An ingrown eyelash is a lash that curves inward toward the eye instead of growing outward. You can often spot it by looking closely at the eyelid margin: one or more lashes will point in the wrong direction, touching or pressing against the surface of the eye. The surrounding skin is usually red and slightly swollen, and the eye itself may look irritated or watery.
How to Spot an Ingrown Eyelash
The most obvious sign is a lash visibly growing toward the eyeball rather than away from it. If you pull down your lower lid or lift your upper lid in front of a well-lit mirror, you may see a single lash (or a small cluster) curving inward and making contact with the white or clear surface of the eye. The lash itself looks normal in color and thickness. It’s the direction that’s wrong.
Around the misdirected lash, the eyelid margin often appears red and puffy. You might notice a small area of swelling right at the lash line where the follicle is irritated. In some cases, the lash doesn’t just angle inward but actually becomes trapped beneath the skin of the eyelid, forming a small, tender bump similar to an ingrown hair anywhere else on the body. When this happens, the follicle (the tiny pocket of tissue the lash grows from) can become infected, turning the bump more painful and sometimes producing a small amount of pus.
What It Feels Like
The sensation is hard to ignore. Most people describe a persistent feeling of something in the eye, like a grain of sand that won’t rinse out. Because the lash is physically scraping against the cornea (the clear front surface of the eye) and the conjunctiva (the thin membrane lining the inner eyelid), you’ll typically experience redness, excessive tearing, and a gritty irritation that worsens with blinking. Light sensitivity is common too, especially if the cornea has already been scratched.
These symptoms tend to be constant rather than coming and going. They persist as long as the lash remains in contact with the eye.
How It Differs From a Stye
It’s easy to confuse an ingrown eyelash with a stye because both cause redness and tenderness at the lash line. A stye, though, is a bacterial infection of a lash follicle or oil gland. It shows up as a painful, pus-filled red bump right at the base of a lash, and it looks a lot like a small pimple. The key difference: with a stye, the lash itself is growing in the correct direction. The problem is infection, not misdirection.
With an ingrown lash, you can usually see the offending lash pointing the wrong way. A stye doesn’t involve a lash touching your eye, so it won’t cause that constant “something in my eye” feeling. A stye hurts when you touch the bump; an ingrown lash irritates the eye surface itself.
What Causes Lashes to Grow Inward
The medical term for this condition is trichiasis. It happens when a lash grows from its normal position but curves toward the eye instead of away from it. Several things can trigger it.
Chronic eyelid inflammation, called blepharitis, is the most common culprit. Over time, the swelling and oily buildup along the lid margin can distort the follicle’s angle, sending new lashes in the wrong direction. Blepharitis itself is linked to conditions like seborrheic dermatitis (dandruff of the scalp and eyebrows), rosacea, and allergic reactions to eye makeup or contact lens solutions. Long-standing blepharitis can even cause scarring of the eyelid edges, which permanently changes how lashes grow.
Other causes include eye infections like shingles of the eye (herpes zoster), trauma or burns to the eyelid, and autoimmune conditions that scar the inner eyelid. In some cases, the eyelid itself turns inward (a condition called entropion), pushing an entire row of lashes against the eye.
There’s also a separate condition called distichiasis, where an extra row of lashes grows from the oil glands deeper in the eyelid. These extra lashes are often thinner and softer but still rub against the eye.
What Happens If You Leave It Alone
A single misdirected lash might seem minor, but constant friction against the cornea does real damage over time. The lash repeatedly scraping the eye’s surface can create tiny abrasions that make the eye vulnerable to infection. If left untreated for months or longer, this ongoing irritation can lead to corneal scarring, which affects vision. The longer the lash stays in contact with the eye, the greater the risk of permanent changes to the cornea.
How Ingrown Lashes Are Removed
The simplest approach is epilation, which is just a clinical term for plucking. An eye care professional uses fine forceps to pull the offending lash out at its root. Relief is almost immediate because the source of friction is gone. The downside is that the lash regrows in about four to six weeks, and when it does, it usually comes back pointing the same wrong direction. So epilation works well for quick relief but needs to be repeated.
For a more lasting fix, several procedures can permanently destroy the follicle so the problem lash doesn’t return. Electrolysis uses a small electrical current applied directly to the follicle. Cryotherapy freezes it. Laser treatment burns it away. Success rates vary: electrolysis performed on the lower eyelid tends to work better than on the upper lid, and experienced practitioners achieve higher success rates after a single session. Some people need a second round.
If the underlying problem is entropion (the whole eyelid turning inward), a minor surgical procedure to reposition the lid may be needed to prevent lashes from repeatedly growing into the eye.
Risks of Removing It Yourself
Plucking an ingrown lash at home with tweezers is tempting, but it carries real risks. The skin around the eye is thin and delicate, and working that close to the eyeball with a sharp instrument is difficult even with a steady hand and good lighting. If the lash breaks at the surface instead of pulling out cleanly, the broken shaft can continue irritating the eye while being harder to see or grasp. Pulling at the follicle with unsterilized tools can also introduce bacteria, turning a simple misdirected lash into an infected follicle that’s more painful and slower to heal.
If you’re dealing with a single lash that you can clearly see pointing the wrong way, an optometrist can remove it in minutes during a routine visit and check the cornea for any scratches the lash may have already caused.