In 1911, a Canadian woman named Anna Taylor patented false eyelashes in the United States. Taylor's false eyelashes were designed with a strip of fabric in the shape of a half moon. The cloth had small pieces of hair placed over them. In 1911, a Canadian woman named Anna Taylor first patented artificial eyelashes, using a cloth half moon implanted with small hairs.
In 1915, Karl Nessler, a hairdresser known for his permanent waves, opened a hairdresser in New York and sold eyelash services, promoting false eyelashes in his salon as, according to the New York Times, “protection against the glare of electric lights”. He also hired showgirls to sell them and beat up customers. When you think about false eyelashes, what kind of look comes to mind? Is it the modern aesthetic of the bad guys that sexy celebrities love as much as influential people? Is the explosive 90s look inspired by Pamela Anderson recently renewed? Maybe it goes back even further: icons from the 50s with agitated lashes like Sophia Loren, or even flappers in the (original) Roaring '20s. As with most beauty inventions, the story of false eyelashes, including the reason false eyelashes were invented, is a legitimately crazy story with experimentation, pseudoscience and methods of application strange enough to give even goosebumps most ardent lovers of beauty.
The road to our modern counterfeits may have been chaotic, but learning about it will make you even more grateful for the rows and rows of easy-to-use eyelashes that line the shelves of every pharmacy in the United States. Get ready: it's time to delve into the history of false eyelashes. While eyelashes perform some biological function by acting as an early warning system, if debris, dust or other foreign agents get too close to the important eyeball, their cultural meaning is purely aesthetic. While they're not inherently feminine (everyone knows people of all genders with long, wide eyelashes), they're considered a feminine trait, although it's not quite clear why.
Some experts theorize that it has to do with the relationship between youth and what society considers standards of female beauty, while others speculate that long, dark eyelashes enhance the whites of the eyes to become a kind of indicator of health. However, the most accepted idea today is that long eyelashes simply make the eyes appear larger, and in most cultures, large eyes are among the most important factors of “female beauty” in general. So it makes sense that the recorded use of false eyelashes dates back to the Roman Empire. Eyelash enhancements, such as rudimentary mascara and even curling tools, also have a long history in ancient and Ptolemaic Egypt, but it was a Roman philosopher (the first influencers, actually) who perpetuated the idea that eyelashes fall out with age and sexual promiscuity; all of a sudden, it became very Important: Romans should have the longest and most lush eyelashes possible thanks to botanical ingredients, kohl and even minerals.
Eyelash trends came and went over the years (in medieval times, it was fashionable to tear them all out along with your eyebrows to show your forehead, which was considered the sexiest part of the body long before BBL), especially with reports of the application of real eyelash extensions that appeared in late 19th century Paris: although its version requires needles to implant synthetic hair directly into the skin. Although that horrible stitching was being done in 1899, it wasn't long before a different interpretation of false eyelashes appeared, and they look much more like modern false eyelashes. The first patent for false eyelashes was issued in 1911 to a Canadian woman, but five years later, it was an American film director named D, W. Griffith, who was looking for a more dramatic and exotic look for his protagonist.
Although the false eyelashes made by the production's wig manufacturer were effective, since they were made of human hair and chewing gum, they were irritating and rough. I can't imagine why. Perhaps the most important change occurred when production materials were changed to plastic in the 1950s. Synthetic fibers, no different from today's most popular styles, were easy to replicate and mass-produce, which in turn made fake use more regular and widespread.
Nowadays, you can choose false eyelashes made of plastics and other synthetic materials, as well as real animal hair such as mink. They're considered essential to large-scale glamour for everyone from celebrities to teenagers on graduation night. False eyelashes were first patented in 1911 by a Canadian woman named Anna Taylor. The product was a strip of cloth implanted with small hairs, to make them look like eyelashes.
Four years later, hairdresser Karl Nessler began selling eyelash services in his salon. He said they were “a guard against the glare of electric lights”. There is no evidence to support the story that a 19th-century London prostitute invented false eyelashes. Although Twiggy's most iconic images showed her with eyelashes painted directly on her face, she also wore a lot of false eyelashes.
In short, the claim that a prostitute named Gerda Puridle invented long eyelashes is made entirely of whole cloth. While Regnault claimed titles as an actress, novelist and journalist, she didn't invent long eyelashes. But it was celebrities who popularized false eyelashes as a fashion statement, largely thanks to Seena Owen's striking eyelashes in the 1916 Hollywood film, Intolerance. At the same time, German stylist Karl Nessler, whose real name was Charles Nestle, created his own version of false eyelashes that financed his beauty salon on W 49 Street in New York.
Nestlé promoted false eyelashes as protection against the glare of electric lights and hired showgirls to hit customers. With such a dark and dangerous history and such an exhausting application, it's surprising that false eyelashes are so popular. And unlike the creepy fakes of human hair and needles of yesteryear, there's a type of false eyelash for every eye. It made us think, and it turns out that false eyelashes have a long and rather tortured history that dates back to ancient Rome.
Gish claimed that Griffith invented false eyelashes, but like many Hollywood legends, this one is not entirely true. . .
