Ingrown Eyelash Pain After 50? A Doctor Reveals Sneaky Causes, Including Lash Serums
Everything from a sluggish thyroid to normal aging can trigger this pesky problem
How can something so small feel like a dagger in your eye? Anyone who’s experienced the pain and irritation of an ingrown eyelash has probably asked themselves this question. That’s why we had a top ophthalmologist weigh in on the common—and not-so-common—causes of ingrown eyelashes, as well as surprising risk factors and simple remedies that can help.
What is an ingrown eyelash?
At first blush, an ingrown eyelash may seem straightforward enough. But that’s not always the case, says ophthalmologist Anat Galor, MD, a professor of ophthalmology and visual science at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and staff physician at the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “I’d say it’s actually a little more complex than you might think.”
“I wouldn’t even necessarily call it an ‘ingrown eyelash,’” she continues. “It’s more that the eyelash ends up somewhere it shouldn’t be. Sometimes it’s completely detached and just floating around in your eye while you’re trying to get it out. Other times, the lash turns inward but is still growing from the normal place. And in some cases, it actually grows from the wrong place altogether.”
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“There are medical terms for all of that—like trichiasis [the eyelash growing inward toward the eye], distichiasis [an extra row of eyelashes irritating the cornea] or sometimes it’s just a loose lash. But from the patient’s perspective, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s trichiasis, distichiasis or a detached lash. The end result is the same: it’s really annoying. You just feel like something’s in your eye.”
Common types of ingrown eyelashes
As Dr. Galor all too relatably puts it, our risk for many health conditions increases with age—and ingrown eyelashes are no exception, since the eyelids can undergo a number of changes over time. Here, she shares a few common types and causes of lash and eye conditions that may irritate the eye:
Inward turning of the eyelid
“One example is when the eyelid itself starts to roll inward,” she says. “When it’s episodic like this, we call that spastic entropion, and when that happens, all of the lashes can periodically touch the eye.” Causes may include recent eye surgery, inflammation or infection as well as the natural aging process.
The tricky thing about diagnosing this condition? It doesn’t happen all the time—it can come and go—so it’s sometimes missed, reveals Dr. Galor. “In the clinic, we have ways of trying to bring it out so we can see whether the eyelid is briefly turning inward and causing the symptoms. In that situation, it’s not just one ingrown lash—all of the lashes are turning inward. And typically, that’s something we treat with surgery.”
A few ‘wayward’ lashes
Other times, it really is simply one or two lashes that are misdirected. “In those cases, we often just pluck them and see if the problem resolves,” Dr. Galor says, adding that there are also certain factors that make “wayward” lashes more likely:
- Lash-growth serums like Latisse: “When lashes grow very long, they sometimes start pointing in different directions,” Dr. Galor notes. “It can be a bit of a blessing and a curse—you get these gorgeous lashes, but one of them might go rogue. I’m not saying don’t use these serums, but it’s good to know that longer lashes can increase the chance that one grows the wrong way.”
- Thyroid disease: Some people—especially women—can lose hair when they develop thyroid problems, and that can include eyelashes. “In those cases, it’s not that the eyelid is turning inward,” Dr. Galor explains. “Instead, a lash simply sheds and ends up falling into the eye. Sometimes it only happens once, but in conditions like hypothyroidism, it can happen repeatedly.”
Dr. Galor acknowledges it’s really irritating when this happens. “We usually tell people to try not to dig around in the eye to get the lash out, because that can cause more irritation. It’s better to try gently flushing the eye with eye wash or lubricating drops.”
Certain autoimmune conditions may be to blame
Dr. Galor says the first step to treating or removing an ingrown eyelash is determining whether something is serious or simply annoying. “For patients, it can feel irritating, but for doctors, the key distinction is whether it’s vision-threatening or not—that’s really how we partition the world.” When in doubt: Visit your eye doctor.
Here, she shares few rare causes of inward-turning eyelashes that might impair vision if left untreated:
Cicatricial disease
Autoimmune disorders are important to rule out. “Cicatricial disease is a medical term for scarring in the conjunctiva—the tissue lining the eye—that can pull the eyelid into an abnormal position and cause the eyelashes to rub against the surface of the eye,” she explains. There are many possible reasons someone might develop this kind of scarring, but the key is recognizing and treating it early.
Mucous membrane pemphigoid
“One condition we watch for, though it’s not common in the general population, is a group of autoimmune diseases called mucous membrane pemphigoid,” Dr. Galor says. “These conditions tend to occur later in life, usually in people in their 60s or older.”
How ingrown eyelashes are treated
“Most of the other [less urgent] causes—like spastic entropion from aging, lash-growth serums like Latisse or lash shedding with hypothyroidism—are usually managed locally,” Dr. Galor says. “We might remove a few lashes, treat the underlying condition or correct the eyelid position with surgery.”
But if the problem is coming from a disease that’s causing scarring and changing the eyelid position, the treatment is very different. “In those cases, we often use immunosuppressive medications to control the inflammation that’s driving the scarring,” explains Dr. Galor.
The bottom line on ingrown eyelashes
Most of the time, inward-turning lashes are just annoying and relatively harmless. But occasionally, they can be a signal of an underlying condition, says Dr. Galor. “That’s why the main goal is to rule out those more serious causes—once you’ve done that, the rest is usually just about managing the symptoms.”
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