7 minute read
Nailing Your Clients Skin Journey
By Robyn McAlpine
We all know there’s no such thing as a single miracle beauty treatment- if there was, we’d all be millionaires by now!
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So why do we try and shortcut our way to results?
When a client comes to us with a skin goal in mind, we can see where they are starting, their skin is often in a state of trauma and we understand the results they are trying to achieve, but how to we get them there?
Our clients expect results overnight. And that’s kind of our fault. Our wider industry has promised zits zapped and acne cleared in three days, pigmentation vanishing overnight, aged skin, miraculously reversed all with the swipe of a finger to reveal the before and after picture, but we’ve failed to educate in the caption sitting beneath the image.
We’ve not always admitted that results sometimes took longer than expected. We’ve squeezed the timeline. We haven’t shown the highs and lows of the journey, instead we’ve given the impression that we are wizards at skin correction and our clients arrive expecting us to wave our magic wands and ‘Hey Presto’, flawless skin! often lengthy plan for our clients? Why does the fear of their rejection of the long game, pressure us into trying to shortcut our way to skin victory?
With the competition to survive in a very saturated industry, we have all seen the shift towards faster, cheaper, more active, more invasive, more accessible as a marketing strategy. It undermines our industry and it’s actually just plain offensive to skin biology! Imagine the audacity to speed up a cell lifecycle as though there’s something wrong with nature?
Have we ever stopped to think that cells take their time for a reason? Why are we in such a hurry to exfoliate them off? Do we think there’s something better under there? It’s like ripping the wrapper off your Christmas presents and accidentally destroying the gift in the process.
So how do we create a plan and better still, how to we change the narrative to long term and sustainable instead of “wham bam, thank you ma’am?” Over years of practice (and sometimes trial and error) I’ve developed a pathway that I take my clients through in order to get the healthiest skin possible and I’ve noticed there are certain patterns that occur. I have built my skin therapy business on this and created four transition phases that a client must pass through if they are ready to get off the internet merry-go-round and begin to really transform their skin.
PHASE 1:
When a client first arrives, often times they’ve used their face as a science experiment, trialling every flashy brand with the most convincing sponsored post on the internet. (Those who have the biggest marketing budget -not the best product- are usually who wins!)
By the time I meet a new client, our first step is barrier repair and cell signalling. If our cells are a scramble and our skin barrier is nowhere to be seen, no amount of peeling, poking and prodding is going to help. We need to first get the skin back to base line health. This regularly involves cutting back on the actives, simplifying their “eleventy hundred” step routine and banning them from exfoliation.
Our focus here is to allow the keratinocyte lifecycle to run a lap or two, without any interference. This phase is about letting our skin cells remember what they are here for, because they know what to do, so let’s let them do it!
This “phase” can be anywhere from 1-3 months (sometimes longer) and is often the most difficult for a recovering “add to cart” skin care addict. This phase can feel boring but often times, this phase can be all it takes to transform a skin that has been living under duress.
Take away the offender, skin thanks you for the intervention and you look like a skin superhero!
PHASE 2:
This is where we can now see the skin for what it really needs. Without the inflammation and trauma of an impaired barrier function distracting us from the real story, we can understand greater, the areas we need to work on, support and repair. In phase two, it’s time to re-introduce some wellconsidered actives into the home care regime.
As we know, it’s not about throwing everything we have and hoping something sticks! No way Jose! This is where we use our vast skin anatomy knowledge to look at areas where skin needs a little more support and selectively add ingredients that will support our end goal.
As you’ll see in phase three, we begin to move into the skin remodelling part of the journey so phase two is all about preparation. We need to know where we are going so that we can strategically plan out the preparation for this skin journey.
PHASE 3:
By now, you’ve most likely seen huge transformation in your client’s skin. You’ve eliminated most of the leading causes of why your clients skin was misbehaving, you’ve addressed their skin care at home, and you’re performing treatments that are calming, healing and restorative. Phase three is about addressing the still lingering concerns that sometimes require more intensive treatments. It’s here that we introduce modalities like collagen induction therapy, laser treatments and the more advanced protocols. We are remodelling scar formation, showing pesky pigmentation who’s boss and dealing with lingering vascularity.
PHASE 4:
Once you’ve achieved a really healthy skin, it’s not about letting the client go back to their Instagram sponsored post swiping ways! That’s what got them into this mess in the first place! Phase four is about maintenance and living your best skin life! You’ve done the hard work and now its time to enjoy showing off your healthy radiant skin. I like to think of phase four as a client lingering between phase two and three. They live in that zone of maintaining a very healthy skin and as a therapist you are consciously adding and subtracting actives and working on seasonal needs of your clients.
But because you’re always in a state of healthy skin, if your client is needing a little extra oomph, you’re always ready to drop into stage three and sprinkle in a couple of intensive treatments because their skin is in a continued state of preparation. You do not need to pass go and you do not need to start right back at phase one again. (unless of course the latest influencer got the better of them and they strayed from your skin saving ways! Then they go straight to the sin bin and start from scratch!)
There are so many factors that will influence each time line for example, the state of the client’s skin before we started, their lifestyle, diet and compliance to the program as well as the pairing of home care to in clinic treatments. We have so much power in our hands and phase one and two are about using our treatments and products that focus on barrier support, cell communication and overall skin cell homeostasis. Phase three and four are about repair and restoration and being at the ready for anything!
As you can see, true skin rejuvenation is never an overnight quick fix. Instead, skin correction is strategic. It is well considered and thoughtfully planned for each individual client. This is where the beauty industry has failed our clients. We talk all about phase 3 and 4, we and sell them on the miracle and the flashy advanced treatments but forget to plan, educate and support our clients through the preparation. We leave it out of the conversation in fear of thinking our clients will not invest the time or money into a long-term game plan. And some wont, but I can assure you that there are many out there searching for you!
The big old secular beauty industry, the churn and burn trend factory isn’t going to go away. The marketing beasts and false promises in a pretty Instagram-able jar will forever be here.
It’s up to us to lead the way, to take our authority as skin experts and not be afraid to boldly create long term plans for our clients. To teach our clients that their skin deserves better, they deserve better and that a quickie only delivers short term gratification, not lifelong, skin loving satisfaction!
