Eyeballs do not want to be touched.
I mean, have you ever put fingers, algae-filled lake water, or shampoo in there? Yeah, that gets your eyes screaming in pain pretty quick, doesn’t it? Unless you’re using Johnson & Johnson’s No More Tears shampoo of course, in which case feel free to lather your eyeballs right on up, no worries.
But seriously, your eyes have their own plumbing system so they’re pretty self-sufficient. Technically they’re called tear ducts but they may as well be called Eye Toilets because they just flush your eye out. Nope, no need for any assistance folks, because your Eye Toilets have it all under control. Dust, dirt, tiny little microscopic bugs — flush, flush, flush away.
Yes, your Eye Toilets are really quite good at their job …
… unless, of course, a rogue eyelash gets in there! Yes, when a rebel lash quietly unhinges itself from the confines of your eyelid and attempts a poorly planned escape to freedom it’s not good. If you’re like me and are cursed with poorly-attached eyelashes, then your lashes just give up and die all the time, flipping down into your eyeball and annoyingly scratching and clawing you right in the cornea. The Eye Toilets start madly flushing, but to no avail — that lash is just sticking in there tight and it ain’t budging.
Now, I don’t care how many barfights you’ve been in or how many times you’ve been shot, you know as well as I do that when there’s an eyelash in your eye it’s incredibly painful, it’s incredibly annoying, and it requires a ton of focus to get through. You might even have to try one of these eyelash-removing methods:
- The Pinch and Squeeze Method. This is where you close your eye real tight, and then pinch ‘n’ squeeze all your eyelashes outwards, hoping to grab onto a tiny piece of the rogue lash and pull it out, too. I recommend doing this one first to see what happens. You miss here, you still got plenty of options.
- The Get Someone Else To Blow Into Your Eye Method. If you’re the blowing friend, you can either do a Surprise Blow to prevent the blowee from defensively closing their eye just before you do the deed, or you can do the real surgical technique, where you get them to lie down, hold their eye open, and line up your blow exactly at the eyelash. That last one takes trust and a very dry, stiff blow. Think mighty birthday candle blowout not warming up your hands at the bus stop in winter.
- The Hard Winker Method. A solo sport, this is where you just keep winking your eye really, really hard and hope the lash will eventually ‘pop out.’ Not a bad technique, though sometimes the act of hard winking just forces that eyelash in there deeper. Bit of a double-edged sword.
- The Eyelid Flapper. My friend Scott taught me this method when we were little kids. You just pinch the skin of your eyelid with your fingers and keep popping it in and out real fast until the lash gives up and lets go. This method is a little bit gross to look at and comes complete with a marvelously wet and disgusting suction sound.
- The Wash. If nothing else works, I guess you can always just splash some water in there. Or, if possible, use one of those dusty eyewash stations hanging out in the back of the woodshop. I’ve always wanted to see someone use one of those things. They look like they’re from a 1950s version of the future.
Anyway, whatever your strategy, one thing is certain: You aren’t doing anything until that eyelash comes out. You might get the job done in five seconds, you might work at it for ten painful minutes, but whatever the case, whatever your style, it sure does feel good when that eyelash finally does get out of your eye. Suddenly the sun rises again, the weight is lifted, and your life can get back on the road and just keep on trucking.
AWESOME!
Photos from: here, here, and here
53 Comments
October 10, 2008 at 3:11 am
Or you can pull your top lid over your bottom lid, that’s supposed to work!
March 23, 2010 at 9:41 am
The best thing to do is… take a nap. Earlier around 2 a.m. in my sleep, something was in my eye (eyelash). I tried to get it out by tearing up my eye hoping it would come out. It didn’t, but I was already very very sleepy so I just witheld the pain and tried to fall back asleep hoping my eye wouldn’t be hurting when I woke up.
Of course, when I woke up, the eyelash is gone and my eye is no longer hurting. Try this if your able to go to sleep easily. :p
July 1, 2010 at 1:48 am
That always works for me! :]
October 10, 2008 at 9:45 am
My mom has this ancient eyewash thing that basically looks like a tiny glass birdbath, only instead of a birdbath, it’s an eye-shaped cup on top of the stem. You just put some warm water in there, position the eyebath tightly around the eye socket and then flip your head back like you’re doing a tequila shot. If you have a good seal around your eye, you can blink a few times while your head is flung back.
October 10, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Such relife IS awesome
If you poke the eyelash with your finger it will useually stick to the finger(if you dont blink halfway through that is)
October 11, 2008 at 3:10 pm
PMSL. Very funny, you guys. :)
October 12, 2008 at 1:13 am
This is probably totally unsafe, but I did it anyway. I use my nail and kind of manuever the lash out.
