Eyelash Transplant Performed for First Time

The market for false eyelashes may be about to collapse, thanks to a new development in the United Kingdom.

Eyelash transplants may be the new solution for patients without eyelashes.

The term for eyelash loss is “madarosis,” and this is common among those who have lost hair after chemotherapy or radiation treatment. People who suffer this kind of hair loss often rely on fake accessories, which can cause confidence problems.

The micro-surgical eyelash transplant was pioneered in the United States. But the British surgery clinic Transform recently performed the first one ever in the United Kingdom.

The operation, performed under local anesthesia, began with surgeons taking a hair graft from the back of the patient’s head. From there, they dissect the hair and placed the pieces into very small incisions that had been made in the eyelid.

This procedure takes about four hours and a patient only has to undergo it once. Within a few months, the new eyelash will fully grow in.

Transform conducted the transplant on 19-year-old Louise Thomas, who’d begun plucking her own eyelashes during infancy as part of an obsessive disorder. The operation was successful, and today, she says, she can finally wear mascara.