Eyelash extensions have been popular over the past few years, with celebrities and social media fueling the trend. If you use eyelash extensions and have noticed some eye irritation, it could be a buildup of microscopic organisms eating your skin known as eyelash lice.
Yes, you read that right: eating away your skin.
The tiny lice can survive an eye hair follicles as well as on the scalp. Doctors are encouraging those who use eyelash extensions to be careful of the makeup and other chemicals you put on or around your eyelashes, as well as how long you leave them on there.
Preventing the itching, redness, and other symptoms associated with a mite buildup is simple: Establish a daily routine of washing around the eyes with warm, soapy water.
Washing is an important — often neglected — part of hygiene for people who wear false eyelashes. But the reports of a rise of eyelash lice are incorrect, doctors say.
Optometrist Dr. Sairah Malik, echoes Belanger’s findings, telling ABC stations WXYZ and KTRK, by not cleaning one’s lashes, the bacteria will continue to build up, causing infection and lice. Symptoms that would follow include itchiness, redness, and inflammation, among others.
To avoid contracting an infestation, Malik recommends using a tea tree-based cleanser daily.
“Any cleanser that has a diluted form of tea tree. And it is a good idea to use it on a daily basis,” she explained, adding that it’s also a good idea to give eyelids a break from extensions every now and then.
Dr. Gregory J. Nixon, Associate Dean for Clinical Services at the Ohio State University College of Optometry, says people are confusing the medical term Demodex for lice, when they’re actually mites.
He adds that the confusion between the two organisms needs to be understood.
Lice are parasites that suck blood and are usually the size of a poppy seed, according to Dr. Craig See, an ophthalmologist at Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute. They can usually be seen by the naked eye, he said.
Mites, on the other hand, are microscopic organisms that live on all mammals, See said. They don’t suck blood, but instead eat dead skin cells.
According to a 2015 case, a patient with eyelash lice was successfully treated with the following three-day procedure:
1. Petroleum jelly was applied thickly to the