About the treatment
Physical exfoliation, done properly
Dermaplaning uses a sterile surgical blade held at a shallow angle and drawn across taut skin in short strokes. It takes off the layer of dead cells sitting on the surface and, in the same pass, the fine colourless hair growing through them.
Nothing penetrates. The blade never breaks the surface, the follicle is not disturbed and no chemical is involved, which is what makes it usable on skin that reacts badly to almost everything else. There is no sting and no heat, and most people find the sensation oddly relaxing.
What you notice immediately is not brightness but touch: the surface is smooth in a way it has not been for a while, and whatever you put on next actually goes somewhere. At our Macleod Trail clinic it is the treatment people add on to something else more often than they book it alone.
The comparison
Blade, wax or thread?
People arrive thinking of this as facial hair removal. It overlaps, but the two categories work on different hair and leave the skin in different states.
Dermaplaning
- Cuts vellus hair level with the surface; the follicle is untouched
- Removes the dead cell layer at the same time — the main point of it
- No pulling, no redness that lasts, no risk of ingrown hairs
- Regrowth is the same fine hair, in two to four weeks
Waxing and threading
- Pulls the hair out at the root
- Does nothing for exfoliation, and can lift live skin with it
- Redness for hours; ingrown hairs and irritation are possible
- Longer gap before regrowth, at a cost to the barrier
For coarse, dark, terminal hair, neither is the long-term answer — that is what laser hair removal is for. Dermaplaning is for the soft down that catches powder and dulls the light coming off your face.
Why here
Dry-climate skin sheds badly
Exfoliation matters more in Calgary than it does in a humid city, and the reason is mechanical rather than cosmetic.
Cells stop letting go
Shedding depends on enzymes that need moisture to work. In air this dry they slow down, dead cells stay bonded to the surface past their time, and the result is the dull, slightly rough finish that no amount of moisturiser fixes.
Your products stop landing
That built-up layer is a barrier in the unhelpful sense. Expensive serum sitting on top of it is doing very little, which is why people conclude a product has stopped working when the problem is what is in the way.
Scrubs are the wrong answer here
The instinct is to exfoliate harder at home. On a barrier already struggling through a Calgary winter, grit and strong acids take live skin along with the dead. A blade in trained hands takes only what has already lifted.
Indications
What is it good for?
Surface texture, peach fuzz and the dullness that comes from cells that have overstayed.
Pigment and tone belong to a peel; congestion belongs to a Hydro Facial. The full list for south Calgary is on our Calgary SE clinic page.
Being straight with you
Three things clients ask before they commit
The hair myth is a myth
Cutting a hair cannot instruct the follicle to make a different one. What people notice is that a blunt tip feels coarser to the touch than a tapered one for the first week. Colour and thickness are set below the surface, where nothing in this treatment goes.
It is not a treatment for breakouts
Passing a blade over inflamed skin is uncomfortable and can spread bacteria across the face. If you are in an active flare we will not do it that day, and we will suggest something that addresses the cause instead.
The effect is short and worth stacking
Alone it buys you a couple of weeks of smoothness. Its real value is as a first step: with the dead layer gone, a peel penetrates evenly and LED reaches skin rather than debris. That is how most of our clients use it.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
A short list either side, and the theme on both is the same: leave the barrier alone.
The days before
- Stop retinoids and acids five days out. Skin that is already thin from actives is not a good surface for a blade.
- No waxing or threading for two weeks, and no facial scrubs for a few days.
- Reschedule if you are mid-flare. Active breakouts, a rosacea episode, a cold sore — tell us and we will move you.
- Arrive with a bare face, or at least without heavy base make-up.
The days after
- Slight warmth or pinkness for an hour at most. There is nothing visible to plan around.
- Nothing active for three days: no acids, no retinol, no scrubs.
- Moisturise more than usual. Newly exposed skin loses water faster, and in this climate that happens quickly.
- Sunscreen daily, without exception for the first week.
- Skip the sauna and the hot yoga class for a day or two.
Results
Dermaplaning before and after
A client at You Glow Aesthetics. Look at how the light falls across the cheek rather than at the skin tone — smoothness is what changes here.
Individual results vary with skin type, how much surface build-up was present and how much vellus hair the skin carries.
Also on Macleod Trail
Treatments that work well around this one
- Hydro Facial in Calgary SE — the usual pairing, and the one that handles congestion
- AFA Chemical Peel in Calgary SE — penetrates more evenly once the dead layer is gone
- Red Light Therapy in Calgary SE — a calm finish to a resurfacing appointment
- Laser Hair Removal in Calgary SE — for coarse hair, which dermaplaning is not designed to solve
- Dermaplaning brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
