Popular: Debenhams has reported a 1,000 per cent increase in the sales of false eyelashes in the last year
When it comes to a woman's eyelashes, fashion dictates that big and batable is best.
But it seems the popularity of false eyelashes has fuelled an unwelcome side effect.
The news comes after thousands of women crashed the Boots website as they clamoured to get hold of a new 'miracle' eyelash thickener.
Growing numbers of women are turning to hair transplant surgery after damaging their natural lashes through repeat use of false ones and extensions, experts said.
A specialist in intricate hair transplant surgery has been approached by more and more young female patients left with a bald patch on their eyelid.
The glue used to fix the lashes can pull natural eyelashes out as the fake set is removed, and if repeated frequently can stop hair growing.
Such is the popularity of false eyelashes - sported by celebrities from Cheryl Cole to Katie Price - that some women wear up to three pairs at the same time for maximum impact.
Dr Bessam Farjo, of the Manchester-based Farjo Medical Centre, said: 'We're seeing a significant number of enquiries from patients who have suffered from damage caused by repeatedly wearing false eyelashes.
'As with any hair follicle, eyelashes will cease to grow if they are repeatedly plucked out at the root.
'Hair transplant surgery may seem like an extreme solution, but in many cases it's the only way to restore hair permanently,' he said.
His £3,000 procedure removes hair from the back of a patient's head and implants it into the eyelid. The implants grow just like head hair and need regular trimming.
The surgeon then threads the hair through the upper eye lid in the same spot that the natural eyelashes would grow. Any number of lashes from just a few to up to about 50 can be 'transplanted' this way, under a local anaesthetic.
They are then cut to the appropriate length and the patients has to trim them.
Over the last twelve months, Debenhams reported a 1,000 per cent increase in sales of fake eyelashes.
Pandemonium: The Boots website was crashed as women raced to buy the new eyelash enhancer
More than 1,000 women had already joined a waiting list for the £39.99 RapidLash Eyelash Enhancing Serum, which went on sale yesterday.
The 'miracle' serum claims to boost the length and thickness of eyelashes by fifty per cent with daily use.
Yesterday a tube of the serum was sold every minute in Boots stores as women dashed to the shops on lunch breaks or on the way home from work to snap up the new product.
And last night the website was so inundated with women trying to snap up tubes of the serum online that it crashed under the strain.
A spokesman for Boots, who are selling the product exclusively, said it had been one of the most popular lines it had ever stocked.
The product could go on to become an even bigger sensation that Boots' flagship anti-aging serum, No 7 Protect and Perfect.
A 2007 BBC Horizon programme showed how the £19.75 cream reduced the appearance of lines and wrinkles more effectively than any of its more expensive rivals
At one point a pot of the cream was being sold every ten seconds and Boots was forced to draft in emergency supplies.
Like Protect and Perfect, the new Rapidlash serum is reported to have produced startling growth in trials.
If applied nightly,. the clear serum is said to make eyelashes to appear significantly longer after just four days.
Some testers reported that friends had asked them if they were wearing false eyelashes after they had been using the product.
'I have been lucky enough to trial this product for Boots, and have been using it daily for the past four months,' one tester said.
'Put simply, this product is amazing!
'It really delivers its promise as my lashes are now fuller, thicker and considerably longer than before.'
A spokesman for Rapidlash said the response to the product had been 'out of this world.'
'Women have been telling other women that it has worked for them,' a spokesman for the company told the Daily Express.
'Rapidlash is particularly good for women with sparse lashes or even eyebrows, and can really help to boost self-esteem.'
The active ingredient in the serum, prostaglanadin, is a compound which helps gells to multiply and replenish themselves.
It is also used in treating the eye condition glaucoma.
There has been a huge scramble to develop a lash-lengthening product since it was noticed that eye drops designed to treat glaucoma had the side-effect of making lashes longer.
Although the product does not actually claim to make lashes grow faster, it contains a treatment that conditions the lashes, giving them the appearance of being thicker.
Impressive clinical trials show it gives up to 50 per cent longer-looking lashes, so long as you use it daily for eight weeks.
The science is expected to soon be applied to regular mascaras.
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