Conversations as of late with clients have swirled around the idea of aging. More specifically, which aging path will we take. How will we choose to age? How do we know if that is what we really want, or is it swayed by societal changes? Can we all coexist, the injected and cut with the non and wrinkly ones?
I have long been careful about how to navigate the topic, but it does come up almost daily with my clients. It is simply unavoidable. We are constantly faced with the conundrum, do I or don’t I?
My recommendation to clients is to truly marinate on what they want, what they want their treatment schedule to look like. The broad concept usually circles around wrinkles, tautness, and an overall youthful appearance. Although they claim to address wrinkles and so on, the route of treatment can be more of a hindering of symptoms and cause, rather than correction. Now there is nothing wrong with this approach, it can be very affective. That being said, most treatments or procedures have an expiration, a minimum series, a period of which they wear off.
I find clients are often disenfranchised when they find benefit from a procedure, only to experience the price, lack of longevity and aggressiveness of it. The means do not always coexist harmoniously with the goals like we thought.
Let’s back up and remind ourselves of the why. So many of us covet our uniqueness, but its a lie to say that watching our faces quite literally face new directions (down) isn’t hard! We could make a timeline of the trends in the industry, and must remind ourselves that this industry cross sections health quite frequently. I do not accept for myself or my clients that our faces, our aging, our bodies are reliant on trends. I am quite sure that women have long decided we will not placate that narrative. Right?
Damnit, the nasal labial folds are folding, and yet again I question my options. Deep breath. Entering menopause at 31, I am watching my cells turn downwards....well it feels like that! The experience has brought me into a conversation that I used to have a much different opinion on. Me injections, facelift, never? ...now I am whole heartedly open to treatments. I currently have no plans for any, other than microneedling and a skincare routine to support where I am at.
I look to my own goals, my own definition of beauty, my bank account, my values, and what I want my health routines to look like. That truly is how I believe we must frame it. Your skin is quite literally displaying your health, and how we choose to treat it, alter it or not, is quite impactful. As someone who has worked through massive inflammation in my skin, I can whole heartedly say that anything to improve upon symptoms was welcome. Are visible signs of aging to be taken in the same light? I would argue yes, but with so much damn nuance to the decision making process.
I look at pictures of women in the public eye receiving attention for not doing injections, and I covet their beauty, applaud them and am inspired. Equally so, I am in awe of the beautiful and subtle transformations that are achieved with modern theories and approaches. I am disgusted when there are polls, queuing the public to guess at what it took to achieve said appearance. Can we not just, be?
My dream is that we can all close our eyes, identify the what, the why and the how. Then do whatever we want to get there. To look at our fellow friend and cheer them on.
When it comes to the specific procedures, ingredients and devices…Practitioners must stop slinging mud, and have open discussions of what can truly be expected, of how much we really know. Share this with the clients so that they have as much information going into treatments as possible. Skin health practices truly share a border with scientific advances, and scientific success involves evolution and changing of knowledge. What once was the gold standard can truly become outdated.
- l