Things You Might Not Have Considered When You Started Learning Volume Eyelash Extensions
Adding volume lash extensions to your repertoire will significantly increase your pool of potential clients – not only are volume eyelash extensions incredibly versatile, but you can also merge the two techniques together to also offer hybrid lash extensions. Needless to say there are some differences between classic extensions and volume lashes that go beyond aesthetics which you need to be aware of if you stand a chance of pleasing your clients right from the beginning.
It Takes Way More Practice
This is not to say that classic lash extensions are easy to get to grips with, but you should be prepared for how different lashing with volume lashes feels. This isn’t designed to put you off – quite the opposite! Knowing that you’re about to take on a challenge will hold you in good stead when it comes to learning volume lashes for the first time. If you’ve mastered one type of lash extension, it’s reasonable to believe that you’ll be a pro at all of them, but the fact of the matter is that volume lashes are wildly different from classics.
The best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Keep your volume tweezers close to hand along with a box of volume lash extensions, and just keep making fans between clients. To begin with, it can be really tricky and frustrating, but at some point, you will see that your fans become consistently neat and even.
Once you feel confident making fans, you’ll need to get used to application. By and large, applying a volume fan is pretty similar to applying a classic lash, but it can feel daunting to some lash technicians because they have a wider base by default and they feel a little bit different to hold with your tweezers than a classic lash. If it’s something you’re really struggling with, ask your most patient friend if they don’t mind you applying a few lashes for them, and if you don’t have any patient friends (as a lash technician, it’s likely that YOU are the patient friend of the group), look at getting a mannequin head for lash practice – these will never complain about how long you’ve been working on them, and they won’t mind if you want to test out a new lash mapping style on them either, so they are pretty good to have around.
TOP TIP: What makes a volume fan perfect? A perfect fan is one which:
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Is about one third leg, two thirds fan,
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Has a neat base with no lashes sticking out at strange angles,
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Has an even space between each lash in the fan.
There Are So Many More Options
If you were a little overwhelmed by all of the classic lash extensions on offer, brace yourself for all of the volume lashes available! We do have quite a bit of information about the different types of classic lash extensions in this article, and the different types of volume lashes in this post, so check those out if you’re feeling a little unsure.
Following on from the last point, we recommend that when you’re just starting out with volume lashes, you get some 0.07 lashes in C and CC curl in mixed lengths – these will help you lash the vast majority of your clients (assuming you’re ready to lash clients already), because C and CC curl lashes are generally the most universally flattering curls, and because 0.07 lashes are the easiest to learn to fan with.
Each Thickness Feels A LOT Different
When you’re using classic lashes, a 0.20 classic lash feels pretty similar in your tweezers to a 0.12 classic lash, even though they produce very different looks. Using 0.07 lashes to create fans will feel very different to using 0.03 lashes for mega volume lashes, so the best advice we can ever give you is to be super confident with your smaller fans before you start trying to move on to bigger fans.
While we’re on the topic, it’s really easy to want to jump straight from learning how to fan to applying mega volume lash sets. This is tempting, we know, but the truth is that your mega volume sets will be disappointing to you if you haven’t mastered regular volume first.
The Timing Can Vary Wildly
Once you’re ready to offer volume lashes to your clients, you should know that volume eyelash extensions do take longer than classic lash extensions because you have to make them into fans. There are a few different methods to create fans, and it can take a little bit of time to find your favorite, but whichever method works best for you and regardless of how quick you become due to practice, it will, unfortunately, take longer than picking up and placing a classic lash extension.
While application is pretty similar in that you isolate each natural lash, dip the fan in the lash glue and place it, it can take almost twice as long to complete a volume set as it does to complete a set of classic lashes. For that reason, you need to have an idea of how long it’ll take you to complete the set before you book anyone in. Again, if you can get a friend to agree to a test set or two then this will give you a better idea of how long a set of volume lashes takes you to complete.
All in all, while it might seem like the only difference between a set of classic, hybrid, and volume lashes is the final look, there are in fact a lot of factors to consider when you decide to challenge yourself to learning new lashing techniques. Once you have mastered volume lashes though, the world will become your oyster! A wider array of looks means a wider array of clients, which can only mean great things for your lash career!
