New procedure offered at Duke promises permanently curled eyelashes

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Ladies, we love big, curled lashes. At times, we will go to great lengths to get the right amount of volume.

Erica Sudya knows the struggle all too well. Her lashes weren't stellar. In fact, she'd say they were more of a bother, saying they rotated down.

"They were always in my field of vision."

She tried eye lash curlers of all sorts, every kind of mascara, lash lifts, and lash extensions.

"I probably spent thousands of dollars."

Nothing gave her lasting results, until she discovered a new, and thought-to-be permanent, treatment at Duke Aesthetic Center: Laser lash.

The procedure is under the direction of it's pioneer, Dr. Julie Woodward.

"Eye lash curlers, which there's five hundred of them on the market, are just a temporary daily fix. So our eyelash permanence, this actually cures the etiology of the problem, which is the eyelashes are growing downwards. It corrects them at the root by tilting the roots of the eyelashes upwards," Dr. Woodward said.

Sudya's before and after reveals a dramatic difference. Four weeks post procedure, her lashes are still curled.

Now she says her lashes are "not in my vision anymore, and I don't have to put barely any mascara, you can actually see that I have lashes!"

With the laser lash treatment, patients do need someone to drive them home post procedures. Doctors say patients should be able to get behind the wheel the next day.