine.”

She told me that mascara bleaches eyelashes. Breaks them down. Makes them smaller and paler than they would be naturally. I listened in horror. I loved my naturally dark, long, curly eyelashes. I knew they were beautiful. I couldn’t imagine treating them in a way that would damage them. I decided, then and there, to never wear mascara.

Photo by Ahmed Rajgoli Shoaib Shakeel on Unsplash

I still did, once, trying it on as a teenager. My manual dexterity wasn’t great (my manual dexterity will never be great). The mascara ended up clumped and terrible looking. I immediately took it off. That was the only time I’d ever worn mascara, for thirty-four years.

Now I’m close to the age my mom was, when I asked that fateful question about her eyelashes. And guess what? Over the past few years, slowly, my eyelashes have been thinning. Flattening. Lightening. Basically, all I ever feared for my eyelashes had come true, even though I’d never worn mascara.

What the heck, Mom?

Turns out, eyelash thinning is a natural part of getting older. As hormones fluctuate, so too do collagen levels. Collagen is a key player in naturally beautiful eyelashes. My eyelashes were always going to end up here—there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. All my care to avoid mascara was for naught.

As a kid, I’d never realized how often people supply uninformed answers to questions asked of them. I was so keenly intent on honesty, I’d assumed that if someone didn’t know something, they’d say so. If they had an idea, but weren’t sure, I would have thought they could preface it with, “If I were to hazard a guess…”

I took my mom’s unmitigated answer as gospel truth. Built a whole plan around it. Now, thinking back, that was pretty ridiculous.

I didn’t wear mascara to my wedding. That’s how strictly I followed my personal ban.

Well, no longer. I don’t like my thinned-out eyelashes, so I bought a tube of mascara. It’s not an everyday wear, like it was for my mom. But when I’m feeling a little fancy, I put some on. A light layer—I don’t want it clumped. I can’t believe I waited until I was in my 30’s to do this.

What a silly thing.