Premade Fans 101
Our social media accounts have been overwhelmed with posts, both negative and positive, about premade fans. Some of you have grown to love them and others think they are damaging and detrimental to our industry.
No matter what side you are on, let’s take a moment to breakdown the premade fan dilemma.
Most people when referencing premade fans, are speaking specifically about the ones created by manufacturers with bases attached by heat or glue bonds. The bases, in the past, have mainly been chunky and boxy creating issues with attachment and retention. Recently, more advanced techniques to create fans have been introduced by manufactures and the bases are becoming slimmer resulting in a better connection when attached to the natural lash. They come in a variety of widths, curls, diameters, lengths and sizes.
Premade fans are great for artists struggling with fan creation and attachment, that are slower in their application and want to cut down time, and those who want to focus more of their time on the actual application vs fan creation.
Premade fans are generally a higher price point and will increase your cost per service vs creating your own fans. You will require a variety of curl, length, diameter and width choices on hand, to be able to customize a set based on your client’s natural lashes and desired outcome.
Now, recently our industry has introduced handmade fans that are created before the lash service or during the lash service by a lash artist. Handmade fans ARE premade fans, there’s no two ways around it.
So why is there such a big stigma around manufacturer premade fans but yet, premade fans created by an artist are considered acceptable? The usual answer is – they are damaging and are setting the industry and our artistry up to fail. Many artists reject premade fans as part of our industry based on the thought that they are not well made and open up a door to uncertified/unlicensed artists to skip educating themselves and begin offering services without training to unsuspecting clients.
At the end of the day, no matter the industry, there will be people out there that will try to cut corners, such as not becoming certified to learn the proper steps to apply lash extensions safely. But that shouldn't stop our industry from progressing and using tools such as pre-made fans, to assist certified artists, who do not cut corners and have learned to safety apply extensions to the natural lash. The lashing industry should offer products and techniques to assist certified artists, in expanding their artistry and lashing services.
There’s no right or wrong answer here. This is an agree to disagree situation. Our thoughts, it is just another product option available to artists, just like a tweezer, and we are sorry to say, for those that are anti premades, that it’s here to stay. Our industry will continue to grow and with that will come new ideas, technology, techniques, products and procedures, that my friends, is a guarantee.
Choose to focus your energy on what works for you and not what other artists are using or doing. Don’t succumb to the pressure that you can’t explore premade fans or other controversial products and techniques, because of other artists opinions. Premake your fans, or don’t. Buy premade fans or don’t.
