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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – First there was Brooke Shields, then Virginia Madsen, and just before her career exploded with Homeland, Claire Danes became the face of Latisse®.
How times flies! It hardly seems like five years ago that the eyelash lengthening drug Latisse (bimatoprost ophthalmic solution) 0.03% first exploded onto the beauty scene. Latisse just celebrated its fifth anniversary, much to the delight of dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons, as well as delirious long-lashed women. I was one of the early users and watched my own puny lashes grow over the first few months of dedicated applications. The results are simply amazing.
Lattise® was another happy accident – like BOTOX® was for wrinkles. It all started when glaucoma researchers noticed that patients using Lumigan® were looking different. Not only did their eye pressure decrease, but they also sprouted longer, thicker and darker eyelashes! Latisse is actually a variation of Lumigan, and both are manufactured by Allergan along with BOTOX® Cosmetic. Since its launch, 2.5M bottles have been sold.
Now five years after the federal Food and Drug Administration gave its coveted nod to Latisse for “inadequate” eyelashes, researchers are realizing that Latisse may actually help treat hair thinning and pigment loss elsewhere on the body.
With age, comes wisdom, says New York Dermatologist Doris Day. Currently, off label uses include the lower lashes and sparse brows. The drug is only FDA approved for use on the upper eyelids.
But there is a clinical study underway looking at Latisse to grow eyebrows (so many of us have overplucked, overwaxed and over-threaded when the brow style was more pencil-thin a la Marlene Dietrich than bold and beautiful like Cara Delevingne, only to regret it now that bushier brows are back in vogue). Another study is investigating Latisse for lashes for people who may have lost their lashes while going through chemotherapy to treat cancer. Other studies are looking at Latisse as a possible solution for thinning hair on the head, which of course, would be the Holy Grail.
Oculoplastic Surgeon Steven Fagien, MD, in Boca Raton, Fla., was one of the original clinical investigators for Latisse. “The active ingredient in Latisse, an analog of a naturally occuring prostaglandin, places the follicles (hair roots) that are often times at rest, into a more continuous growth phase, which accounts for the dramatic effects,” he says. “It also stimulates melanin (the pigment) in the follicles, so lashes grow darker as well.”
Fagien tells patients to use it every day at bedtime for the full 16 weeks to get the best results. Latisse can more than double lash fullness in 16 weeks. “They can taper off at that point when they are excited about the achieved length, thickness and color,” he says.
Unfortunately, lash challenged women outside of the U.S. are eagerly awaited the arrival of Latisse. According to Fagien, “Latisse is currently approved or going through clinical trials in just about every region of the world.”
Side effects may include transient eye irritation, redness, eye dryness and itching, lower eyelid skin darkening, but fortunately these are pretty uncommon. If you stop using Latisse, your lashes will gradually return to their former state.
Aren’t you just a little bit tempted? In honor of this auspicious anniversary, Allergan just launched a unique lash-visualizing app called iLash studio. The app lets lash-challenged individuals snap a self-portrait and see how Latisse can transform their lashes. Latisse is by prescription only – you can find a doctor near you on http://www.latisse.com. Sign up to get $50 voucher off Latisse, which is now available at a reduced price of only $160.00 for 5ml, which is about a two or three month supply.
Wendy Lewis is President of Wendy Lewis & Co Ltd Global Aesthetics Consultancy, author of 11 books and Founder/Editor in Chief of http://www.beautyinthebag.com