It’s weird to think about, but as an esthetician I have to go to an esthetician to get facials. As I tell all my clients, you just can’t give yourself a good facial. You can’t successfully and safely extract on yourself, and you can’t give yourself a proper massage either.
Usually I trade with a fellow esthetician, but now and then I venture out into the world to see what other services and my peers are like. Sometimes I have a wonderful experience and leave to make notes on new techniques used on me that I want to practice and acquire. Other times I leave frustrated that I have to tip someone (hey you always tip a peer!) with such crapy hands and obviously no skill or love for what they do. Unfortunately yesterday was one of those instances…
One of my many very thoughtful and amazing clients (thanks Emily!) won a free facial and massage. She was more than happy to take a free rub down, but she wasn’t going to “let some stranger” touch her face after all the work we’ve put into it. So she gave it to me as a holiday gift. Not only did the compliment make me blush, but the thoughtfulness of handing over the facial to me had me close to tears. What I didn’t realize when I accepted the gift was that I would be left in tears by the esthetician she so cleverly escaped.
It all started out nice. The spa is a fun little joint in Los Feliz. I arrived 15 minutes before my appointment like any new client should. I filled out my paperwork, blithely lying about what I did for a living and writing “designer” as my job title. (I have discovered long ago that you have to lie to get a real treatment.) I was escorted into a beautiful room and told to take off my top and bra and get under the covers on the bed.
The bed was one of the most comfortable I have been on, so much so that when I got off it at the end of the facial I took down the manufacturer info and noted the pillows and adjustments they used. My technician walked in with a bowl of water and started. She asked me all the usual questions then started with the facial.
I remember thinking that her technique was a mix between Burke Williams and Dermalogica. I felt the massage was a little light and noted that although she had been trained on pressure points she didn’t always hit them. Her head massage was annoying, but her cleansing technique was quite good.
Then the torture began and a fairly blah facial turned into a painful, picking, extravaganza. I don’t know what technique this woman used, but she had the extraction skills of Attila the Hun! They were the most painful extractions I have ever had! Now I am used to getting extractions. With acne like mine you grow tolerant. You get used to the lancets and scalpels. The pricks and presses. The pinches and strange contortments of your face. I am not sensitive to any of this anymore, but I swear she was digging nails into my face! As my eyes welled up with tears I told myself to stick it out. To note all the ways this hurt. To put this into my brain as a reminder of what improper extractions feel like, and why I just plain won’t do it.
The real horror came when she told me my skin was very clear. Hmmm, clear huh? So what was all the painful prodding about! She used high frequency on me, slapped on a mask and left me in the room for 10 minutes. 10 minutes of time I used to mark down all the products she was using on me that I wasn’t familiar with. When she came back I was more than ready to escape the spa. I thanked her for her time. Dropped $30 on the bed and nearly ran out the door.
When I got to my car my skin looked okay, and I made a mental note to check on the finishing mask she used. But as the day wore on I could tell I was going to get a major break out. Yes I was getting ready to start my period, but this was a different kind of flare up…one from incorrect extractions – Dammit!
I woke up today with some of the worst acne I’ve had in a long time. Tonight I am working on damage control, but all I keep thinking about is how most people in a situation like this wouldn’t know what to do. And god forbid if they were a newbie! They would never have a facial again!
I guess it doesn’t really matter whether I get a good or bad facial. For me the learning experience is the same on either side. I learn just as much about “what not to do” from facials as “things to do”. In the end I am the first and ultimate guinea pig. I try everything out on myself first, then pass it onto another person to see their response. I just wish more people in my field did the same. I wish I could get that technician (I am no longer calling her an esthetician!) onto my table and show her what a facial should be like. I wish I could give her books and information to help her become a good esthetician. But then I think, the information is out there, if she loved what she did, if she took pride in it, she would already know all this. She would already be trying to improve herself.
Finally, I want to thank every friend, family member, and client who has helped me become the esthetician I am. I want to thank everyone who has trustingly guinea pigged a product, or allowed me to fumble through a new technique I am trying to perfect on them. You are all amazing. Keep the feedback coming because I don’t want to EVER become so lazy and uncaring that I would give someone a facial like the one I just had.