Patty Knox, 46, of Sheridan lamented the fact that she had “no eyelashes.” Rather than repeat a bad experience she once had with regular strip eyelashes, she wanted to find something to make her lashes grow.

So she surfed the Internet and happened upon synthetic eyelashes that are curved to replicate a real eyelash and applied, one lash at a time, to individual eyelashes in a semi permanent process called eyelash extensions. From the Internet, Knox got the name of Cassandra Taylor, a technician who applies Xtreme Lashes products at Ava Bella Day Spa in west Little Rock.

“I love them,” she says of her synthetic lashes. “I don’t have to curl them with an eyelash curler every day.

Women around the country are echoing Knox’s sentiments.

Eyes are the windows to the soul, and in the womanly quest for beauty, eyelash extensions are the newest draperies. Just as semi permanent hair weaves and hair extensions revolutionized the wig industry, “fake eyelashes” have given way to lash extensions. Bearing such brand names as Xtreme Lashes, NaturaLash, NovaLash and Lavish Lashes, eyelash extensions have proven especially beneficial to women whose eyelashes are lightening, shortening and thinning with age.

Application is pain-free. Best of all: eyelash extensions need no mascara or curling. Eyelash extensions offer more than meets the eye, says Phyllis Baker, founder of Denver-based NaturaLash — which, like the Spring, Texas-based Xtreme Lashes, offers products and application training. A transformation via eyelash extensions “just changes your face,” Baker says. “It opens it up and makes you look younger. The time-saving factor, I think is a plus. I always wore lots of mascara. I have not worn mascara for three years now. It’s just wonderful.”

Eyelash extensions — which one client refers to as “lash therapy” — have transformed the spa business. One spa owner said that they have all but replaced the facials she once gave on a regular basis. She says their popularity upholds the old beauty adage: When a woman looks better, “she automatically feels better about herself. There’s a lot to be said for confidence and the power of beauty.”

But what’s so wrong with do it-yourself, much-cheaper false eyelashes ?

Eyelash extensions are like wearing your own eyelashes. They’re much better than the alternatives, the majority of women have problems putting on strip lashes and keeping them on, or straight.

Extension lashes come in different lengths — 6 millimeters to as long as 17 millimeters. There are also different thicknesses. Thick lashes gives more fullness and volume to the look. The number applied depends on how many lashes the person has. Eyelash extensions shed as the wearer’s natural lashes shed, so customers are encouraged to go in for touchups every two weeks or so.

Eyelash extensions can even be studded with Swarovski crystals. The holiday season is coming, and just putting a few crystals around the eye for your New Year’s party or your Christmas party just makes your eyes sparkle.

Experts emphasize that women should beware of going to just anyone for eyelash extensions. At this time, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration is not regulating eyelash extensions because they are bonded to the natural eyelash hairs, not the skin.

But because improper application of extensions can cause damage to the eye, reputable companies sell their products only to those previously licensed as cosmetologists, aestheticians or health-care professionals such as registered nurses or physicians. New eyelash technicians must become certified through training.

Because of the newness of eyelash extensions in their current incarnation, there’s a lot of confusion out there. People mistakenly think the eyelash extensions are a surgical procedure. They get them mixed up with eyelash transplants, which are surgical.

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