Oedipdal Complex

Silly me. All these years I've been under the impression that eyelashes exist to protect our eyes from the myriad particles that could otherwise land on our unsuspecting eyeballs, causing irritation and colorful language. So, for fuck's sake, can someone kindly explain to me why it is that the fucking eyelashes themselves are so often not the remedy but instead the precise cause of irritation, quietly removing themselves from their neat little row and either a) attaching themselves annoyingly to the inside of your eyelid, where they float around just long enough to cause squirming, or b) poking you repeatedly in the eyeball until you're forced to violently rip it right out of your head? Just wondering.