The foolish side of beauty

It’s April Fool’s Day so I’m going to use this ‘foolish’ day to talk about some of the silly (and dangerous) things people have done for beauty. We are all guilty of being young and foolish and doing some really dumb things to look good. How about using lemon juice on the hair to get those sunkissed locks? Did it work? Not really, I did get crunchier hair, dry as straw though! The humble lemon has had other uses, like the ‘remover of freckles’, again it simply dried the skin and even worse messed with the skin barrier making it too acidic. Don’t get me wrong acid peels are excellent but they are calibrated for a specific need and they come in different strengths mild, medium and strong.

Living in Colorado we get plenty of sun and though it’s not the beach, tanning happens very easily. But remember the days when people used baby oil, cooking oil, vaseline, butter or any kind of lubricant to tan the skin?! It’s probably the most foolish thing to do because the skin burns badly and damage goes very deep. While a natural glow is healthy, looking like a leather sofa is not! Ironically so many of the people I treat for aged skin have sustained sun damage from their ‘cooking in the sun while lying on aluminum foil’ days! Luckily much of this damage can be tackled with Morpheus8 RF microneedling, IPL, VI peels and CO2 laser.

So let’s dig a bit deeper into the really foolish and downright life threatening things people have done. First I have to mention fillers because there have been so many horror stories about people using toxic substances to achieve full lips, faces and cheeks. So what kind of things have they used? Cooking oil, cement, acrylic fillers used in bathrooms, silicone sealants etc. Sadly there are unlicensed practitioners who are willing to carry out such awful procedures without caring how much damage and disfigurement they cause. That’s why we take our training so seriously and ONLY use FDA approved fillers!

If we take a look at history, people were always trying to better their looks, remember all those old paintings from the 1600s with people with very pale faces? They achieved them with mercury and lead face paints! Even the Victorians were using arsenic in potions. Thank goodness we now know how toxic such chemicals are and don’t use them. I prefer to use quality procedures and products such as signature facials and IPL to achieve the same flawless look!

Let’s fast forward to the 1890s where luscious lashes were the rage (a bit like today) and some unscrupulous practitioners were threading a long hair from the head into the eyelid. They used cocaine to numb the area and the hair was woven in and out in loops. This was repeated again with another hair, then the loops were then cut and trimmed, curled with tongs then bandaged. It sounds a bit like modern eyelash grafting, except for the fact that today the individual roots are implanted and actually grow into lashes! I say give eyelash extensions a try, we have so many pretty ones, they are non-toxic and safe and a fraction of the cost in money and health.

Come in and see us at Invigorate Advanced Aesthetics in Centennial, Colorado to start your Morpheus8 RF Microneedling, VI peels or IPL schedule.