Good retention (lasting power) of eyelash extensions is key to building a loyal clientele. However, retention is often the number one enemy of lash technicians. So how do you achieve good retention and build a solid clientele?
We will cover various points to help you best resolve this problem.
1. Understand your environment
The first point concerns your work environment, that is to say the room where you carry out your services.
This room should hold no secrets for you, you must imperatively be equipped with a hygrometer in order to have permanent control over the temperature and humidity of your work space.
The cyanoacrylate present in the glue is an ingredient very sensitive to variations in heat and humidity, without control of your room you will not be able to intervene in order to work in the ideal conditions recommended for your glue. For example, our glue, BUTTERFLY BOND is used between 18 and 27°C and 45-80% humidity. But BE CAREFUL, this is a cross rule, in other words, you should never be at 18°C and 45% humidity or 27°C and 80% humidity, the heat must increase/decrease in the opposite direction of the humidity.To give you a simple diagram:
- HIGH temperatures, HIGH humidity = Your glue's drying time decreases (it hardens faster than the time indicated on the bottle)
- LOW temperatures, LOW humidity = your glue's drying time increases (it hardens more slowly than the time indicated on the bottle)
2. Adapt your work to your environment
Now that you have the necessary information about your environment, you should act accordingly to ensure optimal retention.
If your room is hot and/or too humid:
- Big investments: Air conditioner / Dehumidifier / Wine cellar to store your glue
- Small investments: Cleanser instead of Primer
If your room is cold and/or too dry:
- Big investments: Heating / Humidifier
- Small investments: Primer / Booster / Superbonder
For example, if your room is warm but dry, use your air conditioner combined with your humidifier to achieve ideal conditions (20-22°C / 50-55%), then do your usual CLOUDY BATH shampoo and use your BUTTERFLY CLEAN cleanser, finally finish your installation with a superbonder like FAIRY BOND .
2. Analyze your client's eyelashes and adapt your protocol
Your clients are all unique, their eyelashes are different, and you must adapt your protocol according to the nature of your client's natural eyelashes. Indeed, you must analyze the porosity of your client's eyelashes in order to maximize your retention on them. Porosity corresponds to the capacity to absorb moisture.
- The low porosity eyelash is an eyelash whose scales are closed, to open the scales and create the ideal adhesion with the glue it is necessary to use products with a high pH (alkaline) such as the BUTTERFLY PREP Primer and/or the FAN RESCUE booster.
- The porous eyelash is an eyelash whose scales are open, so to close the scales a little or keep them as they are and create a magnet effect with your glue you must use products with an acid/neutral pH like the BUTTERFLY CLEAN Cleanser.
3. Apply your extensions correctly
How you apply your extension plays an extremely important role in its retention.
- Eyelash by Eyelash: Stop simply dropping your extension over the natural lash, it is necessary to ensure that the base of the extension is perfectly glued. To do this, exert slight pressure on the extension while holding it when you are gluing it to the natural lash. The little extra: use flat lashes like the ELLIPSE COLLECTION , which allows for better adhesion between the natural lash and the flat base of the extension.
- Russian Volume: "Wrapping" is THE technique for perfect retention in Russian volume! It consists of wrapping the bouquet around the natural eyelash, creating a sort of "ring" that is around the natural eyelash. To achieve this, you must, when you stick your bouquet, exert slight downward pressure for 0.5s.