The Pro-Made/Pre-Made Debate
Whether you are new to the lash industry or have been around since the loose lashes days, it is very likely that you would have come across “pre-made” and “pro-made” lashes. Now the real question is - what in the world is the difference? And why has there been such a debate in the lash world regarding the pros & cons of each? Well, I’m here to tell you - let’s get into it!
PRE-MADE LASHES
Every lash artist has gone through the struggle of learning to create a perfect, Russian volume fan. It is time-consuming, frustrating, and often wastes a looooooot of lashes, but in the end, you’re able to produce near-perfect volume & mega volume fans. Every. Single. Time. The downfall, however, is that no matter how perfect your fans are, they are never going to be as perfect as fans that are created by a machine (because what human can create work with machine-like precision?) This brings us to the holy grail of lash perfection: pre-made lashes (cue the angel choir). Pre-made lashes are volume & mega volume fans that are manufactured by a machine to absolute perfection.
The benefit of having your fans ready to go, prior to your client even laying down, is that during the service you no longer have to worry about the creation of the fans. This means faster application with perfect fans, consistently. Now, who wouldn’t want that? With the fans already good to go, lash artists can put all of their brain power towards proper isolation, application & styling of the set. This is also beneficial when working in layers and/or if you are creating a perfect top line look.
Although pre-made fans are quickly growing in popularity now, they weren’t always this way due to the quality of the fans, or more accurately, lack thereof. Pre-mades in the past were made quite poorly, with very thick bases, due to too much adhesive in the creation process, and were very hard to customize. As the industry advances, technology and understanding of lash health has allowed manufacturers and lash brands to create pre-mades that are equal to, or even better than handmade fans. They now allow for both speed in the application process as well as customization through gently peeling a single strand or two off of the fan to turn a 6D fan into a 5D or even smaller for those more fragile natural lashes. The only real adjustment that needs to be made during the application process is the customization element, and the switch from a side placement to the natural lash, to a top or bottom placement due to the flat bases of the pre-made fans. Now let’s see if pre-made fans will continue to advance in the industry as time goes on.
PRO-MADE LASHES
On the other side of the debate, we have what are known as pro-made fans. Pro-mades, similar to pre-mades, are ready to go at the start of the lash service. However, rather than creating a fan and then immediately isolating & placing it on the natural lash as you typically would, or using fans created by a machine, like pre-made fans, pro-mades are created by the lash artist prior to the actual service. The fans are created, crystallized and then placed into air-tight containers or sticky strips, organized by length to then be used once the client arrives. The great thing about pro-making fans is that they are entirely created by the artist, which can give the artist full pride in their work. They are also better for side placement on the natural lash due to the crystallization, which allows the full base of the fan to adhere to the natural lash from the side.
On the other hand, one challenge with pro-mades can come from grabbing the fans out of their containers. Instead of grabbing a fan off of a strip, like pre-mades or on-the-spot fan creation, when an artist grabs the fans out of a container they can become all jumbled up which can add a few additional seconds to each fan application, which quickly adds up over time. Pro-made fans are also very time-consuming to create. Now, not only are you spending time lashing your client, but you also have to set time aside prior to the appointment to create enough fans for the set. If you are attempting to pro-make enough fans for all of your clients, you will literally ALWAYS be lashing. For this reason, lash artists often only pro-make fans for certain clients, or for a specific set, as there isn’t enough time in a week to pro-make enough fans for a full schedule of clientele.
There are pros and cons to using either pre-made or pro-made fans for a lash set, however, what it really comes down to is what works best for each individual lash artist. Experimenting with on-the-spot lash creation, as well as both methods of “pre-made” lashes allows a lash artist to attempt new methods and develop their own personal style and process for lashing.
