A woman has been left blind after a pair of false eyelashes stuck to her waterline, scraping her eyeballs raw. She says the experience left her feeling ‘less of a woman’.
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Like My Eyeballs Were Being Stabbed
A legal assistant from Bournemouth, Zowie Kinnear is not new to false lashes, but has sworn off using the beauty enhancers after her encounter with a lash beautician she met on Facebook.
She started having doubts about the beautician’s expertise when she claimed the intense stinginess Zowie experienced after the session was normal.
According to the 31-year-old woman, the fake lashes were glued to her waterline instead of being bonded to her existing lashes. In order to protect themselves from being scraped raw, her eyes naturally swelled shut.
She told of how she felt at the time as though someone was stabbing her eyeballs.
I was looking in the mirror and I could barely open my eyes. When I opened my eyes, the only way I can describe it is as if somebody had put gel in my eyes. I'm normally quite good with pain but I was in tears because it was so painful.
She was rushed to the nearest A&E the next morning, where doctors had to use specialist equipment and yellow dye to force her eyelids open for examination.
‘I Feel Like Less of a Woman’
Upon further examination, doctors found that Zowie’s eyeballs were covered in thin scratches. On top of that, she said she reacted pretty badly to the yellow dye that was put on her eyes.
When I came out of the hospital I started being sick. I started coughing up all this yellow stuff that they'd put in my eye. I didn't know what was going on - there was just yellow stuff coming out of my nose and my mouth. It was horrific. I thought I was going blind and dying.
She was advised by the doctors to return to the beautician who fixed the lashes to have them removed. But according to Zowie, when she got there, the lady told her she was too busy to attend to her.
Zowie has since regain her sight but has to constantly wear sunglasses due to sensitivity. She said:
I feel like less of a woman. I used to wear lashes a lot, but I don't wear them anymore. I'm just too scared.
She decided to share her ordeal to caution young women about the risks involved in fixing false lashes and the importance of going to a qualified beautician.
