Good Looks
Extraction wars: Aestheticians face off over pore pressure
For many facialists, extractions play a starring role in a skin-care treatment, with steaming, cleansing, and exfoliating all playing skin-care backup. For others, extractions are cruel and unusual, banned by the Geneva Convention of Aesthetics.
Nothing makes a New York City facialist get on her soapbox quicker than mention of performing extractions, the act of enticing a pore or pimple to give up its impurities (a plug of dead skin and oil). It’s a topic with two opposing camps—and no middle ground. One person’s pinnacle of cleanliness is another’s trauma to the skin. We uncover the heated debate that’s popping up in the city’s treatment rooms…
PRO-EXTRACTIONS
Jillian Wright: “Extractions are a main reason New Yorkers want facials.”
In one corner, are facialists who believe extractions are essential to getting skin clean. “I would never ever do a facial without extractions,” says Jillian Wright, owner of Jillian Wright Clinical Skin Care, who’s been a facialist for 11 years. “It would be ridiculous. I’d feel like I was taking clients’ money and just pretending that their skin was healthy.”
Wright and her camp believe pores, blackheads, and a variety of small pimples that otherwise fester impede the health of the skin, as well as radiance and clarity. And so do her clients: most facial treatment bookings are for extractions, confirms Wright.
The brass ring is clear skin. But most of us are dotted with blocked pores and bumps that we can’t fully clean ourselves—or we shouldn’t. “I don’t want my clients doing it themselves,” says Wright. “You need to know what to look for, what not to touch, and apply the right pressure. I’m good at it,” says Wright, who admits she finds the task incredibly satisfying, “like a treasure hunt.”
Congestion can be partly managed by skin-care products at home, and you can exfoliate blackheads so they’re less visible, but the contents of pores just don’t come out on their own, says Wright. “They just fill and fester and stretch pores to the size of saucers.”
A good facialist will never send someone out the treatment room blotchy. Wright preps the skin with steam and enzymatic masks to loosen the pores first, then uses healing and calming methods like LED light and skin-care masks that bring down redness and soothe just-poked pores. “You should leave with glowing skin, and none the wiser that you’ve had extractions. It’s a test of your facialist’s skill,” she says.
About 90 percent of New York spas offer extractions, because demand for them is so great. “If I didn’t do them for some reason—like laziness—my clients would pay for them elsewhere. We’re both invested in the skin’s health,” says Wright. “New Yorkers like massage but they come in for extractions.”
ANTI-EXTRACTIONS
In this camp are skin-care professionals who call extractions a “harsh invasive practice” that can leave the skin looking worse for wear. It’s an idea shared by luxe holistic-leaning spas like Sodashi and many French beauty brands. (You’d be hard pressed, ahem, to find a spa in Paris that does extractions.)
Ewa Wegrzynowska: “We respect the integrity of the skin.”
“Respecting the skin” is a cornerstone of Clarins, which frowns upon pore pressure to free the dirt and trapped sebum inside them. “We work with the skin, not against it, says Ewa Wegrzynowska, Clarin’s National Skin Spa Training Manager. “Pulling and pressing the pores weakens them and the skin fibers like collagen and elastin.”
Your skin looks good in short term, concedes Elena Chang, an aesthetician at Clarins Madison Avenue Skin Spa. “But in long run, you’ve got damaged skin that’s lacking strength and elasticity.” And maybe an extra broken blood vessel or two, they say.
Instead Clarins would rather use warm compresses to soften pores and lymphatic drainage massage, a technique used by many facialists, including Wright, that promotes circulation, giving skin a luminosity and a lift. “The massage helps drain toxins and impurities. And our powerful plant-based facial oils, helps regulate skin’s own oil production.” The theory being that oil helps facilitate the flow of oil instead of allowing the pore to trap it. Often clarifying masks with clay, which have a drawing out action, are used to decongest the skin, as well. (That’s case with Sodashi.)
So while the extraction camp values its dust-busting duty to the pores, the anti-extraction group sees itself as a faciliator of the skin’s own dirt-releasing process. “It’s a beauty from within approach,” says Chang, referring to the dirty job, which someone’s got to do. Right?
Where do you weigh in on the extraction war? Tell us, here!
