Today, making an effort to take care of our bodies has become a growing concern. Clients often spends thousands of dollars in their lifetime to ensure their facial skin looks as young as possible well into their 50s and 60s. However, clients often neglect the remaining skin below the face, including the décolleté, hands, legs and feet. These areas typically show the first signs of aging, such as sagging skin, dehydration, and sun spots. Make sure the face matches the decollete! Encourage your clients to book maintenance treatments for the rest of their body, not just their face! Clients may look 25 years old from the neck up, but if their bodies are sun damaged and rapidly losing their once spotless look, they won’t be fooling anyone.
Spot treatments are a great way to provide clients with services for the body because different areas have different concerns. So let’s look at those parts of the body that might betray our clients’ true “maturity,” and explain how to get them on the path to agelessness.
DECOLLETE
The décolleté can be one of the sexiest parts of the body, but it’s often left exposed to the sun and the elements causing dehydration, hyperpigmentation and premature aging. Prevention is so important when it comes to sun damage, so make sure your clients are using sun protection. Rejuvenate your clients in the spa from the neck down with the following treatments:
Physical Exfoliation
A scrub or a facial for the décolleté could be excellent add-ons for your client to extend any treatment they are having done on their faces. A good exfoliation followed by a moisturizer (perhaps a first in that area for your client) is a great way to prep the décolleté for future anti-aging treatments.
Peel
Use a light chemical peel (alpha hydroxy acids) to help rid the skin of dull, dead skin cells. For best results, peels can be done once a month; patients with extremely damaged skin may benefit from more frequent intervals (perhaps once a week for one month) to get desired results quicker. At home, have them continue the renewal with a rich, nourishing body cream with glycolic acid and natural oils such as coconut or mafura to brighten the skin and help bring back its youthful appearance.
Laser
A series of five treatments (spaced by three to four weeks) such as Fractionated laser, Fraxel, or Intense Pulse Light, can reduce sun damage, redness, and stimulate collagen growth. Maintenance will be needed when brown spots reappear about twice a year.
Microdermabrasion
Another good option for mild to moderate brown spots and sun damage. A series of three to six treatments (with three to four weeks in between) will rejuvenate skin.
Microneedling
The device stimulates the healing cascade to produce healthier looking skin. A series of four to six treatments with a one to two month interval will improve skin texture and reduce wrinkles (micro-needling is an anti-aging treatment that will work well in other areas of the body).
HANDS
Hands can be a telltale sign of aging. They naturally have thinner skin and less fat than your face and neck. Plus, constant exposure to the sun and elements make them drier, hyperpigmented and older-looking faster. At your manicure stations or as an upgrade to a facial treatment, offer to care for your clients’ hands and bring back their glow.
Scrub
Start off your hand treatment with a relaxing soak followed by an invigorating scrub, paying extra attention to the nails and nail beds.
Mask
A shea butter based mask—extracted from the nuts of the karite tree—nourishes, protects and rejuvenates skin. Two other popular ingredients during the dry, winter months are paraffin (the same can apply for foot care), which rejuvenates, hydrates, relieves joint stiffness and increases range of motion, and seaweed, full of active trace minerals, which improves skin suppleness and elasticity, as well as detoxifies, tones and cleanses. Send clients home with an antioxidant rich hand cream to help defend against the elements and premature aging.
IPL
A series of three to four treatments, spaced three to four weeks apart, will help dark spots fade away.
Microdermabrasion
This is yet another option to remove age spots and give your clients fresher looking hands. Depending on the severity of the spots, a series of four to eight treatments might be necessary (spaced two to four weeks apart), with maintenance treatment up to six times a year.
LEGS
Although dehydration due to depilation, varicose veins, spider veins, cellulite and stretch marks can happen almost anywhere on the body, they are often found on the legs. Varicose veins are swollen, twisted and sometimes painful veins that have filled with an abnormal collection of blood. Spider veins, telangiectasia, are small, widened blood vessels on the skin. As estheticians, we can help prevent unsightly veins by encouraging stimulation in areas prone to them. Providing a detoxifying leg treatment such as with a seaweed mask coupled with a massage is one way to get your clients’ legs to look and feel amazing.
FEET
The skin on the soles of the feet is much thicker than on the rest of the body—up to 1.4 mm! This area actually has an extra layer of skin to help endure the daily wear and tear of walking around in stilettos, going for jogs or simply standing. This barrier is important to keep intact as dry, cracked feet can be a war zone of bacteria if not properly cared for. Steer clear of foot razors, which can lead to permanent damage, up the risk of infection with cuts and the possible transference of blood between clients. A much gentler option is to soften feet with a pumice stone, foot file or exfoliating scrub.
Soak
Relax tired feet with a soothing soak, then exfoliate them with a natural sea salt scrub, a sugar scrub or even a walnut shell scrub to soften them at your pedicure bowl.
Mask
Continue your feet rejuvenation treatment with a mask, followed by a massage and a thick moisturizer. For at-home maintenance between pedicures, recommend that your clients use a foot cream with tea tree, lemon, rosemary and mint oils. Such ingredients provide antiseptic and anti-microbial properties to help keep feet clear of trouble-causing bacteria.
It’s important that we understand how to care for the skin on all the different parts of the body to achieve a beautiful complexion for our clients from head to toe.
