Spas and salons often promote the benefits of facials and the importance of preparing the skin for winter. But what can a facial actually do for the overall health of the skin?
There are some grand claims about the benefits and results these unregulated services can provide. Some true and some completely false. So before you put down your hard earned money in hopes of turning back time, here's what a facial can't do.
1. Create "Younger Skin"
No cosmetic procedure can do this. Here is why - cosmetics only work in the very top layers of the skin and by definition do not effect skin where it ages. Skin ageing (or sagging) happens at the dermal level and cosmetics only work on the epidermal level. The only types of products that actually change the physiology of the skin are registered drugs. No aesthetician, providing a facial, works with drugs. Ergo the idea of an anti-ageing facial is simply marketing hype.
2. Provide Botox Like Results
While a relaxing facial will create a minor smoothing of the skin it is mostly because of the massage provided in the treatment. This fades within hours of the facial being complete as muscles contract back to their original state. The only thing that can offer the results of Botox is, wait for it, Botox!
3. Eliminate Toxins
The skin cannot actually be congested with toxins - its very job is to eliminate waste all by itself and it does this quite efficiently. The skin is very good at keeping bacteria, viruses and microbes out as the pH of the skin stops harmful entities from entering in the first place. Also 99% of all toxins in the body are eliminated through the liver and kidney functions and thus the skin never really has any part in the elimination of internal toxins.
A question I always ask, when I am told a facial will remove toxins, is "what toxins specifically?" The answer is usually some version of "the congestion and build up of dangerous toxins in the body." The skin does not EVER become congested in this manner for the reasons stated above. Second, a facial is designed to put product in the skin (moisturizers etc.) so by simple logic how can putting something in the skin remove anything?
4. Repair Hyperpigmentation
Dark spots and sun damage are not repairable. Once you have the damage it is for life. UV light scrambles the DNA of the melanocyte causing a mutated production of pigment. In order to actually stop this function the facial products would have to be able to rewrite your DNA. A laser procedure can diminish the appearance of hyperpigmentation and there are bleaching aids that will cosmetically fade dark spots but this is not the same as repairing the problem. Any benefit a facial can provide, to reducing dark spots, is cosmetic and incredibly temporary.
5. Remove Dark Circles Around The Eyes
Often eye treatments are an expensive add on to a facial. These are simple cash grabs and do not work. There is no research showing a topical product can diminish dark circles around the eyes and a 10 minute application of a topical cosmetic certainly can't achieve this result.
There are procedures a cosmetic dermatologist or plastic surgeon can perform that will eliminate dark circles but an aesthetics facial is not one of them.
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