by London lash pro
Easy fanning lashes – some stylists love them like we love a Pina Colada in the summer, others hate them like we all hate stickies-but what does the term ‘easy fanning’ actually mean, and is this the direction the lash industry is mooing in for good?
The lash industry is always evolving, and this has been particularly evident in the last few years. We’re comping up with different styles, new techniques, and, in trying to meet the constantly developing requirements of the average lash tech, almost every lash company is working alongside manufacturers to introduce new, innovative types of lashes which supposedly speed up treatment times, make our lives easier and basically also help us earn more money, because – let’s be honest – a shorter treatment means:
- You can charge more for the treatment – because you can give a fuller look in less time
- You can easily squeeze 1-3 extra clients in each day
So should we be so sceptical about these innovations, or should we give it a try and enjoy the fact that someone out there is taking their time to come up with ideas that will make our lives much easier. Now, we understand that there is a lot of controversy around easy fanning lashes, this is normal when big changes come, but really, this is a change we just can’t avoid, and sooner or later you will have to make a choice you either stay behind, or move forward and expand your business.
Before you make up your mind about easy fanning lashes, let us talk a little bit about why we love then, and how to make them work for you.
Easy fanning lashes are usually different length lashes placed on the strip in layers so that once you close the tweezers on a bunch of them, they will pop open creating a fan. That is a theory, but easy fanning lashes are not magic lashes, so we would not recommend these for those not yet trained in Volume lashes, as you still need to know how many lashes is safe for any given lash. Easy fanning lashes are amazing, but damaging lashes is not!
Easy fanning lashes, contrary to popular opinion, are also not for beginners. We still firmly believe that if you want to become a professional and successful lash artist, you need to feel the struggle of creating and applying handmade fans. You need to learn how to work with the glue, how to work with layers, lash diameters and all these little things you either weren’t told or forgot from your training but it’s these little things that actually make you an excellent and professional eyelash technician.
So before you start to reap the benefits of the industry boom, start with a foundation. I know this is not what most of you would like to hear but that’s the reality, and the reality is that nothing worth having comes easy.
Next, let us explain to you how you can effectively work with easy fanning lashes. Sure, you can grab a bunch of them and just stick them randomly to the natural lashes – will they look nice? Doubtful. Like we said – they are not magic lashes. The sticky base makes it a little bit easier to fan, and prevents the fan from being lost when you lift it from the strip. Our Master artists still like to take control of the situation by placing them on the strip and fanning them into a desire “shape”. This way, you can also control how many lashes will be placed on the natural lash, and make sure the base is not too thick – a very thick base can lead to more stickies, which we definitely don’t want!
The choice of tweezers is also very important – we tested a few and found that the finer the tip, the easier they make it to work with easy fanning lashes, our top choice are LLP multifunctional tweezers. The small, sharp tip makes them super precise, and allows you to pick the number of lashes you want!
Another common opinion about easy fanning lashes is that they don’t wrap around the NL. Well they don’t, that much is true, but neither do premade fans, or the T-base fans that are very often used by many experienced technicians and, if we’re being honest, we haven’t noticed any issues with retention. That being said, if you like your fans to wrap around the natural lash then you are most likely not going to be happy with these lashes and that’s ok, after all, we all have our unique style.
To summarise (in case you’re just skimming the article between clients):
Q: Are easy fanning lashes are amazing as they’re said to be?
A: We would say yes, definitely! They can reduce the time of treatment by as much as an hour!
Q: Can everyone use them?
A: No! You need to be a qualified and confident Russian Volume technician
Q: Are they for you?
A: Well, you will have to try for yourself and make up your own mind! Personally for us, it was a case of love at first fan! Even so, it took even our best lash queens a little while and a bit of fiddling to find the best way for them to use them!
