This Real Life Horror Story Will Make You Rethink Eyelash Extensions

Eyelash extensions are a fairly common beauty treatment and an easy way to score long, full, defined lashes 25/7—even when you’re sweating at the gym. Sometimes, however, the procedure can go very, very wrong—and the results are damn terrifying.
CTV News recently reported on a 20-year-old woman from Ottowa, Isabelle Klun, who shared an eyelash extension horror story. Klun been getting extensions every few weeks for around a year, every time she handed over about $100 and walked away with the long, defined lashes that you would expect from the beauty treatment. Until recently, that is.
Klun says she went on Tuesday to get the new lashes applied, and by Thursday, she woke up to find her eyes had swollen so dramatically, that they were almost closed. “My girlfriend had slept over and I couldn’t even see her. And, I was having a hard time swallowing and even breathing,” Klun told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

She took an Uber to hospital, where Klun says she was seen immediately. “They took me right in within seconds when they saw my face. My eyes are swollen both above and under and my tonsils were apparently really inflamed,” she explained. She was given antihistamine and steroid intravenously.
As if that wasn’t traumatic enough, her eyes were so swollen that the hospital staff couldn’t remove the adhesive suspected of triggering the reaction, and Kun says her eyes are still impacted: “There’s like a sac of fluid under my eye now. It’s so gross.”
Kun says the beautician she visited has a disclaimer on its website explaining most allergic reactions to eyelash extensions are caused by the glue used to stick each of the lashes on individually. The website suggests that any clients who may be sensitive to adhesives should test for allergic reactions first by applying a few strands and watching for a reaction, which didn’t happen in Kun’s case.
While we won’t be going anywhere near eyelash extensions for a while,  the experience hasn’t turned Kun off the treatment at all (she says she will just be doing allergy tests in the future), but she warns others to be cautious: “Be very careful where you go. These people are dealing with your eyes, with your vision.”