A woman shared her story on Monday about her love of lashes.
Marylia Scott lay quietly as Bianca Jackson leaned over her with tweezers and painstakingly glued a silk lash atop one of Scott's own. Scott, a waitress, said that thicker eyelashes mean bigger tips, 10TV's Andrea Cambern reported.
In the past, Scott had used a strip of inexpensive false lashes that attached with gummed adhesive. Strip lases are attached daily, Cambern reported.
"I wanted the extensions because I'm always on the go and I don't have time to put on the strip lashes," Scott said.
Scott went to a cosmetologist for lash clusters shaped like Christmas trees, called flairs. They are glued to several real lashes. Real lashes fall out after two months and new ones grow in their place. But as her own died and fell out, she got an unwelcome surprise.
"I had them for a week, and then they just started coming off of my eye, and my eyelashes were coming off with them," she said. "So it was not good. I had two bald spots in one of my eyes."
Scott came to Bianca Jackson for help. Using tweezers and medical grade adhesive, Jackson attached one eyelash extension per lash.
"They last up to eight weeks," Jackson said.
Jackson is not a cosmetologist, not licensed by the state. She had a week of training from a lash maker, then practiced for three months before she could charge for the service.
"There are people who get training, who are not licensed in the state, but technically they're probably working outside of the law," said Jim Trakas, director of the Ohio Board of Cosmetology.
Jackson said that she wants her small business work to flourish.
"Starting a business is a very difficult thing, and you want to help people start businesses, and not take that away," Jackson said.
Trakas said that it is important to ease often-restrictive rules so more small businesses can succeed. He said beauty is a one billion dollar a year business in Ohio.
Trakas said that keeping clients safe is a challenge, because there are only ten inspectors for the state's 130,000 license holders, who work in salons and spas. He said this is not the first time that beauty trend, from hair braiding to eyebrow threading, have outpaced the law. In 2007, the fad was ear stapling, to help clients lose weight.
The Ohio Board of Cosmetology ruled stapling was the practice of medicine, so it was banned from salons. In 2008, the fad was fish pedicures. Clients put feet into buckets with toothless garra rufa fish, who nibbled off dead skin. Fish pedicures were permitted.
Trakas said that it is time for new laws with flexibility to handle both change and new businesses. But they must also keep clients safe. So the Legislature is hearing a bill to overhaul cosmetology laws. The last re-write took place a decade ago. Jackson hoped it will let her to keep her eyelash business.
As for Scott, she said her eyelash extensions made her feel like a celebrity. "I feel so glamorous with them on," Scott said.
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