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I personally think it’s all in the skill of the facialist, how that client’s skin condition is, and how often they have extractions. I prefer gentle maintenance of my own skin at home, but very occasionally I’ll have extractions done as part of a ‘deep clean’ facial. The idea is to have a good skincare routine that helps prevents the need to extract a lot. All in moderation…
I know for sure that extractions work because I have a friend who have tried facials where they do them and don’t. Since she has been getting extractions her skin much clearer and in better condition.
Extractions are the thorny moments in an otherwise blissful facial hour. I hate to use my coveted time in the chair with painful extractions if they really aren’t necessary, but every facialist I’ve been to says apologetically that she must. Your debate got me interested in the pros and cons of extractions, and just found this video on extractions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftr-o3HYJ7Y&feature=related.
[...] extractions should be included in the treatment? Read more and weigh in on the extraction wars HERE. [...]
I have to speak out for the MIDDLE GROUND. As a professional skin therapist when I start a facial I’m always ready to tackle extractions but it depends on the clients skin first and foremost. I will always extract true blackheads (thick, clogged pores with a darkened appearance) and I love removing milea (the hard, pearl like bumps). These blemishes are too far gone for body’s internal systems to heal on its own. Without assistance from an experienced pro like myself these blemishes will certainly turn into ugly inflamed “zits”. On the other hand I do not over extract the open pores of the T zone. I myself have large pores and I could squeeze them every day and yield oil. This would be pain without any gain. Oil in the skin is natural, lubricating and protective. In this case the appearance of large pores should be managed with gentle exfoliation (I love a serum with salicylic acid) and weekly masks.
I give my clients a choice. The quick way for my American clients is extraction. My European clients love Dr. Vodder Manual lymph drainage, but it requires more time than your average 50 – 60 minute facial. The Vodder method is very gentle, and must be performed so as to not put pressure on the lymph vessels, which would restrict the proper flow of lymph, ie., the cleaning fluid for the skin/body. Most lymph drainage methods are use too much pressure, which will not be effective. Thx, ladies, for your always interesting blog!
[...] I was away from my own blog I spent a whole lot of time reading others. I loved this post from one of my favorite beauty blogs, Well and Good NYC, about the pro’s and con’s of [...]
I personally Love extractions done on my face. I tend to get melia quite often on my face, and I have had great Facialists at Oasis Day Spa in Manhattan. MY skin is healthy and clean looking, after a good facial. I dont wear makeup on my face, therefore I want healthy skin, the face is the first thing most people see. Unfortunately, I live in DK now and cannot find a good facialist here. And boy does my skin need a good extraction done right now and I miss my facialist at Oasis Day Spa.
[...] – Under pressure? Aestheticians sound off about the right way to do extractions in a facial. (Well + Good NYC) [...]
[...] what you start,” says Caitlin Conn. “A facial stirs up bacteria, and leaving it behind after extractions can absolutely cause a post-treatment breakout.” Conn likes to use anti-bacterial gadgets like [...]
[...] I realized that was just her way of letting me not be able to defend myself while she performed pore extraction. Who knew there were so many nerve endings on the tip of one’s nose? Then it was onto a [...]
[...] I realized that was just her way of letting me not be able to defend myself while she performed pore extraction. Who knew there were so many nerve endings on the tip of one’s nose? Then it was onto a [...]
[...] all kinds of blue and red lights and things that vibrated. There were also extractions. Extractions are controversial—but I’m convinced that people who are against them can’t possibly be prone to same [...]
[...] I realized that was just her way of letting me not be able to defend myself while she performed pore extraction. Who knew there were so many nerve endings on the tip of one’s nose? Then it was onto a [...]
[...] Yet it turns out that not all estheticians agree with this outlook. According to the article Extraction Wars: Aestheticians Face Off Over Pore Pressure: For many facialists, extractions play a starring role in a skin-care treatment, with steaming, [...]
[...] Estheticians who do not believe in extractions generally argue that extractions damage the surround tissue and that the skin should be allowed to function on its own. I am in favor of extractions, because I believe that the skin’s functions naturally lead to clogs, and that it needs help moving them along. I also believe that good preparation and careful extractions do not have to cause damage to the surrounding skin. [...]