The Pros and Cons of Exfoliation and Peeling Facials
Our aim from our videos and blog posts is to provide you with as much education as possible, to allow you to make the best possible choices with any facials or home skincare purchases.
So what are the pros of a Peel Treatment? There are multiple pros to having a peeling treatment:
Instant glow, check.
Smooth complexion, check.
Great treatment for acne and breakouts as the treatments clears within the follicle.
Instantly help to minimise the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, check.
This all sounds amazing, book me in for a Peel Treatment.. no?
These instant results are what get people hooked, and coming back for more and more treatments. However, the long term negative effects are why we at Olivia Knowles don’t carry out ‘traditional’ Peel Treatments.
So.. whats so bad with Peel Treatments?
The outer layer of the skin that therapists are removing when they carry out a ‘traditional’ Peel Treatment, is 0.01mm in thickness. This is finer than a piece of hair.
This layer is very delicate and easy to remove. Many many people falsely believe this layer is ‘dead’ and therefore no longer plays a role in the health of your skin.
However, this outer layer plays a vital role for our skin integrity and health.
This 0.01mm layer of skin provides protection against UVA and UVB and acts as a waterproof layer holding in your skins natural moisturising factors. It is designed to protect your immature ‘baby’ skin cells below.
As your skin develops, your skin cells move up through the layers of your skin and mature, as your skin cells mature, they flatten and protect.
Your skin is an organ designed to protect everything inside your body. If we keep removing our skins protective layer, we’re exposing immature ‘baby’ cells beneath.
These ‘baby’ cells are young, fresh and plump. This is why when our outer layer of skin is removed with a ‘traditional’ Peel Treatment your skin looks really healthy. However, these ‘baby’ cells have not flattened, they are not mature enough to protect your skin from the elements.
They are ‘baby’ cells they simply have not matured enough to do the job, the mature cells above are doing. This subsequently increases; skin dehydration, sensitivity and the possibility of UV damage short term. And increases the chances of ageing long term and worst-case scenario increases the chances of skin cancer.
Treatments such as microdermabrasion, chemical peels, laser resurfacing and derma-planing (our ultimate pet hate), are not promoting skin health long term. We have no doubt that you will get a good result initially, but you will be coming out of your treatment with worse skin than what you went in with.
How is Olivia Knowles Skin Care different?
Our ethos and goal is to rehabilitate rather than remove skin cells. Let me repeat that, we want to repair the integrity and health of your skin!
The only time we recommend the use of exfoliation (side note: we’d never recommend the use of a scrub exfoliator), is with an individual who suffers from congestion, acne, an individual with ‘thick’ sun-damaged skin.
These are the only occasions we’d recommend the use of an exfoliator. And once the skin was returned to a ‘normal’ healthier state, we’d remove the exfoliation and redirect our focus to Vitamin A and rehabilitating your skin cells.
