About the treatment
A sterile blade, held at an angle, and nothing else
Dermaplaning is exfoliation without chemistry. A single-use surgical blade is held nearly flat against taut skin and drawn across it in short strokes, taking the dead layer and the fine vellus hair with it. No acid, no heat, no abrasive grit and nothing that has to be neutralised afterwards.
That simplicity is the whole appeal. Every other way of removing that layer relies on a reaction you then have to manage — how strong, how long, how your skin responded last time. Here the esthetician can see exactly what is being removed while it happens and stop wherever they choose.
It is also the reason it suits people who cannot use much else. Skin that stings under glycolic acid and flushes under anything warm generally has no argument with a blade, and at our Wynford Drive clinic in North York it is often the first thing we try on a client who has reacted to everything.
How it works
Two things come off, and a third thing changes
The visible result is smoothness. What produces it is worth understanding, because it explains why the effect fades on a predictable schedule.
The dead layer goes
Cells your skin finished with weeks ago and has not managed to shed. They scatter light badly, which reads as dullness, and they sit over the pore, which reads as texture. Removing them is most of the immediate change.
The vellus hair goes
Fine, pale, soft hair that catches powder and holds onto oil and city grime. You rarely notice it until it is gone and the light stops sitting on your face in a faint haze.
Absorption changes
With the barrier of dead cells gone, serums reach living skin instead of a layer on top of it. The same products you already own start behaving like better ones, which is the part clients report a week later.
Candidacy
When we will say no, or not today
It suits most skin, but not all of it and not at every moment. Better to know now than to be turned away at reception.
Active, raised breakouts
Drawing a blade over inflamed lesions spreads bacteria and can break the surface. We work around a single spot; we do not work across an area that is broken out. If that is the main problem, the treatment you actually want is a different one.
A rosacea or eczema flare
Between flares, plenty of clients with both have this regularly and do well. Mid-flare, the barrier is already compromised and taking a layer off it is the wrong direction. We reschedule rather than push on.
Recent isotretinoin
Skin on or lately off a prescription retinoid is thinner and heals differently. The usual guidance is a clear six months, and that is a conversation for your prescriber as much as for us.
Coarse dark hair on the face
This treats fine colourless down. Cutting terminal hair flat leaves a blunt end that is obvious within days. That belongs to laser hair removal, and we will tell you which of the two you are looking at.
Indications
What is it good for?
Surface problems: texture you can feel, dullness you can see, and make-up that will not sit flat.
For congestion and blackheads, the suction of a Hydro Facial does more, and the two are frequently booked together. The full list for north Toronto is on our Toronto clinic page.
Why here
The months it gets booked, and why
Bookings for this one are not spread evenly across a Toronto year. The pattern is consistent enough to plan around.
January to March is the peak
Months of dry heated air in condos, offices and the subway leave the face shedding unevenly, and the flaking shows up first as make-up sitting in patches. This is the single most effective thing we do about that, and it works the same day.
Wind off the lake is rougher than the temperature
A walk from the parking garage in February does more damage than the thermometer suggests, and chapped skin builds a thicker dead layer in response. That layer is exactly what comes off here.
Event season runs May to September
Weddings, conferences and photography. Two or three days ahead is the right timing — long enough for any pinkness to have gone, close enough that the smoothness is still at its best.
Grey days still carry UV
Freshly exfoliated skin needs sunscreen in Toronto in April as much as in July. Overcast is not shade, and this is the one aftercare instruction people here routinely ignore.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Nothing is needed beforehand beyond leaving your actives alone. Afterwards the skin is newly exposed, and that is what the list protects.
In the days before
- Put the retinoid away for five days. It is the one thing that reliably turns a comfortable treatment into a stinging one.
- No acids, scrubs or cleansing brushes for three days. The blade is the exfoliation this week.
- Nothing waxed or threaded on the face in the fortnight before.
- Come without make-up where possible, and with clean, dry skin.
- Flag any cold sore history so we can plan around it.
The week after
- A little pink, an hour or two. There is no visible downtime and no reason to hide.
- Sunscreen every morning, and reapply if you are outdoors. This matters more than anything else on the list.
- Keep it simple for three days: cleanser, moisturiser, sunscreen. No actives, no acids, no scrub.
- Nothing hot for a day — sauna, steam, hot yoga.
- Book the next one at four weeks, which is roughly how long your own turnover takes to rebuild what came off.
Results
Dermaplaning before and after
A single treatment at You Glow Aesthetics. The change is in how light behaves on the skin rather than in tone, so the cheek and jawline are where to look.
Every face starts somewhere different. How much of a difference you see depends on how much dead surface and vellus hair there was to begin with, and the effect is at its strongest in the first fortnight.
Also on Wynford Drive
Treatments that work well around this one
- Hydro Facial in Toronto — the usual partner, booked straight afterwards
- Carbon Peel Facial in Toronto — when oil and pore size are the bigger complaint
- Laser Hair Removal in Toronto — for the coarse dark hair a blade should not touch
- Red Light Therapy in Toronto — settles the skin and works well on a cleared surface
- Dermaplaning brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
