Aesthetics Professional

Not all exfoliating methods are created equal, especially when it comes to treating ethnic skin. In order to provide your patients of color with safe and effective exfoliation procedures, it is imperative to understand the differences in the structure and function of ethnic skin. As we become a more blended global society, many patients we treat will have mixed heritage. Even a patient who has very light skin, but has Asian, African, or Hispanic ancestry will need to be exfoliated with more gentle techniques as if they were a patient with very dark, Fitzpatrick VI skin.

Human skin, like all other organs, undergoes chronological aging. Skin aging is characterized histologically by irregularly dispersed melanocytes, elastosis, reduction, and alterations in collagen and accumulation of a variety of lipid-derived pigments such as chromolipoids and lipofuscins. These internal and silent histological shifts manifest clinically in the skin and the visible benchmarks are identified by fine and coarse wrinkling, roughness, laxity, dryness, sallowness, pigmentary moddling, and actinic keratosis conditions.

What common link is the primary foundation of skin aging? The environment. Skin in direct contact with the environment undergoes all consequences of environmental damage causing dry skin, thereby exacerbating aging. Aging skin slows down the cellular renewal process and dry skin is attributed to faulty desquamation, decreased water-retention ability, and increased thickness of the stratum corneum due to the impediment of normal skin cell exfoliation.

We have all heard of lymphatic drainage and many of us actually perform the treatment regularly for our clients. Therefore, it would stand to reason that the fundamentals of this therapy should be common knowledge among skin and massage therapists. However, as amazing as it may seem, many therapists are quite perplexed by this modality and do not have the level of knowledge needed to be able to execute the treatment safely and effectively, as they are unaware of the functions and intricacies of the lymphatic system itself. However, when performed by a well-trained practitioner, lymphatic drainage can actually help treat a plethora of skin and body ailments.