skin analysis, why so many questions?
The most important part of any skin therapy treatment is the initial client skin analysis.
Without it you may as well be baking a cake without knowing the ingredients and then not following the recipe. You can mix everything together in a bowl, pour it into a dish and put it in the oven… but when it comes out the other end the result is going to be unpredictable and looking nothing like a show prize winning sponge.
It might taste ok, it is still cake after all, but it wont look exactly like you want it to. And if you over cooked it… well there’s no coming back from that!
Not all recipes are right for every skin type.
By gathering as much information as possible during an advanced skin analysis, you are able to ensure that you can create a customized recipe for the skin condition and skin type that is in front of you. It’s about being a master chef of skin and knowing exactly how to get those ingredients to work together to give a beautiful end result.
Treating without a thorough consultation can leave you making assumptions that are not customised to each client. This leads to the potential results being vague or non-existent and increases the risk of creating further damage to the intricate cells structures and functions. You cant come back from an over cooked cake, no matter what you try!
When a client visits my studio, the first thing I do is to begin to understand the journey they have been on.
Their skin story started long before what I see presented before me and depending on what recipe’s and ingredients they have tried before, it may or may not affect the new recipe I cook up for them.
A Skin Analysis begins with a discussion to determine the length of time they have had this skin condition, how it has changed and progressed over time and how it has made them feel. By understanding this journey it allows me to further understand the leading cause, the level of cellular damage and the correct course of treatment for their individual needs.
Having a clearer idea about a clients diet, health and lifestyle history, gives clues as to what the underlying cause or contributing factors of their skin condition might be and how we can tweak all aspects of the recipe to ensure that we are managing all of these things.
In the consultation I will find out if perhaps treatments they have had in the past have potentially contributed to the current health of their skin, or if it has helped to improve the way the skin is functioning. Knowing this also helps me determine the way this clients skin may respond to my customised treatment program or if it will even respond at all.
An Advanced Skin Analysis helps you to understand extrinsic and intrinsic factors or a skin’s condition. Some we can improve others we cannot. Despite the heavy marketing of treatment modalities and product lines being ‘suitable for all skin types’, putting all skin conditions into one basket leads to a ‘one size fits all’ mentality. But every skin is different. An incorrect treatment choice can exacerbate the condition; sometimes in the case of pigmentation this can be irreversible. This is why a thorough skin analysis is vital to our clients’ treatment success.
An intimate knowledge of cellular structure and function is extremely important as a skin therapist, more so than any other hands on skill.
Many therapists graduate with confidence in the ‘how’ to perform a treatment, but they lack confidence in what is happening to the skin on a cellular level. How does that treatment modality affect the keratinocyte and the wound-healing cascade? What other cells are involved in the story and how will the chosen modality affect them? Have I prepared the skin as best I can?
Knowing your cells and systems is vital to the results of any skin treatment program. Without consulting the findings of a skin analysis, you are just going through the motions of a treatment, believing that the results will show up at the end. But no two skins are the same so to achieve results, your program will always vary, based on the information gathered at your skin analysis.
Article by: Spabeauty NZ, Robyn McAlpine