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Disclaimer: Let me preface this entire blog by stating lashing is a marathon, not a sprint. What we do is an art and our craft. If you’re trying to increase your speed just for the sake of saying you can “do a full set in an hour”, then the advice in this blog is not meant for you. Never sacrifice quality, artistry and lash health for the sake of time. This post is meant to address the common, time-sucking habits that many lash artists struggle with.

Now with that being said, let me give you the average “industry standard” times for a typical client with an average amount of healthy lashes (let’s say 75 lashes per eye is average), using .15mm diameter for Classic or the Volume equivalent (i.e. 4V in .07), and including prep and finishing time for each appointment at about 75-90% coverage of the natural lashes.

Average Industry Standard Timing for Lash Artists

Classic Full Set : 2-2.5 hours

Classic 2-3 week fill (touch up): 1-1.25 hours

Volume Full Set: 3-4 hours

Volume 2-3 week fill (touch up): 1.5-2 hours

If you are within those ranges and getting the majority, if not all, of the natural lashes covered with an extension, then I wouldn’t worry about improving upon your time too much. If you’re outside of that range or you’re not getting to the majority of the natural lashes within those time-frames, let’s dive into the 5-common time sucking habits that lash artists may or may not be aware that they’re doing that are slowing them down.

#1 – TALKING time saved – up to 15 minutes

Want to improve your timing for lashing? The number one most distracting and time-wasting activity lash artists participate in is talking with their clients throughout an appointment. During your prep is a fine time to catch up with your client but once the eye pads are on, it’s lash nap time. Not only does your engagement in your client’s conversation distract you from the heavy concentration our job requires, but it also moves the eye pads around on the client’s eyes thus making them more prone to watery eyes (and that’ll kill your time and retention right there) as well as risking having their bottom lashes pop up and get caught in the adhesive which then takes time to readjust and correct.

I recommend carrying those collagen lip masks to upsell to your client’s. Not only does it prevent them from chatting throughout the appointment, it gives them soft, hydrated lips and you can make a few extra bucks without having to take up any additional time. These are my go to lip masks: Chatty Kathy Lip Masks

#2 – EXCESSIVE FLUFFING time saved – up to 10 minutes

I’m not sure if this is taught in any courses or it’s just a silly habit that a lot of lash artists pick up on their own, but I notice quite a few of my newer lash artists will place an extension and then spend a few seconds “fluffing” through the lash line with their tweezers, meaning they use their tweezers to just aimlessly sift through the lashes. It doesn’t seem to have a purpose when I’ve asked about it, it’s almost just a natural habit they’ve created after they’ve placed one lash. You should place your extension and while you are waiting the 1-3 seconds for the adhesive to dry, be scoping out the next lash you are going to isolate and place. I’ve seen this fluffing take up 3-5 seconds after each lash. Over the course of an entire lash set given a client who has 75 lashes per eye, that’s around 10-12 minutes per full set of just aimless fluffing.

#3 – EXCESSIVE BRUSHING time saved – up to 7 minutes

It’s highly suggested to brush the extensions throughout the set as needed, but after placing every 5 extensions is excessive. For your average 2-hour full set, I would brush through the extensions maybe 5-6 times to line them up and find any spots needing more attention. Maybe plan on brushing every time you replace your drop of glue (which should be around every ~15 minutes or so depending on your humidity level). At that point, you already have tweezer free hands, so you might as well use those free hands to brush.

#4 – YOUR SET UP time saved – up to 10 minutes

Another common time suck lash artists face is the distance their hand or body has to travel for each and every single extension. Evaluate your current set up to see if there’s valuable seconds being wasted just by going back and forth from product to person and back. Glue rings were all the rage to help keep everything close to the client, but with more research being done on our adhesives, it’s best to use a jade stone or tile to keep your adhesive drop on, so why not keep everything close by you there (plus I’m not crazy about having any chemicals hanging over a client’s head to begin with. Too much risk and liability for my taste). Would you be faster lashing from a tile? How about the back of your hand? Are you having to reach really far away from the client’s head to pick up a lash or your adhesive drop? Are you not prepared when your client shows up so you have to replace lashes or set up supplies once their appointment has already started? It may take you a while to create a new habit that is more efficient when it comes to your set up, but it will be worth it if it can save you 5-10 minutes each appointment.

#5 – ISOLATION time saved – up to 15 minutes

Ah yes, the nasty isolation beast who creeps into most lash appointments and sets up camp near your clock and just sucks up your time like a Pina Colada on spring break. The most challenging and yet most important aspect of lashing to new (and some veteran) lash artists is isolation. It takes time to create muscle memory with your isolation hand to even be able to use the tweezers smoothly without fatigue or stabbing your client in the eyepad. No two client’s natural lashes are the same and some lashes are insanely difficult to isolate. Improving your natural ability to isolate will vastly improve your speed of application alone, but here are some tricks I still use to this day to make isolation a non-issue.

Tape: Tape is your best friend as a lash artist. My go to tape is the Blue Nexcare Low Trauma tape I get it off of Amazon HERE. I cut it into strips and use it to manipulate my clients lids to be able to isolate easier. I will use it to slightly pull up on the lid if my client has a hooded eye or I will use it to pull the lid towards the temple to get those pesky inner corners. I also use the white micropore tape which I de-tack (un-stick) to pull back the extensions I’ve already placed to reach the natural lashes that are hiding underneath (you could also use another gel pad in place of this tape, you just need to be sure that the tape or gel pad is not sticky so it doesn’t pull on the extensions when removing the tape/pad).

Lash the Babies: I will spend a few minutes at the beginning of an appointment to go through and lash the baby lashes with a .04/.05 in a 8mm to make them easier to get out of my way when I’m lashing the adult lashes. The baby lashes are the nuisance of isolation as they can be clear/invisible, short and angled into other lashes. Using a few minutes to add an extension that won’t harm the growth of these baby lashes will not only increase your isolation speed, it will also help to fill in the lash line as you otherwise wouldn’t be able to lash these baby lashes with a typical classic diameter.

Change the Vantage Point: Don’t be afraid to gently move your client’s head from side to side or position yourself differently throughout the set to get different angles on the lash line. Sitting directly behind your client only gives you one view of the lashes. If you change the angle of either your client or yourself, you change the angle you are seeing and you may notice a whole new section of lashes that just pop out to you that you couldn’t see before.

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By minimizing talking, excessive fluffing and brushing, re-evaluating your lash setup and using some go-to isolation tricks, you can start to improve your lash speed to increase your dollar per hour income!

What have you found to be the biggest time waster in your eyelash extension business? Drop me a line with all this extra time you now have in your day after implementing these tips at hi@thelashpreneur.com and share with me how you’ve improved on your time and where you’re still lagging! In person private and group lash training, as well as in person or online lash mentoring is available if you want to dive deeper into lash application techniques or if you need some more filling in of your lash application knowledge gaps. Email hi@thelashpreneur.com for more details.

Have a Good One,

Tara Walsh, The Lashpreneur