Do Damaged Eyelashes Grow Back?

Long, silky eyelashes are the envy of most women. In 2008, Advertising Age magazine noted that mascara sales had exceeded lipstick sales during the previous year. As with hair elsewhere on the body, eyelashes are susceptible to damage and loss. Regrowth of eyelashes is a relatively slow process.

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Eyelash Function

Eyelashes protect your eyes from foreign objects and particles. The broom-like motion of eyelid hairs captures dust and harmful debris and sweeps it away from the orbital surface. Contact lens wearers may be aware of a secondary function of eyelashes--they trigger the eyelid's automatic response to close when something brushes against them.

Causes of Damage or Loss

Repetitive use of cosmetics, curling utensils, and improper or incomplete makeup removal can damage and cause loss of eyelashes. Doctors and scientists refer to the process of lashes falling out as milphosis. Other causes of milphosis include skin disorders, medication side effects, endocrine disorders, inflammation, systemic illnesses and psychiatric disorders.

Eyelash Growth Cycle

Eyelash growth and development occurs in the same three stages as the hair on your head: the anagen, or growth stage; the catagen, or dormant stage; and the telogen, or shedding stage. The complete life cycle of an eyelash is around 4 months. In comparison, however,the anagen phase of a scalp hair can last from 3 months to 10 years.

Your eyelid holds from 100 to 150 eyelashes at any given time, and each lash is in its own phase of the life cycle. In other words, you are constantly growing and losing eyelashes.

Prescription Lash Lengthener

Latisse is the only FDA-approved lash-enhancement product on the market. Before its FDA approval in 2008, Allergan - which manufactures Latisse -- sponsored a 16-week clinical study of 278 adult test subjects. Participants applied the product topically along the upper lash lines daily. At the end of the study, subjects showed marked improvement in eyelash length and thickness. In addition, some participants noticed darkened eyelashes. Reported side effects from the product include discoloration of the eyelid, iris color changes and eye irritation.

Eyelash Transplant

Eyelash transplant offers a potential solution to permanent eyelash loss from facial trauma, scarring, injury, chemical burns, long-term use of false eyelashes, surgical removal of eyelash follicles, congenital absence of eyelashes and compulsive eyelash plucking. The surgical procedure transplants hairs from the scalp, nape of the neck and other parts of the body to the eyelid.