How To Avoid Body Aches When Lashing

When I used to lash full time, I was the only one that didn’t get back pains and the reason why is that I talked to a doctor about it. I was lashing 7 to 8 hours a day without a break, the first few months were very busy and I was always slouching down and that’s when I felt some pains but I addressed it straight away and the doctor told me how to sit and that I need to have a lash pillow to put my client’s on, I didn’t have this one yet in the very beginning and luckily these pillows just started coming out.

One of the biggest issues when lashing is that when we’re sitting down all day we need to try to have a straight back and if we do lean forward a bit, don’t use the muscles in your back, instead try to tense and tighten your core.

Here are some of my tips that you can follow to avoid body aches when lashing:

Tip no. 1: Strengthen your core muscles when you’re working on your clients and stop compensating with your lower back. Trust me this will help you from intense pains of your lower back. I’ve been doing some core exercises and lifting some weights and the core strength exercises help with my posture.

Tip no. 2: When you’re client is lying on a pillow, sometimes it’s difficult for lash artists to see the lash line and a lot of time it’s too far away from you right? 

• Make sure that their head is tilted back a little bit so you can see into their lash line and you need to have a good supportive pillow so that their neck wedges a little. 

• The exact height of your client from you should just be between your boobs area so you don’t have to lean as much, I literally just look at the lashes in that position and I have the tile close to me on the side, it’s a really good posture to work with.

• Move your client’s head slightly from each side if you can’t properly get into their lashes, you can ask your clients to move it or you can do it yourself. Don’t be shy to ask them it’s not a big deal, your clients will love it because trust me they don’t want to be in that same position the whole time.

 Tip no. 3: Have enough nutrition because your body will go through all kinds of inflammation and things will start aching if you don’t have the proper nutrients. A good diet and a little bit of exercise are also needed. 

• Do exercises like weight training and strengthen your muscles, especially your core. 

• Eat properly, remember that if you don’t eat you’ll experience fatigue and body pains because bad nutrition equals inflammation in your body. 

• Nourish your body with a lot of vegetables or fruits and load up with enough protein, if you don’t eat you’ll lose energy, feel tired, experience mood swings and have that after lunch slump where your body thinks it needs sugar but the truth is your body just doesn’t have enough nutrients.

• Hydrate well, drink at least 3 liters of water every day, if you don’t get enough water the nutrients in your body will not be broken down properly, so always carry a bottle of water with you at all times.

Tip no. 4: When your hands are aching this is due to stress because we tense our muscles more when we’re stressed out and if you’re constantly in the same position you’ll get muscle fatigue, the way to prevent this is to stretch your hands and fingers for two minutes or so, twist your wrist and relax your shoulders, you can do this while sitting down behind your clients or when you’re on a quick break. Also make sure to relax your eyes, do this by shutting your eyes for about 3 seconds every few minutes to lubricate it and avoid dryness or you can use some eyedrops as well if you carry one.

Tip no. 5: Let me address the knee issues if you’re replacing the glue or the strips from the lashes, just get up and move around a bit, flex your knees, twist your ankle for better blood circulation. You have to take those minutes out of your day if you want your body to still function in 20 years so take care of your body more.

I know being in the service industry we’re all about pleasing our clients, sometimes we may feel like we can’t take care of ourselves but it doesn’t have to be that way, make sure you have a 10-15 minute break between each client to have some water or toilet break, eat lunch and relax a bit so that you can take care of your body.