Messy Eyelash Problem/Question

[Whirlwind22]

Alright, so I'm 31 years old and am a little frightened to publicly ask this, but...

My entire adult life I've had eyelashes any woman would die for. They are long, thick and grow relatively fast. The trouble for me is that they are so long, and also very messy. They constantly poke and irritate my eyes. Not only do they poke and irritate the outside of my eyelid, they also tend to flop down into my eye (where it's wet, which then they stick there...) and cause even further irritation.

Because of this, I've developed a bad habit of picking at my eyelashes. Mostly I only do it when I'm bored at work, and I find I revert to picking at them which obviously makes the problem worse. Of coarse, because I tend to pull them out, they grow back and become even more scraggly.

Anyone else have this issue? Anyone have any solutions? I'm afraid to admit that I think raiding my girlfriend's eyelash makeup would probably solve my issue, but I don't know if my "manhood" would ever recover from it.

 

[Superfluous Man]

I too have extremely long lashes. I used to trim them but gave up about a year ago. Grab your girlfriends makeup mirror and a small pair of scissors. Start from the outside and take very small amounts off with each pass. Better yet, have your girlfriend do it for you.

 

[texas_jack]

Yeah, that's weird dude. Jerking out your eyelashes is not normal.

 

[sho'nuff]

that's crazy dude! never heard of a dude who had such long lashes it would stick to his eye surface.

i wish i had longer eyelashes so i can achieve a prettier face. i love it anytime a woman compliments me on anything i can conjur up for them to compiment me on. it just makes my day. lucky for you. keep them. dont trim them. put masscara on them and make lemon out of lemonades. if anyone tries to tease you just look them in the eye and say "are you done?" theyll stop.

 

[Whirlwind22]

Haha, yea it's no joke. I guess the greater problem is more that because they are so long, they get scraggly and tangled up in the corners of my eyes, which causes irritation because they poke my eyelid in the corners of my eye. Because of that... I pick at them. And the more I pick at them, the worse it gets. And to top it off, the ones I work loose end up in my contacts.

Bottom line... I need to find a way to stop picking at them. (Obviously) So anything I do... trimming, girlie makeup or otherwise... would be 100% to facilitate not picking at them. I have tried trimming them several times, however that only seems to make it worse because it makes them feel even more prickly against my eyelids.

I halfway suspect that if used something (mascara, or even a curler) to keep them out of the way for a while long enough to get me to stop picking at them... the problem would go away. Since it seems to be that they irritate my eye a bit, so I pick them. Then they get more scraggly from the constant picking, so they get more annoying... etc. So if I could just get them to start growing normal again without me picking at them...

Obviously I already have ideas to answer my own question before posting this thread, however I'm more curious to hear if I'm just that "unique," or if it's a lesser common issue that others might have better advice than I can give myself.

 

[pebblegrain]

you have 2 separate problems. 1: you may legitimately have long lashes. I bet it is much less worse than you make it sound. I know a guy who had long lashes and it took me over 5 years of knowing him before I even noticed. He said he hated them. He looks normal. 2: you suffer from Trichotillomania. It is a habitual urge to pull your own hairs out. I conjecture that this picking is the cause of your irritation and that the actual length of your lashes is not related to it, except that you have an psychological eyelash complex. Your eyes are irritated because you pick at them. Think about it: many women have long lashes and they don't go around with irritated eyes on days where they aren't wearing makeup. They are perfectly fine. I'm almost afraid to ask, post a pic of your eyes...

 

[Whirlwind22]

I bet it is much less worse than you make it sound.

You're probably right. I want to believe that I have abnormally long lashes, because I don't want to have to say "I have a psychological problem" with picking them. And also, just to note: I could care less how they look to be honest. It's simply that they feel scraggly and annoy my eyes, and then I pick at them.

... Now as to what came first, the chicken or the egg?

I conjecture that this picking is the cause of your irritation and that the actual length of your lashes is not related to it, except that you have an psychological eyelash complex.

Although I will say that the problem for me is by far nothing debilitating or disruptive to my ability to go about my normal life: It just annoys the crap out of me some times. That said, I will admit that the above statement is probably 100% spot on. Reason? Days that I don't worry about them, they're not bothering me and... I'm not picking at them. Days that they are bothering me? Guess what... I've been picking them.

Solution? Admit to myself it's psychological and stop picking them.

 

[kaiserkarl]

i feel ya brau. it's hard to be man pretty.

i never thought they grow back of you cut them though.