Eyelash Extensions: Yay or Nay?

I want to hear from those of you who have them!  And guys, please tell me, do you even care or notice if we get them?!

I got my eyelashes done last weekend and I’ve already received a few compliments, but honestly I’m more annoyed with them than anything else.  Let me start with saying that I’ve always been iffy about them, because I don’t like it when they look too perfect or too long – basically fake.  I like a more natural look.  I have generally long lashes compared to some others, but they are thin.  When I use mascara, there have been a few occasions people have thought they were fake.

So why do I find them annoying?  The process of putting them on was itself annoying.  I heard someone say they fell asleep getting them done. I could probably fall asleep getting waxed, but not this.  I don’t like when my eyes are touched and messed with, so it was annoying in that regard for me.  I kept wanting to rub my eyes the whole time!  I had asked if I could get almost the same length as my natural lashes and she said she’ll do just a little bit longer than my natural length.  Two hours later, I look in the mirror and “Wow!” they do look pretty and bring out my already big eyes.  I don’t necessarily feel them the same way I do with a strip of false eyelashes (which I can barely stand to wear for an hour at a time before I want to rip them off my eyelids).

Afterwards, I walk to my car and immediately notice my vision detects these extensions, it’s a bit annoying when the sun shines down on them and I see them in the top peripheral of my vision.  But hey I have some serious floaters so I know I can deal with that.

At the end of my day, I pull my contacts off and OMG, there must have been a bit of glue or something that fell in because my eyes are burning as if i chopped chili peppers and rubbed my eyes right after!  I am crying serious tears and can barely open my eyelids to squeeze in as much eye drops as I could to flush whatever it is out.  And how the heck do I dab my eyes of these tears and eye drops?  These lashes are not flexible like my natural ones and I don’t want to rub them off either.  This is seriously annoying now!

I put my glasses on.  Now my natural lashes already touch my glasses, which I have been annoyed with for most of my life because it tends to leave an oily residue on my lenses (my optometrist told me I have oily eyeballs – yes not only my skin is oily but my eyeballs are too apparently!) But with these lashes, it’s much more significant so I push my glasses a touch further down my nose to compensate. It’s not an ideal feeling.

Next morning, my eyes have serious eye boogers, clearly they were trying to flush out whatever made them sting previously.  I’m trying to use a q-tip to get them out instead of water since it still hasn’t been 24 hours and I was told not to wet them (though they were soaked with tears and eye drops the night before).  A slight slip of my hand and there is a big eye booger stuck on my lashes – great, just great! I get it all cleaned up and carefully wash my face avoiding my eyes, which is not as easy as I thought it would be.

Then I go to put on my lipstick and marvel at how it looks like I’m wearing eyeliner.  It really IS pretty!  I feel made up even though all I put on was lipstick!  I’m still thinking it’s a little too long for my taste though.

I go about my day and throughout the day, my eyes water every now and then and that was mildly annoying.  Once due to an eyelash curled funny and was poking me back in the eye.  Then it’s finally night time and I go to take a shower.  I wet my face and go to wipe with my hands as I normally do and stop once I hit my eyelashes.  I immediately stop as I’m not supposed to rub them, right?!  I try to swipe my lids like a windshield wiper on a car, but from the top and water still drips into my eyeball.  That clearly didn’t work.  That makes the whole shower annoying since I can’t figure out how to wipe my eyes so water doesn’t drip in them without rubbing the lashes.

I basically have similar experiences for the past couple days and am still undecided.  They are beautiful and I love the way they bring out my eyes, but is it worth all these annoyances?

So for those of you who have been getting them done regularly can you please enlighten me?  Is this what you deal with too or am I missing something here?  Women do many things for beauty, but jury is still out on this one for me so give me your thoughts on the matter, or advice on how to deal so that a month from now, hopefully I’ve decided whether to get a fill or not.