Off Brand is a column that delves into fashion and beauty trends.
BROOKLYN Horne, 23, began spending much more time online last year when she suffered the pandemic and was confined to her home in Kansas City, Mo. He joined TikTok and started browsing video tutorials on skin care. One, from influencer Jaclyn Hill on the subject of dermaplaning or facial shaving, caught her attention. Inspired, Mrs. Horne ran to Walmart and bought a simple blade, then returned home to apply oil and shave all the baby’s hair from her face. He started shaving regularly and even posted his own video, titled, “Normalizing Women with Furrier Faces.” (He acknowledges the irony of removing the hair he intended to normalize; his message, he said, was a call for greater transparency around the issue).
Although many women routinely remove their upper eyebrows, sideburns, and lips, the practice of shaving the entire female face has recently thrived. Certainly, there are precedents: 16th-century Japan woodcuts depict women shaving their faces with long, thin leaves, and Queen Elizabeth I removed all her hair from her forehead, including her eyebrows. It is rumored that Marilyn Monroe has shaved her whole face to soften her skin. Today, some influential, beauticians and dermatologists promote the practice as a way to remove unwanted hair, but also as an exfoliation technique, no matter how drastic it may seem.
Dr. David Kim, a dermatologist at Union Square Dermatology in San Francisco, explained, “Dermaplaning is when you take a very soft blunt scalpel and scrape the surface of your facial skin or any other part of your body to exfoliate. -gently, to remove thin hair called vellus and the outermost layer of the skin, which is where we have dead skin cells and the accumulation of dirt and oil. ”The goal, he said, is get smoother, brighter skin and equip the skin to absorb the products more effectively.He said it can work, especially for those who no longer exfoliate with acids or use retinol.However, Dr. Kim does not recommend practice for those with sensitive skin diseases such as rosacea or eczema, or patients with acne, moles, psoriasis or active infections.
Dermaplaning is one of the main questions that Dr. Young’s patients have asked. Kim during the pandemic (along with acne in the back and back, fungal infections in the groin, exfoliating acids, and vitamin C products). It stands out for the popularity of dermaplaning on social media, with its fun tutorials. “It’s very satisfying to see layers and layers of skin coming out of the face,” he said.