November 20, 2009 at 11:15 pm
hey
October 12, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I have long eye lashes and they always fall into my eyes. I use a wet Q-tip to get them out.
July 1, 2010 at 5:01 pm
THANK YOU!! I used a Q-Tip and it came right out of my eye! :D
October 31, 2008 at 9:52 am
if you can’t see the eyelash, you can soak a cotton ball in lukewarm tea and then wash your eyeball out by squeezing it in the corner of your eye closest to your nose.
November 2, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I always just poke the eyelash with my finger. It’ll stick to my finger more often than not, and I’m already used to fingers coming at my eyes because of my contacts.
November 17, 2009 at 12:25 am
i do the same thing. silly rouge eyelashes.
June 14, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Same, their so painful, why do rogue eyelashes want to hurt us so much?
August 31, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Ive only been able to use this method after getting contacts and its definately the easiest and fastest way, such a relief when it comes out
November 12, 2008 at 3:17 am
another tip to receive this awesome relief…
force a yawn or two to make your eyes tear up (if they’re not already flowing profusely),
tilt your head forward and turned to one side…
use gravity to pull the object to the corner of your eye and dab it out with your fingertip…
unobtrusive and works.
AWESOME!
December 22, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I use the corner of a dry tissue to pick up the eyelash. The tissue dries off the lash and the area around it, allowing it to un-stick from the eyeball. Discovered this method when I once got an entire long strand of hair (!) stuck. That was hell to have wrapped about inside my eye.
November 2, 2009 at 1:12 am
That happened once to my big brother. He asked me to look at his eye cause it was hurting and I ended up pulling (and pulling and pulling and pulling) out this really long hair. The scary thing was that he and I and most people we knew all had short hair so we had no idea where it came from!
November 22, 2009 at 12:23 am
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!!
December 28, 2008 at 7:00 pm
jd, my dad has the same thing….works very well!
January 12, 2009 at 12:02 am
[...] Body buzz. Studies show that emotional crying (versus dry-eyes crying, onion crying, or eyelash-in-your-eye crying) actually releases a bunch of wacky hormones that relieve tension by balancing your body’s [...]
January 23, 2009 at 2:02 am
[...] Body buzz. Studies show that emotional crying (versus dry-eyes crying, onion crying, or eyelash-in-your-eye crying) actually releases a bunch of wacky hormones that relieve tension by balancing your body’s stress [...]
January 30, 2009 at 11:14 pm
This always happens to me. It you don’t get them out, your eye just bothers you and turns red.
April 8, 2009 at 8:59 am
Just wanted to know what could be done for a buddy of mine who has a severe eyelid problem in his right eyelid.It flips into his eye.It is very bothersome and painful.Do you think it would be okay to just pluck all of his eye lashes from his bottom eyelash,being that its the one that flips into his eye?Any kind of advise, would be helpful for him.
Thank you so much ,and God Bless.
May 29, 2010 at 1:43 am
did he take it out tell me how he did it
August 10, 2010 at 9:00 pm
He needs to go see an Ophthalmologist to get his eye lid corrected. There are special surgeries that can correct this problem.
May 6, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Or even better is when you get it BEFORE it goes in, but right when it’s dangling on the edge of your lid precariously, as if to taunt you: “Oh! Oh..I’m almost in! Can you catch me? Look- oops! A mm. more and I’m there” and then WHAM! You grab it before it can complete its violation.
I just got an eyelash out of my eye that was in there for TWO DAYS. Oh how I wish I could have stopped it before it began its reign of terror….
June 28, 2010 at 1:33 am
i have an eyelash that has gone into my eyelid and to far to do much about, my school nurse said to see a physician but i am not doing that, its jabbong into my eye currently, nothing is working how did u get urs out?
May 11, 2009 at 3:27 pm
thankyou sooooo much i used the grabbed your lids then pull them out then in it work all most instantley after hours of other methods
August 12, 2009 at 12:35 am
I would usually try blinking to get the eyelash reveal themselves and then push the eyelid (from the outside) to an edge (I prefer the one closest to your nose) so that it’ll be easier for me to pull it out. Speaking of that, I just got out 5 eyelashes out of my system (3 of them were clumped together and 2 of them were hanging like there’s no tomorrow). I’m still trying to get this last eyelash out x.x;;
August 20, 2009 at 7:17 pm
you know, blowing in the eye can cause viral and bacterial conjunctivitis, which is wayyy more painful and long lasting than a simple eyelash.
Don’t have someone blow in your eye. that’s bad.
