At The Face Place we are dedicated to the consultation process
At the Face Place we pride ourselves on a thorough consultation process to ensure we understand your needs and that you are well educated in the process of both home care and ‘in clinic’ treatments. Education empowers our clients so they are aware of why they need to use certain products and what their recommended treatments will do for them.
Our process involves:
- Health, and lifestyle screening
- Education
- Diagnostic skin analysis
- Home care and treatment plan recommendation
It’s important we understand your history in terms of lifestyle and health, as these factors will influence your skin condition: it doesn’t start and finish with in clinic treatments, we may need to make some suggestions that influence your dietary, environmental or health habits. This may mean referring you to another practitioner that is an expert in their field.
Hence, the initial part of the consultation involves screening these factors. Some medications can also make you more prone to sun damage and pigmentation. How much time you spend outside can impact the home care and types of treatment you may be recommended. Your genetics will also determine how predisposed to sun damage you might be, or the type of pigmentation produced, so we will ask about your ancestry.
Discussing your objectives and setting realistic goals will help us tailor your treatment plan. It is important to think in the long term, not short: Quick fixes can result in short term results or purely an aesthetic effect. It is possible to reverse some damage in the skin, but if it’s years of damage, it’s likely you require a progressive, multi-faceted arsenal with a skin care base of topical retinoids, antioxidants and peptides. Many medical grade treatments take the approach of stimulating collagen and elastin, which again takes a few weeks to kick start and can continue for 24 months.
We believe educating you well about the products you are using at home and the treatments you are about to embark on is an essential part of your commitment to your skin journey. Knowing why you do something is far more engaging than just robotically doing what you’ve been told.
The suggestions we make for home care are often evolving as your skin health increases, or to accommodate seasonal or hormonal changes. Having said that, your skin will always need a Vitamin A-product, antioxidants and sunscreens – we will guide you on what formulation of these is most appropriate for you at the time. Your skin physiology and environment fundamentally won’t change so these ingredients are just a necessary part of skin cell metabolism and protection. Your skin naturally produces many of these vitamins but with sun exposure and ageing, Vitamins ingested and processed through the body cannot keep the skin sustained to remain healthy.
We use a device called Observ to view your skin in more detail; this device takes photos using different lighting effects to highlight various structures in the skin. It will also show underlying sun damage that is not yet obvious at the surface. It can measure the barrier function, which should be a healthy cocktail of lipids, fats, ceramides and oils secreted in the skin, but this is often out of balance, leaving the skin dry, sensitive and impaired and affecting the internal skin health. It can also highlight bacterial imbalance which can increase redness and sensitivity in the area. Our approach is to improve the health of the skin and stimulate repair through various treatment options that suit your skin condition, time and budget.
It’s important you start your skin care journey well informed of the process and clear about realistic outcome’s. We look forward to seeing you for your 1 hour skin consultation at The Face Place.
