Social media is full of bizarre and questionable trends. The latest involves men trimming or shaving off their eyelashes in order to appear more “masculine”.

This is yet another instance where leaving the body to look after itself is probably for the best. Our lashes aren’t just aesthetic. They play an important role in protecting our eyes. Trimming them could put you at greater risk of experiencing infections.

Eyelashes are classed as terminal hair. This means they’re present since birth. We have between 90 and 160 eyelahes on our upper eyelid and around 75 to 80 on our lower lids. They also grow pretty quickly too – at a rate of between 0.12-0.14mm a day.

While most people focus on the aesthetics of the eyelashes – with plenty of products out there claiming to change their colour, length and thickness – eyelashes actually have important functional roles. They keep dirt and particles out of the eyes, and also deflect air away from the cornea.

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This helps stop the outer surface from drying out – preventing irritation and making it so we don’t have to blink as much to keep our eyes moist. The ideal length of an eyelash is about one-third the width of the eye.

Trimming your eyelashes is going to increase the risk of infection. There’s even a risk you may catch an infection while trimming the lashes themselves. Since lashes catch particles on them, if a........

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