Home Skin Decives Can replace Professional Devices Right? By Nancy Abdou

ABSOLUTELY NOT! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HEARD THE FOLLOWING?

“The Shaver Shop sell hair removal lasers” “I have a home microdermabrasion machine at home” “I just bought a needling device off the internet” “I bought an RF device off Alibaba”

Thousands I bet! Clients can get confused, excited or lost with what’s hot and what’s not, and lose sight of the risks and benefits of these home-grade devices. While these trendy new devices may deliver some benefits, they’re not as impactful or safe as their clinic-grade counterparts. So, the best way to defend your business and its existence is by being factually armed with knowing the difference between the two grades.

We spend not only years, but thousands of dollars on our education and knowledge, as well as tens or hundreds of thousands on these devices. Here is a quick overview of what your clients don’t have or understand:

• A professional and educated assessment of the skin’s condition

• A professional and educated opinion of the best treatment for their skin

• An understanding of the Fitzpatrick Skin Typing and a lack of understanding of how darker Fitzpatrick’s respond to treatments and controlled trauma

• An understanding of how to optimise outcomes and prepare skin appropriately – internally and topically

• What the clinical end point is and when enough is enough

• What the various dangers and risks are – long and short term

• What UV exposure can do to freshly treated/ traumatised skin

• What to do when things go wrong – and they do!

HOME-GRADE VS. CLINIC-GRADE DEVICES:

Apart from experience, knowledge and education – how do the actual devices stack up against each other?

Hair removal: Both laser and IPL devices target the melanin in the hair, when the hair absorbs enough light in order for it to convert to heat, it causes destruction of the hair follicle, without overheating the surrounding skin or tissue. The darker the hair, the better the result. The darker the skin, the more risk is involved. It’s a fine balance between the two competing targets and in order to make the home device safer, power is reduced. With the reduction of power, comes a reduction of heat, thus a reduction of results. Instead of permanent hair reduction, what the client experiences is what I like to call “photo-epilation” – temporary hair reduction, since we are just gently heating the hair follicles. Not only will they need weekly treatments, as per several manufacturer guidelines, but they will also require more “maintenance” treatments, which also take longer to perform, due to the slower repetition rate and smaller spot size on these home-grade devices.

Microdermabrasion: Incorrect vacuum or grit tip leads to either undertreating the skin, not really achieving anything or the opposite; over-exfoliating and creating unnecessary trauma, resulting in inflammation and possibly post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, as well as track marks. Clients also may feel that their skin is smoother, so they tend to treat more often to keep that “softness” going, without realizing that it is detrimental for the skin to be in a constant state of exfoliation and inflammation, which leads to free-radical damage and premature ageing.

Micro-Needling:

There is a plethora of issues arising with home needling, first of all - depth of penetration. Most at home needling is performed superficially at 0.3-0.5mm, whilst clients will experience a small positive change, its not significant enough to remove needling off your menu altogether. For collagen induction, magic begins once pinpoint bleeding occurs; releasing transforming growth factors, vascular endothelial growth factors, up-regulation of interleukin-10 and down regulation of melanocyte stimulating hormone. Most educated therapists know certain topical anesthetics cause vasoconstriction, achieving that pin-point bleeding with a roller or inferior pen at home, would be very painful and slow. Speaking of slow, most clinic-grade needling devices oscillate over 70,000rpms allowing therapists to swiftly glide over the skin in under 10 minutes, achieving the desirable clinical end point, without the need of anesthetic and extensive trauma. On the other hand, devices that oscillate slower, tend to create micro-tears within the skin, which means extended downtime, erythema, healing and possibly track marks and scarring. Not often spoken about, is the application of topical products during needling or immediately post – regardless, if needling was performed inclinic or at home, including the latest fad – “BB Glow”. Applying anything other than tested and approved products may lead to unwanted granulomas, cross-contamination, infection or discoloration (caused by titanium dioxide).

Radio Frequency (RF):

RF creates bulk heating, causing denaturation of proteins, along with contraction of the collagen fibers when heated between 39 - 42 degrees. When treating within 42 - 46 degrees, lipolysis (fat destruction) can be observed – not at all desirable on the face. Not all devices are sold with either built-in or external thermometers, so how does the operator know the exact temperature of the skin at any given time? They don’t! And that’s a fairly decent problem – are they over or under treating?

Epi-Blading:

First of all, I don’t recommend dry-blading. Blading with a nourishing oil ensures a frictionfree treatment, reduces trans-epidermal water loss and over-exfoliation. Most home bladers, don’t use an oil, hold the scalpel incorrectly which leads to the hair growing back with a blunt end (they may as well just use a razor!) and have a tendency to over exfoliate the skin, causing more harm than good. Additionally, any good therapist typically follows Epi-Blading with LED, for its wound healing properties, or another aesthetic device to amplify results.

LED

Whilst home LED use is encouraged and have become highly popular lately – they certainly do not replace clinical grade devices, which is due to the fluence and dosage required (power x time). Home LED’s simply cannot generate the amount of power required, without fans to cool the LED’s. To achieve the same or similar therapeutic dosage, clients would have to be under their home LED for over 30 minutes daily, in clinic only half the time would be required, 2-3 times per week.

You simply cant compare home and clinic grade devices, but for those convinced they can do it at home – let them, they’ll be back anyway and hopefully its not because they have burns, grazes, granulomas, scars, long term inflammation or the like!

Always remember your “why” and why you do what you do!

Nancy Abdou is the ABIA Individual Educator of the Year 2021.

To learn more, visit www.dermalandlaser.com.au and click on upcoming workshops and training.