Origin and history
Most of what is repeated about the history of lashes is marketing. The dated record tells a better story: darkened lashes in Egypt, needle-and-thread rumours in Paris, a patent for one fibre on one lash in 1931, and a salon service that only arrived seventy years later.
Antiquity
People darkened lashes long before they extended them
Egyptian cosmetic powders from 2000 to 1200 BC, still in their original containers, held two natural lead minerals and two lead compounds that do not occur as ores. The researchers concluded the Egyptians made them on purpose, by wet chemistry. Later analysis of eleven kohl containers found recipes based on manganese and silicon as well.13
A laboratory study suggested tiny amounts of lead could stimulate the immune response of skin cells. That is one cell experiment. Today the FDA links kohl to lead poisoning in children and does not allow it in cosmetics.24
In the first century, Pliny the Elder wrote that Roman women stained their lashes every day, and called the lashes a rampart for the sight. He also repeated a belief, borrowed from Aristotle, that lashes fall out from too much sex. He offered no evidence, and none exists.5
What Egyptian lash and eye powders were made of
- Galena
- lead sulphide, a natural mineral
- Cerussite
- lead carbonate, a natural mineral
- Laurionite
- a lead chloride, made by hand
- Phosgenite
- a lead chloride carbonate, made by hand
- Other recipes
- based on manganese and silicon
From chemical analysis of museum samples.
The 1880s
Needles, thread and a rumour from Paris
In 1882 English-language papers carried a report that Parisians made false lashes by drawing a needle threaded with dark hair through the skin of the eyelid, leaving loops. The writer had not seen it done; it was hearsay from a London weekly.6
In 1899 a syndicated article described the method in detail: the lid edge numbed with cocaine, a hair from the client's own head stitched along it, the loops cut and curled with silver tongs. It claimed most of the hairs took root. A cut hair has no follicle and cannot take root.7
The same text was printed again in 1901 and 1908, each time as the newest fashion. A real eyelash transplant moves living follicles by surgery, which is a different procedure altogether.738
How far the record runs ahead of the popular story
Bar length: years before 1916, when false lashes are often said to have been invented for the film Intolerance.
The dated record
From the first patent to the first licence
Patents, laws and dated newspapers prove that someone described an idea on a given day. They do not prove it was widely used. With that limit, this is the trail.89
The film Intolerance story comes from an actress's memoir written 53 years after the event. The episode may well have happened. It was not the invention of false lashes.10
1911
The strip lash
US patent 994,619 to Anna Taylor of Ottawa: hairs on a crescent strip, glued to the lid.9
1915
A lash grower
Maybelline begins as a petroleum-jelly product sold to make lashes grow, not to colour them.28
1931
One fibre, one lash
Marjorie Birk patents lengthening each natural lash by gluing one hair to it.11
One to one
The idea is from 1931
A US patent granted in 1931 to Marjorie Birk of New York describes lengthening each natural lash by attaching a separate hair to it, with collodion or gum arabic as the glue. That is the core idea of a modern extension.11
Salons tried it. A 1933 trade journal described gluing single lashes one by one and said it took a good hour. A 1966 hairdressing dictionary defines false lashes as either single hairs stuck to existing lashes or lashes on a strip.2930
A 1971 US filing already called single-lash application a more recent method, and Ardell's trademark for individual lashes records first use on 11 October 1971. Those were small flares, several fibres on one base, not the one-to-one service of today.1231
Drawn from the patent descriptions, not to scale.
One fibre on one lash was patented in 1931.
It took seventy years, a new glue and a new fibre to make it a service.
