The Top 5 Things You Must Know as a Skin Therapist

By Robyn McAlpine

When starting the transition into skin saving, so many therapists tell me they feel like they’re now in a position to treat skin, they’re now labelled as a skin therapist… but they don’t quite have the confidence, experience, or knowledge to feel like they can talk to clients and create amazing skin transformations.

Today I’m giving you a cheat sheet of the top 5 things you MUST know as a skin therapist!

This will help you channel your energy into the things that are going to exponentially help you in the treatment room- these 5 things are the foundations to building your knowledge throughout the rest of your career!

1: The Keratinocyte Lifecycle

You MUST understand the anatomy of what you are working with! If you’re a skin therapist who doesn’t know this… you’re busted custard!

It’s our job to know how skin is made, where it comes from, how it’s built and what are the stages of the cell lifecycle.

Yes, there are MANY other cells in the skin, but this is the one you want to learn first!

The rest all interact with this cell so to get you started- learn all you can about the keratinocyte. If you need help- you can find lots of relatable info in my book, and I also have the illustration and diagram book that will help you!

Learning the keratinocyte lifecycle teaches you how our skins barrier is made and if you’ve ever heard me bang on about skin, you’d know that the barrier is the boss and if you keep breaking that down I’ll come haunt your dreams!!!

Falling in love with this little cell and all that it does for us should be your ultimate goal as a skin therapist as it is the most prolific cell in the entire skin system that needs our undivided attention!!

2: Determining skin types

90% of my new clients do not know their skin type! So, it’s pretty darn obvious that they’ve been playing guessing games when buying their products.

You MUST know how to figure out what skin type someone has.

Whilst skin typing isn’t all that important when it comes to performing treatments in the clinic, it’s VITAL to prescribing the correct home care and setting your client up for support. We all know what might happen if we give a lipid dry skin type a gel/foaming cleanser- That clients skin will shrivel up crispy like a sultana in the sun! By knowing how to determine a client’s skin type, you’ll very quickly have them supported with the correct skin care and that alone is going to transform their skin, simply because they’re NOW getting the correct skin care for their skin type! (And you look a freaking genius if you can teach a client their very own skin type and the correct protocols of daily care)

Not sure what those skin type daily care protocols are?? Check out my Therapist Consultation Pack! I’ve done it all for you!!!

3: Know your retail products inside out and back to front!

You’ve probably heard your boss talk about retail and it’s not just because they want to sell your soul and create income into the business- yes that’s great and it’s how we keep a roof over our head and put food on all our tables… but as a skin therapist, home care products are VITAL to the clients skin treatment journey.

It’s up to us as skin therapists to know our product range (or ranges) inside out, back to front/right way up. You’ll be surprised how selling retail feels far less icky when you can talk about it from a place of knowledge and understanding. If you’re a little dusty or you’re really new to the skin saving game, Learn a product or two a week- I dare you!!

4: Understand your Modalities, who they are for, what to offer and when!

Once you know how skin works and have a solid understanding of the skin anatomy,

Once you know how to figure out a clients skin type, once you know what products are the best for them, the NEXT thing to learn thoroughly is every single treatment and modality you offer in your salon. -what is on the salon menu -these are our resources/our toolkit -What equipment do you have? (LED, skin needling, sonophoresis, the humble steamer…. What gear have you got and what does it do? -How does it do it? -Who is best suited to each treatment? -Who CAN’T have certain treatment/ contraindications? -Should a client be prepped, or can they start straight away? Knowing what’s on the menu, understanding the equipment we have available and knowing it well gives you so much to draw from, mix and match to make a kick ass treatment plan to get results that will blow your clients minds! (And change their life!!)

5: knowing the intrinsic and extrinsic influences if a skin and its condition.

Knowing what the triggers, causes and influences of skin conditions are will help you to make the changes to get the results!

But knowing what’s an external cause (for example product choices, lifestyle habits and controllable influences) will help you know what you can change/tweak/support to help transform your clients skin.

Knowing the internal factors like medical health, genetic dispositions, hormonal concerns that are leading causes of misbehaving skin will help you to know what is outside of your control and where you need to set realistic expectations because we know there’s no moisturiser on earth that can tackle hormones or genetics! If there was, I’d be a millionaire by now!!!

So, if you’re transitioning from traditional beauty services to become a skin focused clinic, or you work in a skin clinic and are feeling a little out of your depth, pour your energy into these 5 things- start at the top of the list because you need to know number 1 first to build on for number two, to build on to number 3 and so forth. I hope this has given you a road map and plan to navigate your way into feeling confident as a skin therapist.

And if you are looking for support in this area, I’ve created the Skinside Out Squad especially for skin therapists- I’m there to mentor you with gold nuggets exactly like this and help you think and act differently in the treatment room! To step into every client interaction with so much confidence in your knowledge that you shake off the self-doubt and flourish in this freaking phenomenal industry!

Robyn McAlpine @expert_skin_therapist Contactrobyn@skintifix.com Website: www.skintifix.com