There is one thing in the world that most people probably want: to have longer eyelashes. So much so that they go as far as wearing imitation eyelashes on top of their natural ones.
But now, a question has taken the minds of many on the internet by storm: does crying make your eyelashes longer? While there is no scientific evidence to support this claim, it may have some logic behind it.
When you cry, your tears flow over your lashes, coating them with moisture. This can cause the lashes to become straighter and appear healthier.
We’ll discuss the question in detail here. So, read on to learn more about it.
Does Crying Make Your Eyelashes Longer?
No, crying does not make your eyelashes longer. The lubrication from the tears may make them appear slightly straighter which can give the illusion of longer lashes but they do not actually increase in length.
Types of Tears
While it is impossible to name all the reasons people cry, it is possible to classify the types of tears that come out. Below are the three types of tears:
Basal Tears
Basal tears are secreted continuously and cover the surface of the eyes. These tears help to lubricate your eyes and prevent them from drying out. However, these tears usually don’t roll out of the eyes, which makes them less noticeable. Without these tears, you may experience dry eyes.
Reflex Tears
These are also called irritant tears because these tears are released by the eyes when they become irritated. This may occur due to eating spicy food, yawning, or even coughing. These tears usually come out in bigger quantities.
Emotional Tears
These come out when any emotion is felt—be it emotional pain, physical stress, anger, or even happiness. It might be paired up with red face and eyes, sobbing, and palpitation—and it’s perfectly healthy. They come out in bigger quantities as well, just like reflex tears.
Why Would People Think Crying Makes Your Eyelashes Longer?
I’m sure you, too, wish that crying actually made our eyelashes longer. Unfortunately, it is just a myth that is going around the internet and has no scientific evidence to back it up. No type of tear can do it. But let’s understand why this question was even stirred up in the first place.
When you cry, your tears act as a lubricant—and this causes them to straighten. As a result, your lashes uncurl and seem to be a little longer than it usually does. In reality, tears have nothing to do with lash growth.
But there is another part of the story. Some scientists believe that the stress hormones like cortisol that are released due to crying affect your hair follicles. And it increases the hair growth of your body. However, there is little to no scientific data saying that it can do anything to make your lashes longer.
What Does Crying Really Do to You?
Even though making your eyelashes longer is not something crying can do, shedding tears comes with a lot of health benefits. The positive effects of crying to improve your eye health are listed below.
Releasing Stress
Stress from the outside is responsible for making people cry. But in the process of crying, the stress chemicals find a way to get out of your system. And as a result, the stress levels go down significantly. In this way, crying can be considered a natural meditation.
Crying can also be really good for your skin since stress is one of the main reasons why the condition of your skin might deteriorate. Stress is often responsible for pimples or acne breakouts. And remediation of stress can make the skin glow from within.
Provides Relaxation
Crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which puts your body to ease. After you cry for a while, the system comes into play to tell your body that it’s okay. That is when you take a deep breath, slow down and relax.
Improves Your Emotional State
If you are going through any emotional pain, crying can make you feel significantly better and a lot lighter. A good cry when you are in a bad mood can take you a long way in bettering your emotional health.
Even though it might not always seem like it, crying can be your key to a good mood. And crying it out does not make you or anyone emotionally weak because it takes guts to do so.
Keeps Your Eye Healthy
When some foreign substances or dust particles get into your eyes, the lacrimal glands secrete tears to clean your eyes up. These tears are reflex tears, and they are responsible for clearing your eyes off dust and smoke.
Basal tears or continuous tears lubricate the surface of your eyes which plays a major role against any eye infection. And then, the emotional tears help in getting rid of stress hormones, mood-regulating manganese, and many other toxins from the body. This is the self-soothing mechanism of the eyes.
Crying makes you be and feel better both physically and mentally, but it is to be remembered that excessive crying, too, is bad. It can lead to general sadness and emptiness to even psychological disorders in extreme cases.
Unrestrained crying makes the blood flow to the eyes too much, leading to dilation of the pupil and bloodshot eyes. Some cases of involuntary crying can even signify a kind of psychological condition called the Pseudobulbar affect (PDA).
Out of all the good things that crying can bring to you on the table, making your eyelashes longer is not one of them. But that does not mean that you cannot have longer lashes, even if they are just seemingly.
How to Get Longer Lashes?
The length of your eyelashes depends mostly on your genetics or the health of your eye. But not everyone is blessed with either of them. However, to save the day, there are also other ways to make your eyelashes longer—seemingly at least.
Eyelash Extension
Eyelash extensions are a great way to get a longer eyelash look. They look pretty real and stay on for 1 to 1.5 months if care is taken properly. Each lash is put on one strand after another using non-irritating glue that is specially formulated for this.
Fake Lashes
If you are looking for a more temporary solution, fake eyelashes are a great alternative to get that chic look.
You can style them however you want to. To do so, you can put the small amount of adhesive needed on the upper lash line and stick them there. They are easy to take off using a cotton swab soaked in makeup remover.
Curlers
An eyelash curler is another tool to make your eyelashes longer and voluminous. They create a lift to your eyelashes and make them seem to be fuller. It sounds illusory but creates a huge difference.
Natural Methods
Apart from all the artificial ways to make your eyelashes just look longer, there are ways to actually make your natural eyelashes longer. Just add some things to your beauty routine, and you might see significant changes in a few weeks.
Start by grooming your eyebrows properly. Brush your lashes with an eyelash brush from time to time. Remove the makeup on your eye at the end of the day and wash the area with mild soap or face wash. Lessen the use of artificial methods to maintain your lashes’ health.
You can also apply serums to your lashes to make them grow. However, not all of them are effective. So, make sure that the serum that you are using contains Bimatoprost—which is proven to work. Taking fish oil could also be a good idea since they’re shown to work to make your lashes longer and stronger.
→ Does Vaseline Make Your Eyelashes Grow?
Final Words
So, does crying make your eyelashes longer? The answer is clearly a no. But that does not mean that there aren’t any benefits to crying. Neither does it mean that you cannot get longer eyelashes in any way.
Be it for your eyelashes or not, crying is a really healthy activity that comes with many benefits to the health of your eyes and mind. So, despite your eyelashes staying the same length, you should still be grateful for this amazing natural mechanism.