About the treatment
Exfoliation you can watch happening
Almost every other way of taking the dead layer off your face is a chemical reaction you have to trust. An acid is applied, it does something at a rate nobody can see, and it is neutralised when the clock or the esthetician says so. Dermaplaning is not like that.
A single-use surgical blade is held almost flat against skin held taut, and drawn across it in short controlled strokes. The person holding it can see exactly what is coming off, in real time, and can stop on one cheek and carry on over the other. Nothing is absorbed, nothing is neutralised, and nothing continues working after you leave.
That visibility is why we use it on faces that have reacted to everything else. At our Ranchlands Boulevard clinic in northwest Calgary it is frequently the first treatment we try on someone whose skin has been through a bad experience with a peel.
Why people book it
Four reasons, and only one of them is the fuzz
The hair is what the treatment is known for. It is rarely the reason anyone books a second one.
Foundation stops catching
Make-up sitting on fine hair and flaking skin goes patchy within a couple of hours. On a cleared surface it sits flat and stays where it was put, and this is the difference clients notice first.
Your products start working
A serum applied over a layer of dead cells is largely wasted. Applied to skin that has just been cleared, the same bottle behaves like a better one. For most people this is the best value in the treatment.
The vellus hair itself
Fine, colourless and mostly unnoticed until it is gone, at which point the faint haze it puts over your face goes with it. It also stops holding onto oil and dust.
It is an option when nothing else is
No acid, no heat, no light. Skin that stings, flushes or breaks out in response to almost every active generally has no complaint at all about a blade.
Why here
What a northwest Calgary winter does to a surface layer
Skin responds to cold, wind and friction by building a thicker dead layer. Several things about living on this side of the city do exactly that.
Goggles, helmets and neck warmers
Anything pressed against the face for hours creates friction and traps moisture underneath it. A ski weekend leaves a distinct band of rough skin along the cheekbones and jaw, and it is the first thing a blade removes.
Open ground and moving air
The northwest is exposed. A walk across Nose Hill in a January wind is not the same as the same temperature in a sheltered street, and skin toughens in response.
Temperature swinging by twenty degrees
A chinook arriving mid-week means skin adjusting twice in a few days. Shedding becomes uneven, patches lift where they should not, and make-up finds every one of them.
Once a month suits the cycle
Your own turnover takes roughly four weeks, so that is the sensible interval. More often than every three weeks and you start removing a barrier faster than dry air lets you rebuild it.
Indications
What is it good for?
Everything that lives on the surface: texture you can feel, dullness you can see, flaking, and fine facial hair.
Blackheads and congestion need suction rather than a blade, which is a Hydro Facial, and pigment belongs to an AFA peel. The full list for northwest Calgary is on our Calgary NW clinic page.
Being straight with you
Four things it does not do
It is a surface treatment, and a surface treatment has a ceiling. Better to say where it is than to let you find out.
It does not touch pigment
Sun spots, melasma and marks left behind by acne all sit deeper than a blade reaches. Skin looks brighter afterwards because the dull layer has gone, which is real and is not the same as fading anything.
It does not treat acne
On skin that is actively broken out we will not do it at all, because dragging a blade across inflamed lesions spreads bacteria and breaks the surface. That is a job for light therapy or a proper deep clean first.
It does not soften deep lines
Etched lines and loss of firmness are structural. Fine surface lines look better once the skin is smooth and hydrated; anything deeper needs a treatment that works below the surface.
It does not last
Your skin rebuilds the layer we removed over about four weeks, which is the whole reason the interval is what it is. Anyone describing this as a permanent change to your skin is describing something else.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Nothing complicated. Leave your actives alone beforehand, and protect newly exposed skin afterwards.
Before your appointment
- Five days without a retinoid. This is the one that turns a comfortable treatment into an uncomfortable one.
- Three days without acids, scrubs or a cleansing brush.
- Two weeks since any facial waxing or threading.
- No sunburn or windburn on the face — if you came back from the hill red, we will move the appointment.
- Clean, dry skin on arrival, and tell us if you get cold sores.
The following week
- Slightly pink for an hour or so, and nothing anyone else will notice.
- Sunscreen every morning without exception, and reapply if you are outdoors on snow.
- Three simple days: cleanser, moisturiser, sunscreen. Put the actives back afterwards.
- No sauna, steam or hot tub for 24 hours.
- Book the next one four weeks out rather than waiting until it has worn off entirely.
Results
Dermaplaning before and after
One treatment at You Glow Aesthetics. What has changed is how light sits on the skin rather than its colour, so the cheek and the jawline are where the difference reads.
How much of a difference any one person sees comes down to how much dead surface and fine hair there was to begin with. The effect is strongest in the first two weeks and fades as your own turnover rebuilds the layer.
Also on Ranchlands Boulevard
Treatments that work well around this one
- Hydro Facial in Calgary NW — the standard partner, done straight afterwards
- AFA Chemical Peel in Calgary NW — for tone and pigment a blade cannot reach
- Red Light Therapy in Calgary NW — calming, and effective on a freshly cleared surface
- Face and Neck Tightening in Calgary NW — for firmness rather than smoothness
- Dermaplaning brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
