Did they have fake eyelashes in the 80s?

There's no real explanation for this other than the fact that fads come and go, but the 1970s and 80s weren't important decades for false eyelashes. A newspaper article from 1899 shows that back then women had eyelashes implanted with needles. The curls are outperforming the straight poker hairstyles of this SS17, so whether your hair is naturally curly or flat like a pancake, embrace your natural assets or fake it until you get it. Eyelashes, which date back to Ancient Egypt, have played an important role in terms of status and beauty that has never really changed.

Many young girls wanted to emulate their favorite celebrities by wearing false eyelashes, so companies like Revlon sold false eyelashes at affordable prices in pharmacies. At that time, false eyelashes were the subject of considerable reaction from men, who considered them little more than a disguise. In Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder thought they were a symbol not only of youth but also of a chaste character, stating that eyelashes fell out due to excessive sex, so it was especially important for women to keep their eyelashes long to demonstrate their chastity. Improving eyelashes was not a very acceptable practice for a respectable woman, since they found other approaches to secretly darken their eyelashes, with crushed berries or soot obtained from chimneys.

People started to dye their hair and even their eyelashes with soot and crushed berries to get that fierce real look. Since eyelashes perform a real function, keeping dirt out of the eyes, that appearance was incredibly painful. Several inventors applied for patents for eyelash curlers, so it's not entirely clear who came up with the concept, but in the 1930s, the common inclusion of these devices in mascara packages made curly eyelashes take center stage. You may have heard a rumor on the Internet that false eyelashes were invented in the 1880s by a sex worker to protect her eyes from body fluids often encountered by people in her occupation, but while it's true that false eyelashes were introduced in 1882, they had nothing to do with the sex work.

You might think that thick, plentiful eyelashes have always been considered beautiful, but in medieval times, women removed most of their eyelashes and eyebrows the same way they remove the rest of their body hair today. He instructed makeup artists to use chewing gum and glue to apply absurdly heavy false eyelashes to actress Seena Owen, and within a decade, flappers were copying the look. That's probably why, at the end of the 19th century, when long eyelashes became fashionable again, some absolutely crazy treatments were offered. Many women wore false eyelashes during this time because they were so easy to apply and made them feel glamorous just like the models they saw in magazines or television shows such as Dynasty or Dallas.

Bette Kalloch
Bette Kalloch

Wannabe food lover. Infuriatingly humble food ninja. Infuriatingly humble social media ninja. Incurable twitter nerd. Hipster-friendly beer lover. Communicator.