Why men are shaving off their eyelashes

More than just a pretty feature lashes serve a purpose in protecting our eyes Yet particular men are seeking strategies to trim or get rid of them altogether More than just a pretty feature lashes serve a purpose in protecting our eyes Yet chosen men are seeking techniques to trim or get rid of them altogether CNN From stopping dust and dirt getting into the eyes to prompting our blink reflex eyelashes do more than just look pretty Which makes it hard to explain the social media trend of men trimming down or even entirely shaving off their eyelashes in a bid to look more masculine Videos posted to TikTok Instagram and X in latest weeks show men braving blades very close to their eyes in barber shops from Turkey to New Zealand in a quest for stubby lashes While several barbers are seen wielding buzzing electric clippers others are freestyling with just a pair of hairdressing scissors and hopefully a steady hand Eyelashes are vital for both visual experience and eye healthcare commented Vickie Lee a consultant ophthalmic and oculoplastic surgeon at Imperial College London in an email interview As well as acting as a barrier and a trigger for the protective blink reflex eyelashes help reduce airflow over the eyes maintaining moisture keeping the eyes healthy and settled filtering intense sunlight reducing glare and improving visual quality While Lee commented eyelashes follow a natural expansion cycle shedding and re-growing over time she added that there are several reasons why removing them per the methods seen on social media is a bad idea Improper removal can lead to complications Cutting or trimming eyelashes can cause discomfort and irritation as it can leave a sharp stubby end rubbing on the ocular surface she noted not to mention the vulnerability of causing likely injury to the eye The rise of masculine potency Lustrous lashes have been a signifier of femininity or attractiveness for centuries depicted in art including works by John Singer Sargeant and Pablo Picasso poetry Thomas Hood and literature F Scott Fitzgerald And there may be an evolutionary imperative too Scientific research from detected that women with more attractive faces also possessed higher levels of the female sex hormone estrogen which equates to increased fertility and fecundity genetic traits that are appealing in reproductive terms But in this day s increasingly masculine political surroundings fueled by controversial online manosphere figures such as Andrew Tate and tech bro jocks like Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg who in recent times voiced his advocacy for more masculine force in the corporate world telling podcaster Joe Rogan in January A heritage that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits it is easy to see why certain men are eager to repress anything about their appearance that could be construed as overtly feminine Even Vice President JD Vance an outspoken defender of men s right to masculine urges has fallen foul of new masculine beauty standards when it comes to his eyes During his televised voting debate in October the internet was awash with speculation that Vance had worn eyeliner to achieve his dark heavy-lashed look The chatter became so widespread that disgraced former Republican congressman George Santos weighed in Vance does NOT use eyeliner he wrote on X at the time I ve met him in person before he was a senator and I can confirm he has long eyelashes and they cast a shadow on his waterline Grow up people While none of the eyelash-shaving barbers approached for this story replied to CNN s requests for comment I do speak to one long-lashed male friend -year-old Spencer Bailey I ve got a lot of flak over the years about my thick dark eyelashes stated the London-based IT professional But I definitely wouldn t take the clippers to them Comments are usually from other men who say they re girly despite the fact I m also -foot- and ask if I m wearing eye makeup or more in the past few days if they re fake My wife likes them but they seem to really bother specific guys After decades of decline gender traditionalism is on the rise among Republican voters in the United States according to up-to-date input cited by The New York Times In the Views of the Electorate Research Survey run by The Democracy Fund foundation in conjunction with YouGov which was carried out after President Donald Trump s re-election in November Republicans increasingly endorsed what the survey called traditional notions of masculinity with more than three quarters of Republican men and women agreeing with the view that what it means to be a man has changed and I don t think that has been good for society The same investigation detected that of Republican men agreed that women should return to their traditional roles in society significantly up from May when the figure was The proportion of Republican women agreeing with the comment meanwhile increased from to in that time Who wants thick long lashes While these opinions are just that or at least there is little evidence that these thoughts have translated into real-world behavioral changes more women of prime age are employed than ever before and rates of marriage and childbirth are declining it s a stark reversal of the trends of the past half century in which time the percentage of respondents in the American National Vote Studies ANES saying that women s place is in the home decreased steadily from almost in to in when the survey s researchers stopped asking the question With women increasingly being perceived and treated as less than men it is perhaps no surprise that particular men are eager to avoid being perceived as feminine The more conservative regressive or perhaps the more traditional a society makes itself the more it will really endeavor to try to create two genders who look very different to each other Meredith Jones honorary professor of gender studies at Brunel University of London reported CNN in a telephone interview Eyelashes are a strong binary Jones stated There is at this moment a fashion for one sex to have eyelashes which are outrageously long thick and black These are seen as an indicator of high uber femininity and therefore the opposite has to be true for the opposite gender The example of JD Vance being mocked for the appearance of wearing eye makeup during the electoral process was fascinating Jones added Because President Trump obviously wears makeup but his makeup endeavors to make him look more tanned more toned more chiseled more masculine Meanwhile influencers and celebrities appear to be eschewing bold lashes in what has since been dubbed the fullfacenomascara movement Could women also be moving away from the archetypally feminine big eyelash trend While the no mascara trend has been gaining traction with a growing number of people showcasing their natural lashes as part of a broader shift towards minimalist beauty mascara remains one of the majority of widely used cosmetic products Clare Hennigan principal analyst of beauty and personal care at research firm Mintel advised CNN In fact it remains the preponderance commonly applied eye makeup in the US she noted indicating that the no-mascara trend will take considerable time if ever to gain widespread adoption But trends are indeed cyclical And for every action there is a reaction pointed out Jones Fashions spring out of the times we are living in she revealed The s were a classic example One of the complaints of conservatives during that period was that they could no longer tell the difference between men and women due to the prevalence of bell-bottomed trousers and long hair worn by both sexes In the s in reaction to conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher London s club fashion became very adventurous These movements are consistently cyclical The-CNN-Wire Cable News Grid Inc a Warner Bros Discovery Company All rights reserved Source