D:
August 21, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I have had this one eyelash stuck in my right eye for a couple of days now and hurt when I close my eyes to sleep. I can’t seem to get it out but I know it’s in there….Will this do anything to my eye and will it ever come out?
September 19, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Well… You have to find out where the pain is coming from. Then look there.
September 1, 2009 at 4:51 am
I just rub the eyelash out with my finger :D
September 19, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I just rub my eyes towards the edge where the ‘sleepy seeds’ come out. Then pull it out. This happens to me about three or two times a week.
October 13, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I swear that eyewash station picture was taken in my old high school. I understand that they all look the same..but man that just took me back to sophomore year. I have also wanted to see someone use the shower, that’d be extremely fun to watch.
November 2, 2009 at 4:34 am
I loved this article more than you can imagine. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s two-thirty in the morning but your sense of humor cuts me to my ripe, ticklish core that forces me to laugh even though I risk waking up family members. Thank you.
November 13, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I always just close whichever victimized eye that’s suffering and keep rubbing with my finger in the direction of my nose. Eventually the eyelash will move all the way to that little crease where the tears are pouring and it comes right out
November 16, 2009 at 3:10 am
NON OF THESE IDEAS ARE WORKING FOR ME AND MY EYE IS GETTING MORE AND MORE RED AND ITS BURNING AND VERY WATERY.
January 2, 2010 at 12:33 pm
how’s your eye?
January 4, 2010 at 12:49 am
NON OF THESE WORK BECAUSE MY EYE IS HURTING MUCH MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 21, 2009 at 7:32 am
I wear contact lenses, so I’m really used to touching my eyeballs a lot and retrieving foreign objects out of my eye.
I usually just lightly touch the eyelash, and it sticks to my finger almost always. And if it happens to get stuck underneath my upper lid, I pull my eyelid outward and taut (grab by the lashes), blink rapidly, and it always seems to either fall out or migrate to the bottom of my eye. Then I do the finger thing.
November 29, 2009 at 9:18 pm
THESE DONT WORK!!! my eye– it BURNS!!
T-T *tears*
December 15, 2009 at 10:32 am
My eyelash has reached a new level of derp. It fell out when I was putting in my contacts and it stayed in me eye…and now part of it has penetrated my upper eyelid.
I spend 15 minutes digging it out with no avail.
January 2, 2010 at 12:35 pm
How do you get a super tiny grain out of the eye??
January 4, 2010 at 12:52 am
I THINK U SHOULD GET A Q -TIP AND PUT IT IN YOUR EYE WERE THE LASH IS AND RUB IT OUT AND IT FINNALY WORKS FOR ME
February 22, 2010 at 6:38 pm
[...] and I used to steal a bean and sniff them) #893: Orange slices at half-time (HS LAX days!) #920: Getting the eyelash out of your eye [...]
April 28, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Figures, while reading this article, I get an eyelash problem. You are a jinx!
May 26, 2010 at 11:40 pm
ahhhhh!!!!!! its hurting even more
May 29, 2010 at 6:27 am
AWESOME !
Your posts are awesome !!!
June 1, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Usually, I just wet my finger, locate the eyelash, stick my finger on my eyeball (where the eyelash is) and it comes out because of the wetness on my first try… it’s kinda like putting on your contacts. some may argue you can get bacteria in your eye, but obviously you wouldn’t be putting a finger full of mucus near your eyeball. if you are extremely sensitive to close objects near your eye, then this is probably not recommended for you. hahaha.
July 2, 2010 at 9:42 pm
I dont know what to do, I get eyelashes in my eye a lot and usually in the past I have been able to remove them by making them stick to my finger. Now it looks like I have one in the dreaded under the eyelid, as the article says it is extremely painful if it catches the wrong part of the eye. For me when it happens I am scared to close my eye (if open) and if it triggers the pain my eye slams shut pressing it down making it even worse, I have to ride it out whilst the eye fills with fluid which eventually relieves it. Yesterday after the fluid relief I went to sleep and woke up today hoping its a while before it kicks off again but I feel it now close to a critical part of my eye causing discomfort. It seems to be in the top right of my left eye and also feels like something is at the bottom right as well. The problem is I know if I close my eye with any pressure it will kick off and probably will kickoff if I try to grab my eyelid. I am considering calling an ambulance (is 2am) and asking them to knock me out at the hospital and then whilst I am asleep to try and remove it. Do doctors do that sort of thing, because trying to do it whilst someone is awake sounds very disturbing.
August 5, 2010 at 1:16 am
yeah but it sucks when your hands are a little dirty and then they sting afterwards, not too fun :(