Unpopular opinion: Over-exfoliating clients is ruining their skin barrier

I was at a training event in Austin last spring, and this esthetician showed before and after photos of a client who came in after using a 30% glycolic peel at home. The skin was raw, red, and felt like sandpaper. But the esthetician just slapped on more exfoliating acids instead of backing off. Three months later, that client's moisture barrier was totally shot, and she had to spend $500 on barrier repair treatments to fix it. Now I tell every new client to stick to once a week max for strong acids. Have you guys seen damage from clients overdoing it with those home peel kits?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith11619d ago

Man, that story hits hard! That esthetician should have known better than to keep piling on acids when the skin was already screaming for help. I've seen a few DIY peel disasters where people think more is better, and it always ends with a wrecked barrier that takes months to fix.

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holly6318d ago

You're assuming the esthetician didn't know what they were doing, but maybe the client's skin was tougher than it looked and needed that aggressive approach to actually break through. Sometimes a wrecked barrier is just part of the process before rebuilding stronger skin, and people quit too early because they panic. Those DIY horror stories are usually from people using random products at home, not someone trained to push limits safely.

ivanb4118d ago

Not siding with either take fully here because every situation is different. Your point about the DIY people and the "more is better" mindset is spot on though. It's that panic mode where someone sees peeling and thinks they need to attack it harder instead of letting the skin rest. Kind of like putting out a grease fire with water. The trained pros I know will actually back off at the first sign of real irritation and adjust from there, not double down. Pushing limits safely means knowing when to stop and switch to repair mode, not just bulldozing through. A wrecked barrier is rarely part of any smart plan unless you're prepping for something extreme like deep medical peels, and even then it's controlled. People forget the skin has its own timeline and you can't rush it.