The 2000s
The salon service arrives
The earliest salon-type extension filings found are Korean, from 2003 and 2004. One, filed in March 2004, is for a faster way of extending lashes, which means the service was already established. A US wire story in 2005 said extensions had arrived from South Korea about nine months earlier.131415
In Japan, a national survey of 2,000 women in 2012 found one in ten had had extensions. The earliest first treatments reported were in 2000, and half of all wearers started in 2010 or 2011.16
In North America, the first trademarks and patent filings for the service date from 2005. A Japanese maker's 2010 patent names PBT first among extension fibres. A London training advertisement shows the LVL lash lift on sale in May 2010, and a 2016 newspaper dated the arrival of Russian volume in the United States to about 2013.323318263534
At the atelier
What changed in the 2000s was the glue, the fibre and the training. The idea was seventy years old.
When Japanese wearers had their first set
205 wearers in a national survey of 2,000 women, 2012.
Rules
Where it was adopted first, the problems were logged first
Japan declared lash extension licensed beauty work in March 2008 and repeated the rule in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Its consumer centres logged 599 injury reports from 2010 to early 2015, more than a hundred a year, and a quarter of wearers in one survey reported a problem.192021
An eye clinic in Japan saw 107 women with problems from 2007 to 2010: 64 had irritation from glue or remover reaching the eye, 42 an allergic reaction of the lid. All recovered with treatment.22
Texas created a specialty licence in 2011, required from June 2012. Ontario regulates the premises, not the person: since July 2018 personal service settings must notify public health and follow hygiene rules, and no Ontario lash licence exists. Canada restricts the glue to professional sale.232425
At the atelier
Because Ontario licenses the room and not the artist, it is fair to ask any studio about training, hygiene and what happens if your eye stings. We answer all three before we begin.
Who regulates what
- Japan, 2008
- the person: a licensed beautician in a registered salon
- Texas, 2012
- the person: a specialty licence, 320 training hours
- Ontario, 2018
- the premises: hygiene rules and public health notice
- Canada
- the product: lash glue sold to professionals only
- England
- no lash licence; the licensing power covers other procedures
Materials
Hair, silk, mink, and plastic
The first lashes were human hair: the wearer's own in the newspaper reports, short lengths of hair in the 1911 and 1931 patents. In 2010 a Japanese consumer report described extension fibres as silk or synthetic.91117
Mink has meant different things. In the 1960s fur lashes from seal skin were often sold as mink. In 2020 Sephora told an animal-rights group it had banned fur lashes, and in 2025 a brand settled a class action over mink lashes marketed as cruelty-free.293637
At the atelier
Mink on a box can mean many things. Ask what the fibre actually is. Nearly all professional fibre, including most of what is sold as mink, is a synthetic, and the fibres chapter explains why.
Fibres: materials and their physicsOften said
What the evidence shows
False lashes were invented for the film Intolerance in 1916.
Dated reports and patents exist from 1882, 1902 and 1911.689
Anna Taylor's was a Canadian patent.
It is US patent 994,619. She lived in Ottawa.9
Lash extensions were invented in the 2000s.
The one-to-one idea is in a 1931 US patent. What arrived in the 2000s was the service.1112
Extensions were invented in Korea in the 1990s.
No dated evidence from the 1990s was found. The earliest Korean filings are from 2003 and 2004.1314
Ontario requires a lash licence.
Ontario regulates the premises. No lash licence was found.24
At the atelier
A modern service, done properly
A free 30-minute consultation comes first. We look at your natural lashes under magnification and explain exactly what we would apply and why.
- The idea
- 1931
- The service
- the early 2000s
- The standard
- training, hygiene and a clean bond
Sources
Every numbered line above comes from one of these. Where a claim is still a hypothesis, the text says so.
