The difference between beauty and skin health

Many people are confused about the relationship between beauty and skin health. In fact, the core difference can be explained in one sentence: Beauty is a collection of various intervention methods with appearance beautification as the core, and skin health is the basic state for the normal operation of skin physiological functions. The essence of the two is the relationship between "means" and "goal". They may mutually achieve each other, or they may be completely opposite.。

Let me tell you something that happened to me last week. A little girl in 1999 saved three months of her salary to buy an Internet celebrity's "skin rejuvenation kit". She applied high-concentration salicylic acid twice a week for four weeks, and her face did turn a degree whiter. However, as soon as the season changed, her face started to become red and stinging, and she couldn't even use a mild amino acid facial cleanser. She came to me for a test and found that the transepidermal water loss rate was three times that of normal people, and the barrier was completely broken. You see, this is a typical example of treating "short-term beauty effects" as "skin health", and even losing the bottom line for the sake of whiteness.

Regarding the boundary between the two, there are actually two voices in the industry. Most doctors in traditional dermatology are "health-first" and believe that all beauty treatments cannot be at the expense of damaging the normal functions of the skin. For example, if you have congenitally sensitive skin, you still have to undergo peeling fractional laser, which is simply putting the cart before the horse. However, some practitioners who do functional beauty have different opinions. They believe that "controllable short-term damage" is for a better long-term condition. For example, using medium-energy photorejuvenation to remove acne marks will indeed cause some redness, local scabbing, and temporary damage to the barrier two or three days after the operation. However, after the skin repair is completed, the effect of collagen regeneration cannot be achieved by ordinary application care. As long as the operation is compliant and the postoperative repair is in place, it will be beneficial to long-term skin health. There is actually nothing wrong with these two views. The core is the grasp of "degree".

Oh, by the way, don’t think that only medical beauty can be called beauty. The whitening essence and anti-aging cream you apply on your face every day, the cleansing mask you apply every week, and even going to a beauty salon to do facial muscle tightening on your shoulders and neck all belong to the category of beauty. I have seen too many people directly equate "applying skin care products" with "nourishing the skin", thinking that applying three or four layers of skin care products every day is good for the skin. I used to have a private company executive who applied two hydrating masks every day for three months. In the end, he developed hydration dermatitis and his face was swollen like a steamed bun. He also asked me, "I am moisturizing my skin tomorrow, so why is it unhealthy?" ”You see, this is to regard the means as the goal. The beauty behavior itself does not necessarily bring about skin health, and may even have the opposite effect in many cases.

Of course, this does not mean that beauty will definitely harm your health. Many of my old clients have good skin. They usually use mild antioxidant essences and undergo low-energy photorejuvenation once a month. It can not only brighten the skin tone and reduce fine lines (to meet the beauty needs), but also suppress the inflammatory reaction in the dermis. On the contrary, it helps maintain the stable state of the skin. This is a typical mutual success of the two. There is an old saying in our industry, "Take care first, beautify later", which means that you have to lay a good foundation for skin health first, and then go for those functional beauty programs, so that the effect can be doubled and problems will be less likely to occur.

To be honest, I have been doing skin management for almost 8 years. Now, the first step before doing a project for a client is to take a VISIA test. I first look at the three indicators of barrier score, inflammation index, and underlying pigmentation. If one of them is not up to standard, I will not agree to it no matter how much the client asks me to do a whitening or anti-aging project. I once had a client who was a fashion blogger. She had to shoot a quarterly commercial the next day, and she had to do an emergency skin rejuvenation on the same day. I saw that there were already faint red blood lines on her cheeks, and I tried to stop her. Finally, I gave her a 40-minute soothing and repairing treatment. Although she was not two shades whiter immediately, her makeup was not sticky at all that day. She later told me that the pictures taken that time were more natural than those she had done before after the rejuvenation, and her skin looked brighter from within.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is really no need to put these two things in opposition. Beauty is like the layer of icing you put on the cake, and skin health is the cake underneath. If the embryo is broken, no matter how thick you spread the icing and decorate it beautifully, it will still taste bitter. Of course, if your embryo is solid enough, and you occasionally want to add some chocolate chips or fruit pieces, it’s okay to change the pattern, as long as you don’t poke holes in the embryo just to look good. After all, your face is yours. You have to choose whether you want to be beautiful for a while or be beautiful for a lifetime, right?