Why You Shouldn't Trust a Brand-New Lash Course From a Brand-New Lash Artist

In 2010 I paid a salon for a set of lash extensions and they were bad. Two weeks later I was enrolled in a lash course. That bad set is the reason Lash Tribe exists.

Back then the problem in our industry was secrecy. Nobody shared anything. You paid for a course, got a certificate, and then worked the rest out on your own clients.

So I started the Lash Tribe Facebook group to share what I knew for free. It had over a thousand members in the first week. That told me how many lash artists were stuck with questions and nobody to ask.

I was also one of the first to bring out an online eyelash extension course. A lot of what is taught in other courses today goes back to that same base knowledge. Unless a truly new technique comes along, the basics have not changed.

The problem in 2026 is the opposite of secrecy. There is too much information, and a lot of it is wrong. And anyone can now turn that wrong information into a lash course over a weekend.

I know how, because AI is what I work with every day now. My daughter runs the Lash Tribe shop, and I help business owners grow faster with AI through my other business, JulAi. So this is not me being scared of AI. I use it more than almost anyone you know. That is exactly why I can tell you where it goes wrong.

Are AI-written lash courses any good?

Usually not, unless an experienced lash artist has checked every line. Anyone can make one in a few hours now, and the result looks professional. You type "write me a 10 module classic lash course with a manual and a quiz" into a tool like ChatGPT, and a few minutes later you have all of it.

Add a logo, a pretty cover and a sales page (AI writes that too) and you have a "lash academy". No years on the lash bed needed.

There is an even quicker way. You can buy a ready-made lash course, put your own logo on it and sell it as yours. That is called white-labelling, and it has not helped our industry.

If two courses or two blogs sound almost the same, that is usually why. They came from the same place.

From the outside you can't tell the difference. The manual reads well. The modules have sensible names. The problem is what is inside.

Why does AI get lash facts wrong?

AI writes the answer that sounds most likely, based on everything it has read on the internet. It has no way of knowing which parts of that are true.

A tool like ChatGPT learned to write by reading an enormous amount of text. Blog posts, forum threads, product pages, social media captions. From all of that it learned which words usually follow which other words.

So when you ask it about lash glue, it does not go and check a chemistry book. It gives you the most common version of what people have written about lash glue. If a myth has been repeated in a thousand captions, the myth is the most common version.

It has never held a pair of tweezers. It has never had a client's lashes fall off in three days and had to work out why. And it writes the wrong answer in the same confident voice as the right one.

Using AI to grow a business is one thing. I teach it my brand voice and it helps me write a social media post. Using it in place of knowledge is completely different.

You would not become a doctor by asking AI. You would study. Lashing is the same, because we are working on people's eyes. A trainer who lets AI write her course never had to learn it herself.

To be fair to AI: it is a great tool when the person using it knows the subject well enough to catch the mistakes. An experienced lash artist can use it to tidy up her manual. Someone who has been lashing for eight months can't tell which half of the answer is wrong.

Which lash myths are all over the internet?

Plenty, and these four come up again and again. I have written about all of them on this blog over the years, so you can check my working.

Ask AI about any of these and you will often get the myth, because the myth is what is written most. A course built that way passes the myth on to you, and you pass it on to your clients.

Why does it matter how long your trainer has been lashing?

Because the things that go wrong in lashing only show up over years. A trainer who has not seen them yet can't teach you how to handle them, and can't spot it when AI gets them wrong.

Your first year of lashing is mostly learning to isolate and place. You have not yet had the client who reacts on her third fill. You have not lashed through a humid Brisbane summer and a dry winter with the same glue. You have not felt what five years of fumes can do to your own body.

You don't become a professional at something in a few months. It takes years of practice, failure and dedication. Years of different clients, and of working out what works and what doesn't. You can't learn that in one year. It is impossible.

I got a lot of this wrong first. It took me years to work out what my room was doing to my glue. That is the part you are paying a trainer for. You are paying for the mistakes she has already made, so you don't have to make them on your clients.

So why would you learn from someone who has been lashing for less than a year? What is she teaching from? If it isn't her own experience, it came off the internet.

How do you check a lash course before you pay?

Check the teacher first and the course second. Ask these six questions before you hand over any money.

1. What year did the trainer start lashing? Ask her straight. A real trainer answers in one second.
2. Has she worked on paying clients for years? Look for her own sets going back a long way, with fills, not only fresh full sets from last month.
3. Does she explain why? Why the glue cures, why humidity matters, why a lash pops off. A copied course tells you what to do. An experienced trainer tells you why.
4. Are the testimonials from real people? Names, faces, student sets. Vague praise with no name tells you nothing.
5. Who answers when you get stuck? Ask what happens when your retention drops in week three.
6. What certificate do you get, and who recognises it? Ask before you pay, and check it with your insurer.

One honest note. A new course is not automatically a bad course. A lash artist with ten years behind her can release something brilliant this year. And being around since 2010 does not make me right about everything. The date on the course is not the test. The years on the lash bed are.

What do lash artists say after training with someone experienced?

The same thing keeps coming up: they thought they knew it, and then found out how much was missing. These are my students, in their own words. I have left the screenshots exactly as they sent them.

"When I started Lash Tribe I was 'self taught' volume. I had done what many gals do and watched you tube. I practiced and thought I had it down."

Anjelica Struble

"I have been lashing for 5 years... I have learnt more by Julia's online course than any other course I've done over the years."

Sarah Pigdon

"As a lash tech with 4 years experience, I wanted to solidify my knowledge to ensure I'm still up to date. I was amazed that I learnt many things I didn't know."

Jay Chapman

"After previously doing a volume course at a different company and not feeling like I got much out of it, I enrolled in the Lash Tribe online volume course and was blown away by how well put together and thorough the content was."

Alana, Amh Lash Studio

"My confidence has increased tremendously and I have gained SO many new amazing customers."

Amy Vermeulen

"The online class goes through everything in so much detail, much more so than the one-on-one training I paid for to get certified in classic lashing."

Erica Marie Attia

"Anyone who is serious about a career in the Eyelash Industry should do this course."

Amanda Patterson, Founder, Lola Lashes

And a few more, because one or two happy students could be luck:

"From day one starting the course I felt like wow this isn't as hard as I was imagining!"

Chelsea Dufficy

"First online course I've done, and I'm loving it! Not only am I learning mega volume but I have improved and learned new things with all my lashing."

Julie Panisiak

"I got my certificate for this course last week but I just wanted to share how happy I am with my progress! This was my first set on a person and then the set I did yesterday."

Kailey Schoeman

Look at how many of them had already done a course somewhere else, or had been lashing for years. They were not beginners who knew nothing. They had been taught the surface and not the reasons.

A lot of my students who are still lashing today, with successful businesses of their own, have been with me from the start. They learned the original methods, and they are still using them.

Questions lash artists ask about choosing a course

P.S. If your retention is the thing driving you mad right now, start here: 6 Tips on How to Make Eyelash Extensions Last Longer.

Julia Mann

Lash Educator & Business Coach

Lash industry expert since 2010. Founder of Lash Tribe. Forbes-featured entrepreneur, international speaker, and business coach helping lash artists build profitable businesses across Australia and worldwide.