While most of us think of eyelashes as only another feature that can draw attention and add beauty to our eyes, they actually serve a very important purpose, they protect our eyes from dust, sweat and other foreign materials. If you have some accident or medical issue and you’ve lost your eyelashes, you are probably wondering: do eyelashes grow back?

Eyelashes, just like all the other hair on your body, do have their own unique life stages. They will grow, fall off and more will be regrown.  They do shed and break off in between the growth cycles but if you maintain good overall hygiene, you can keep that to a minimum.

There is a name for each unique phase: anagen, catagen, and the telogen.  The anagen phase is when your eyelashes grow. This phase will last almost two months, about 7 weeks. At any given time you’ll have about 1/3 of your eyelashes in this growing phase.

The catagen phase is the phase when the growth is on hold for about 3 weeks. And last, but not least, the telogen phase. This is the phase when your lashes will fall out.

Obviously, since under normal circumstances you never lose all your lashes at the same time, the answer to the question: ‘do eyelashes grow back’ would be ‘yes’.  You will have some eyelashes in each of these three stages at all times.

The growth rate will vary from person to person. One of the best things you can do to increase your own growth rate is to avoid those things which are bad for you. Cut back on alcohol intake, stop smoking, eat plenty of nutritious foods and drink plenty of water. By keeping your body healthy on the inside, you can increase the growth of your eyelashes on the outside.

Of course, if you have suffered some sort of trauma or damage to your face or you are under enormous stress or other conditions that threaten your health, this normal growth stage can slow down or even stop. Eyelashes are hair and just like the hair on your head, if you apply harsh chemicals too often that can have a negative impact on the growth. This can usually be reversed with a little time and TLC.

If you find you are not regrowing your eyelashes you should take a trip to your doctor. This lack of growth is very likely a sign of some underlying health issue. That doesn’t necessarily have to be serious, but it should be taken care of, and not just for the sake of your eyelashes.

More often than not, you can simply take some vitamins, eat better, get enough sleep and cut back on some of the garbage you put in your body and you will see an increase in growth.

So, do eyelashes grow back? Yes they do, but only if your body is healthy enough to do it’s job properly. And don’t forget, just like the hair on your head gets damaged with too much styling, the same can hold true for your eyelashes. If you’re good to your eyelashes, your eyelashes will be good to you.