Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.
Let’s get it right from the start, anyone, any skin type, any skin color is at risk for skin cancer. Indeed, nobody is safe from skin cancer. Skin type and skin color do not fully protect an individual from skin cancer. Skin safe, sun safe practices do protect and do help in skin cancer prevention.
Lynne Kurashima, Hawaii Licensed Aesthetician, says, “It’s a misconception that darker skin types think they’re fully protected.” This common myth continues today because of the belief that darker skin types have natural melanin protection from solar radiation exposure.
What to Know before Purchasing an LED Device for your Spa When it comes to anti-aging treatments, aestheticians today certainly have many choices. From lasers to peels to oxygen facials, spas can offer countless ways for their clients to combat the signs of aging. One popular new option is LED (light-emitting diode) therapy. This treatment involves exposing the skin to specific LED lights, which in turn can stimulate collagen production and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
For many years, acids were the profit-producing darlings of the skin care industry and skin care professionals believed they were the answer to younger-looking and acne-prone skin. But now, with new products and services developing, the days of ‘always make’em peel’ are moving into the past and professionals are coming to believe acids should not be the only tool for anti-aging, but a tool-among-many. More and more are utilizing them in specifically indicated cases only and are finding other alternatives available to them.
Compared to a chemical peel, microdermabrasion offers the benefit of more precision and enhanced results, with no down time. Treatments are arranged as sessions generally as part of a four to eight visit strategy, with the goal of accelerating the regeneration of cells to the outer surface of the skin. This article will provide additional applications and describe alternative therapies, as well as delineate contraindications.
Equilibrium We grapple daily to stay on top of elements that threaten our health and well-being. The need for equilibrium is dire. The concept of a medi-spa is not mysterious in the least. Neither is it new. Indeed, it’s such a natural union of spa and corrective, aesthetic medicine that one wonders why the idea hasn’t hit center stage earlier. In these times, it’s easy to forget that a holistic approach to medicine and well-being has been a long time coming. For quite a while, medical practice has been, for want of a better word, largely conservative, with “alternative” approaches sidelined to the secondary.
In a 16-year career as a licensed aesthetician, nothing made the experience more rewarding than the people I was privileged to serve. And, while some clients were more memorable than others (for every conceivable reason) a notable handful unintentionally left valuable, indelible lessons for which I’ve long been grateful. Those accidental teachers might never have been encountered in any other career—the cyclical visits or extended time together in safe seclusion—an uncommon characteristic of most working environments. We may meet and touch thousands of people during the full term of our professional lives so it would be a wonder that a few of them wouldn’t somehow alter the course of it slightly or substantially.
Vibrational healing or medicine is a term used to describe the modalities that influence the energy fields and centers of a person in order to bring about healing. Combined with aesthetics, the practice of advanced skin care, powerfully effective treatments designed to promote inner and outer (and therefore longer lasting) healing are very possible. The modalities of vibrational healing use a number of vehicles, including the five senses, flower essences, and vibrational frequencies. Light therapy, homeopathy, and flower essence remedies are examples. The principle of activity in all of these is that everything, even down to cells has a vibrational pattern that equals healthiness.
When we feel “out of balance” it is often a reflection of too much stress, which ultimately, if not taken care of, will manifest into a physical symptom and may lead to illness. We live in a symptomatic society. When illness is present, we immediately take a pill or call our family doctor to remedy the situation with a prescription. After taking a pill or seeing the doctor, we feel better, everything is ok until we get sick again and this continuous cycle keeps going.
I’m a big fan of imperfection. Believe it or not, I view imperfection as the ultimate goal of a professional skin care practice. This may come as a jolly surprise to my employees, who know that my management style is hardly laissez-faire. I have a fixation for hospital-cleanliness, for instance. To paraphrase the great Robert Duvall character in Apocalypse Now, I love the smell of Windex in the morning. Clutter bugs me, and I don’t know how otherwise reasonable people can work in it. Until quite recently, I could not tolerate denim worn in the office (I’ve never been a fan of “Casual Fridays”), because I thought it brought out the most slovenly tendencies in people.
These days, it's easy to get distracted. The real trouble is, the distractions take our attention from the issues which really count - client service being key among these. We are such sensory beings, and barraged as we are with marketing messages, a simple trip to the store may turn into a phantasmagoric trip down the rabbit-hole. When I buy groceries, I will often see shoppers, apparently from other places, who cannot hide their amazement at the shampoo aisle of my local supermarket. Has washing your hair ever involved so many decisions? The same goes for purchasing a pair of blue jeans.