- 1Making make-up in Ancient EgyptWalter, Martinetto, Tsoucaris and colleagues. Nature, 1999.Measured: chemical analysis
- 2Finding out Egyptian gods' secret using analytical chemistryTapsoba, Arbault, Walter and Amatore. Analytical Chemistry, 2010.One cell study
- 3Recipes of Ancient Egyptian kohls more diverse than previously thoughtRiesmeier, Keute, Veall and colleagues. Scientific Reports, 2022.Measured: 11 containers
- 4Eye cosmetic safetyUS Food and Drug Administration. FDA, 2022.Regulator
- 5The Natural History, book 11, chapter 56Pliny the Elder, translated by Bostock and Riley. First century; translation of 1855.Ancient text
- 6False eyelashesReno Evening Gazette, reprinting Truth (London). 24 April 1882.Dated newspaper, hearsay
- 7Eyelashes renewedWestern Graphic, reprinting Woman's Life. July 1899; reprinted 1901 and 1908.Dated magazine
- 8A new or improved method of and means for the manufacture of artificial eyebrows, eyelashes and the likeNessler. British patent GB190218723, 1902.Patent
- 9Artificial eyelashTaylor. US patent 994,619, 1911.Patent
- 10Who made those false eyelashes?Kennedy. The New York Times Magazine, 2013.Journalism, quoting a 1969 memoir
- 11Method for the artificial elongation of eyelashesBirk. US patent 1,831,801, 1931.Patent
- 12Artificial eyelashesJacobs. US patent 3,833,007, filed 1971.Patent
- 13False eyelashesChoe. US application 2005/0061341, Korean priority 2003.Patent filing
- 14Apparatus and method of speed eyelashes extensionJang. Korean patent KR 10-0536633, filed 2004.Patent
- 15Luscious, glue-on lashes in high demandHagwood, Knight Ridder/Tribune. Wire story, 31 August 2005.Dated newspaper
- 16National survey on eyelash extensions and their related health problemsAmano and Nishiwaki. Japanese Journal of Hygiene, 2013.Survey: 2,000 women
- 17Harm from eyelash extensionsNational Consumer Affairs Center of Japan. Press release, 17 February 2010.Official report
- 18Quality controlled artificial eyelashes extension systemMerszei. US application 2007/0050207, provisional 2005.Patent filing
- 19Ensuring safety in eyelash extensions (citing the 2008 notice)Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. Notice of 28 November 2012.Official notice
- 20Memo on consumer accidents from eyelash extensionsConsumer Affairs Agency and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. 4 June 2015.Official memo
- 21Harm from eyelash extensions continuesNational Consumer Affairs Center of Japan. Press release, 4 June 2015.Official report
- 22Ocular disorders due to eyelash extensionsAmano, Sugimoto and Sugita. Cornea, 2012.Case series: 107 women
- 23House Bill 2727, 82nd sessionTexas Legislature. 2011.Law
- 24Ontario Regulation 136/18, Personal Service SettingsOntario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. July 2018.Law
- 25Compliance verification project 2023-2024: cyanoacrylate ingredientsHealth Canada. Government of Canada.Regulator
- 26Artificial eyelash and method for attaching the sameSanbonmatsu, Matsukaze Co.. US patent 8,967,158, priority 2010.Patent
- 27Eyelash permanent curl setting rodHonda, Royal Biken Co.. US patent 4,589,432; Japanese filing 1982.Patent
- 28Ansehl v. Williams, 267 F. 9US Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. 1920.Court record
- 29Artificial (false) eyelashesBennett. Cosmetics and Skin, 2018.Trade history quoting dated sources
- 30An illustrated dictionary of hairdressing and wigmakingStevens Cox. 1966 and 1984.Trade reference
- 31DURALASH trademark recordUS Patent and Trademark Office. First use 11 October 1971.Official record
- 32NOVALASH trademark recordUS Patent and Trademark Office. First use 2005.Official record
- 33XTREME LASHES trademark recordUS Patent and Trademark Office. First use 2005.Official record
- 34The trendlet: Russian-style lashesWellington. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 2016.Journalism
- 35LVL Lashes training, LondonSalon Geek forum. 18 May 2010.Trade advertisement
- 36Sephora bans fur eyelashesPETA. 2020.Advocacy source
- 37Settlement over fur eyelashes marketed as cruelty-freePETA. 2025.Advocacy source
- 38Eyelash transplantation for the treatment of vitiligo associated eyelash leucotrichiaChatterjee, Neema, Vasudevan and Dabbas. Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery, 2016.Case series: 15 patients
Lash science
The natural lash