How to choose a quality Esthetician

Once you decide that it's time to seek professional help for your skin care concerns, there are a few things to consider when choosing who to trust to give you the proper care. 1. Make sure they are state licensed. This seems like a no-brainier that someone who says they do skin care must be state licensed, but did you know that you can actually verify their licensing online? The Ca State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology has a website where you can look licensees up and also see if they have any actions against them on their license. Google it. 2. Search for online reviews With websites such as Yelp and Facebook, clients can tell the world what they think of someone's work (good OR bad). It would be a shame to go to someone blindly, have a bad experience then check after the fact and realize you could have spent your valuable dollars (and precious face!) someplace else. Do your homework. 3. Set up consultations Any Esthetician who is worth anything will offer free consultations. This is where we "sell ourselves" to clients and give them reasons to trust and choose us instead of the person down the street. Ask lots of questions about pre-treating, post-treating maintenance, their experience etc. Treat your consultation as if you were conducting a job interview and are looking to "hire" them for the position of being your personal skin care expert. Again, any good Esthetician will inform and educate you, not just treat and sell and send you on your way-educating you is our responsibility and expected as part of what we do. They should be committed to you for the long haul. 4. You get what you pay for (?) This is NOT always the case. I have encountered many many clients that were suckered into paying thousands of dollars upfront for laser treatments to treat melasma or hyper pigmentation only to be left in debt with unmet expectations. The same is true for just as many who have purchased a Groupon or discounted deal, only to have been over aggressively treated and scarred by an inexperienced Esthetician and their choice of peel. I personally have corrected many other Esthetician's mistakes and also been able to achieve better results for a fraction of the cost of aggressive laser treatments. Many of the chain laser companies have sales goals their staff has to meet and in order to reach them, practitioners must prey on people's emotions by promising them they can guarantee to remove their pigment permanently by purchasing a laser package for several thousand dollars. This is simply not true. Melasma is and always will be a life long struggle with peaks and valleys of improvement and regression-it is simply the nature of the beast. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just looking to make a buck off of you so RUN! (this can also sometimes be true of people who suffer from serious acne as well). The goal is to improve your condition then maintain and manage those results. If you are upfront and honest about your goals and your monthly budget to achieve your desired results, a good Esthetician will be open with you about what exactly you can do on that budget and work with you to get you results. If you are committed to improving your skin, then they will be as well. Hopefully, now you are armed with the knowledge to get out there and look for someone who can give you what you are looking for. If you already have an Esthetician, hopefully they are meeting or exceeding your expectations. If not, have a talk with them...you may realize it's time for a change.