Eyelash extensions are an art, and you shouldn’t rush them. But, if you’re faster with yours compared with other stylists, you get to have more customers. And that means more greens for your little purse. So, how do you get faster with something you can’t rush?
Now, this answer sounds like a cliche you’ve always heard. Practice makes perfect! This same rule works anywhere and also with lash extensions. The more you practice and cut off unnecessary activities, the quicker you become!
Is it advisable that all increase their speed? No. No one should sacrifice quality, lash health, or artistry for speed. But who doesn’t want to earn more if there is a way to, right? As long you are among the few reading this and ready to practice it all, you get to be among the special and fast ones.
1. Start with Making Sure You’re Comfortable
As we go on, you will see quite a lot that determines your overall speed. But foremost, you must ensure you’re comfortable before you dig into your art.
You have to ensure every tool is in its proper place where you can reach them easily. Your client also has to be high enough. All these ensure pain doesn’t distract you as you go on. As you already know, anything that distracts you will reduce your overall speed.
Hence, once you can get your lash set up perfect for you, your speed will naturally increase. Then, you have eliminated such delays as stretching to ease yourself of some pain and the like.
2. Ensure You Can See Your Work Site Properly
It’s not strange that you’d be slow working on something you can’t see clearly. Hence, you have to ensure you’ve got magnifying glasses. Not only this, but you’d also need to ensure proper lighting over your work area.
Also, taking breaks to exercise your eyes to see better is a good practice when lashing. However, there are times when you have to work with really sparse and light lashes. Cases like this require a simple technique.
Pick a pink marker and mark the gel pad area where you’ll place the lashes. You create a sharper contrast between the pad and the lashes with this. Thus, you get to see better, which naturally makes you faster.
3. Confirm Your Shop’s Humidity is Perfect
Why do you also need to check your shop’s humidity? Because if it’s not the right amount of humidity, applying glue will take longer to dry and stick. So, how to increase your speed in this case? Yes, it is by eliminating the uncertainties of your shop’s humidity.
You start by first measuring your shop’s humidity. Once you have that, you can buy glues that work perfectly in the condition of your shop. At times, you might need to add to the humidity in your room. And you can quickly achieve that by getting a humidifier in your shop and a hygrometer to measure.
That way, you won’t overshoot the proposed level for optimal glue fixation. And it is no argument that the faster your glues dry, the faster your work is!
4. Time Yourself!
This step is for those who like playing with numbers and simple arithmetic. You’d need to devise a breakdown of your task with each client. You’d also need to state how much time you’ll need to complete each task.
By sticking to the time you’ve set for yourself, you soon find that you’re not focusing on non-essentials, and you focus more on the goal. Ultimately, you become faster by learning to manage your time better.
5. Set Up a Lash Playlist
Here is the way out for some who don’t fancy numbers. You keep in touch with time and stand on your toes as you work by curating a music playlist. This playlist has to cover the whole lashing process.
You’d need to structure this so that it is easy for you to identify the mid-song. Also, you should be able to recognize the third song that leads to the last. And this song has to correlate at least 9 minutes before the end of your planned session. During this period, you should round off, be sure your client is satisfied, and prepare to receive the next client.
6. Use Lash Maps
Another way you are probably losing time is when you have to estimate lengths, curls, and lash thickness. Avoid this in two ways.
First, a DIY where you’d draw a map directly on the gel pad for you to follow. Or, it could be that you make use of lash map stickers. By so doing, you are eliminating every wasted time on calculating the lashes’ exact length, curl, and thickness.
7. Reduce Brushing and Fluffing to the Bearest Minimum
Something else last artists, especially the new ones, have taken up as a habit is overbrushing their lash extensions. The truth is you do not need to do that rigorously as you won’t be losing only a part of your extension and weakening your glue bond. But you’d also be losing time.
However, if you think your reason for overbrushing your extensions is anxiety, here’s an excellent way to get over it. Don’t rely on your mind estimations. Instead, as discussed above, get a map, or draw it on the gel pad. That way, you only need to follow the map template, and your anxiety shouldn’t stay for so long. As you practice more, you’d grow faster and can brush at an essential minimum.
8. Avoid Conversations While Applying the Lash Extensions
Another bad habit lash artists are fond of is talking while working. Engaging your clients in conversations while applying the lashes is one significant factor that slows you down. How?
First, you get distracted from what should be your primary concern every time you talk. Moreover, they will shake the gel pads whenever you get your client to talk. And doing so would lead to watery eyes that can dislodge the lower lashes and create more mess.
Thus, if you need to catch up with your client, do this as you prep. When your gel pad is in place, suspend all conversations until you finish fixing the lash extensions.
9. Practice Faster Isolation
We all know how vital isolations are to the lashing process. But it also takes so much time! Hence, the need to search for faster ways of isolating. And like I mentioned earlier, practice is what gets you better.
But not just practice. Some other factors can help you speed up the isolation process. And these factors are what I’ll be discussing briefly below.
Find a New Viewing Angle
You are not a robot — and even robots move around. So, why must you stay glued to a spot? If you find the need to change your location to be able to see the lashes clearly, then do so by all means.
Short Lashes and Short Lash Extensions
Before starting your isolation process, it is essential to pick out the shorter lashes and add some short lash extensions to them. This way, it becomes easier to identify even the smaller ones as the lash extension now makes them more visible.
Tape Up Extensions
Here is a must-have for every lash stylist because having your tapes makes life a lot easier. With this, you can tape down the button lids. However, this isn’t the only thing it can do. It also plays an important role in isolation. So, try to get your tapes by you every time you see clients.
10. Leverage Your Lash Supplies
Finally, you must keep in mind that we developed some products to increase your speed. So we advise exploring these extra assets and ensuring you are increasing your speed as appropriate. One of such that often helps you increase your lashing speed is the Lash Primer.
You use this as you prep for your next client. With this, you can remove dirt from your extensions. Doing so makes your extensions less slippery and will stay attached easily. The faster you can attach your extensions, the more time you get to attend to more clients — and earn more money.
Keep Practicing, Never Stop!
Keep in mind that increasing your speed comes from gaining a new habit as you practice all the above. Hence, it won’t happen suddenly.
While many would say it takes 21 days to form a new habit, you should be ready to stay as long as eight months to increase your speed effectively. You’d have to be patient and give it time while staying committed to practice. In the end, you gain your rhythm, which quickens you during lashing.
However, keep in mind that the safe application and safety of your clients’ natural lashes are more important than your speed. So, increasing your speed is not something you force. Still, it’s worth the try. Hence, keep at all that we listed above. And soon enough, your practice would have made you a master of speed.
Learn more about eyelash extensions with GOLLEE.
