Facials are part of self care to some, whether they have acne or not. Our skin can always benefit from professional treatments from therapists whether we have any specific concerns or not. I personally do facials every other month for extraction and a boost of hydration. Those of you who have acne, you might be wondering ‘do facials help acne’ or ‘are facials good for acne’. Then this post is for you as we will discuss more on this topic. I also wrote a specific article about back facial for back acne, make sure you check it out.
Typical steps in facial treatment
If you are new to this scene, typically facial will start with cleansing and sometimes massage. Then they will do steaming on your face to open the pores. This is to help the therapist to do the next step which is extraction. Extraction is where they use a hand tool to extract blackheads. Sometimes, when necessary, they will poke closed comedones to extract the trapped sebum inside. After that, they will put serums on the skin. Usually they will machines to help with the absorption of the serums into the skin. Once that is done, the facial session is normally ended with mask. The mask can be various types of mask depending on your skin concern, same goes for the serums.
Facials for acne prone skin
If you have pimples or acne, the therapist might just start the session with cleansing sans massaging. This is because it might be too painful.
When I used to have more acne, I enjoyed going to facials because I need a professional help to do proper extraction of my blackheads and closed comedones. If not treated properly, closed comedones or even blackheads that got infected/inflamed can be new pimples. My goal was to prevent new pimples from coming up to the surface.
When it comes to active pimple, the therapist will see the pimple before deciding the next action. Sometimes they can help to squeeze the pimple, but if the timing is not right, they will let it be. Otherwise squeezing can do more harm than good to your skin.
After extraction, they will use ampoules or serum to treat your skin and address your skin concerns. For acne prone skin, they might offer skin rebalancing serum or serum that promotes hydration and healing of damaged skin barrier. If you do not have active acne already and only left with scars, they might offer brightening serum instead.
The last step is masking. For acne prone skin, they might offer mask that is hydrating to repair the skin barrier or antibacterial mask to kill bacteria in the pores.
Do facials help acne?
When I had very bad breakout, I actually went to dermatologist clinic to get facials. I rather have a professional to clean and extract my clogged pores, as well as recommend what actives to use on my skin. When I had breakout, I had the tendency to pick my skin, extract the clogged pores or squeeze the pimples. I thought I need to do something with the skin to return it to its normal state. Knowing that a professional has looked at my facial skin and tended to my skin always gave me a peace of mind.
To answer the question ‘do facials help acne?’, in my experience they do. As mentioned before, if the clogged pores did not get extracted, they might be inflamed/infected and cause acne. Also I did not have good knowledge about my skin and skincare back then. Through facials, my skin can get the products that it needs. For example, hydrating serum for moisture or antioxidant serum to help with skin recovery. The dermatologist and therapists also recommend some products that I can continually use at home to maintain the skin.
I would definitely recommend doing facials if you have acne. However, check the reputation of the clinic. If you have Google Map reviews that you can check before you go, that will be very helpful to know if they are legit. Clinics with skin professionals should know how to handle acne prone skin during facials.
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