A shift in the dermatology industry is subtly unfolding as consolidation impacts the industry’s traditional framework. Private equity and venture capital investments have surged, creating a ripe environment for dermatology practice owners to harvest benefits with the right preparation and approach. This transformation unfurls new horizons for those looking to explore and understand the opportunities of a shifting landscape.  

Currently, about 8% to 9% of the approximately 10,000 dermatology practices in the United States have undergone consolidation. To provide some perspective, historical data from other medical specialties, such as dentistry, have shown that valuations can increase significantly for consolidated groups when the industry reaches a 10% to 12% consolidation rate. As in dentistry, veterinary, and numerous other verticals before it, dermatology consolidation will reach a tipping point at roughly 10% and acquisition activity amongst privately owned practices will increase significantly. Many believe this tipping point will be reached by 2025, which would trigger a period of merger and acquisition activity extending for 15 to 20 years.  

Josh Swearingen has over 15 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry, most recently serving as a director at TUSK Practice Sales, a healthcare mergers and acquisitions firm located in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also the co-founder of Reverse Aesthetics in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to that Swearingen was director of corporate development for American Dental Partners and quarterbacked several of their largest transactions during his tenure there. He appears at multiple healthcare tradeshows across the country and has become an industry thought leader in the healthcare mergers and acquisitions space. Learn more about him and TUSK Practice Sales a tuskpracticesales.com 

Whether you are starting your career as a skin care provider or going solo and starting a new business, the mindset we all share is one of motivation, determination, and drive. We all strive for success – whatever our individual definition of that may be. Skin care professionals are not afraid of hard work. Early mornings, late evenings, fully packed schedules, and skipping lunches and breaks are habits oftentimes perceived as success. Our thoughts may be, “I’m booked,” “I’m in demand,” “this is what I've been working for,” and “I can’t stop this train now!” After operating at that maximum level for a while, many of us inevitably reach the point of burnout.

RECOGNIZING BURNOUT

It can look different for each person, but some commonalities include diminishing motivation, anxiety, insomnia, exhaustion, procrastination, and frequent illness. When burnout sets in, it can lead to frustration, as these symptoms detract from working towards life and business goals. Additionally, it can be hard to kick burnout because the mental and physical exhaustion makes it difficult to enjoy activities outside of work. So, even when one goes out of their way to plan activities to make themselves feel better, they are too tired to truly enjoy them. 

Some habits that can contribute to burnout include not asking for help when it is needed, giving all your energy to others and not reserving any for yourself, the need for constant productivity and improvement, putting too much pressure on yourself, and not setting aside time for hobbies and activities that bring you happiness and relaxation.

Alisha Shumake is a licensed aesthetician of 15 years and owner of The More You Glow in Detroit, Michigan. She obtained a degree in small business management and has worked in a variety of different roles in the aesthetics industry such as sales, salons, and medical spas. Shumake decided to take the step into entrepreneurship in 2020, opening The More You Glow. In addition to providing corrective and age management-based treatments, she also strives to educate clients in product knowledge and the latest in treatment advancements to accomplish their skin care goals. 

Skin care and growing cannabis are actually very similar practices for me. While this is my 20th year in the treatment room, it is only my third year in the cannabis industry, and I’ve come to learn that it is measured in dog years – for every single year of changes and advances in the industry it feels like three or more has passed. The common ground is simply that, like people, plants are organisms whose existence, health, and equilibrium rely on basic needs: air, water, sun, and sustenance. 

Just like plants, we operate as organisms in optimum pH. Internally, our bodies need to be slightly alkaline, meaning basic. Externally, skin is happiest functioning in a slightly acidic environment due to our acid mantel, the oil skin produces to protect our body from pathogens, provide hydration, and lock in moisture. Without our acid mantel, any little microbe or pathogen that lands on our skin could ultimately kill us. The soil a plant grows in depends on a particular acidity to thrive as well, and every plant has different needs. Without proper pH a plant can be stunted, sick, or even die. Thankfully, being a skin care professional rarely gets that serious. 

THE SKIN CARE-CANNABIS CONNECTION 

While there is so much overlap between our body composition and that of the cannabis plant, there is also a lot of overlap in the skin care and cannabis market. Both have an overabundance of products hitting the shelves on a daily basis. Some of them are good, some of them are great, and some of them leave a lot to be desired. Even as a professional, the competition for your attention is overwhelming, but the same common sense your superior education and pedigree has bestowed upon you as a skin care professional should be equally applied to your CBD and cannabis products as to your traditional skin care. First and foremost, know your state regulations regarding cannabis. While it is a cold hard fact that CBD does not produce a high, it is still a highly regulated ingredient on a federal and state level and demands respect, integrity, and understanding.  

There is an important lesson in the emerging market of ever expanding results-oriented cannabis products: there are many good products out there. They might not be legally compliant, but that doesn’t make them bad. It just makes them noncompliant (illegal). To flip the script, there are many legally compliant products coming out, and more to come as the industry expands, that may not be very good. Therefore, it is the skin care professional’s job to understand how to decipher the snake-oil from the good stuff. Consider this article an introduction to the process.  

Antonia Schreiber is a New York State licensed massage therapist, cosmetologist specializing in aesthetics science, and electrologist. With over 16 years’ experience in the industry, Schreiber’s work has brought her everywhere from the classroom to her certified green spa, the Windham Spa, to the United States Olympic Training Center and beyond. Outside of the treatment room she is a writer, speaker, and consultant with the New York State Department of Education, leading education firms and industry magazines. Antonia’s current passion projects include treatment research and development for burn patients, and assisting in the development of the United States Paralymic Bobsled and Skeleton Team. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly popular and can be a great tool for businesses to improve efficiencies, save time, and decrease costs. AI allows businesses to automate tasks, avoid human mistakes, make faster decisions, and generate market data which contributes to the overall success of the business. Here are seven ways that spas can leverage AI to strengthen and grow their waxing business. 

1. ENHANCED CLIENT EXPERIENCE

Artificial intelligence can be used to improve the client experience in many ways. For example, implementing an AI-powered chatbot on your website or social media platforms will provide instant responses to inquiries and a more robust way to track mentions or tags on social media. This information can then be used for following up, which helps ensure there are no missed marketing opportunities. An AI-powered chatbot can also guide clients through the booking process on your website, eliminating the need for a staff member to constantly monitor and respond to these requests. Research driven by artificial intelligence can provide important insight into client preferences and behaviors, allowing you to tailor your spa menu and offer more personalized services.  

2. APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING

AI systems can be used to facilitate client appointment bookings while also optimizing your spa’s schedule. Scheduling is an integral part of any spa’s operations as you want to reduce downtimes between services in order to fit in as many appointments as you can in one day. This is especially important during busy times, such as evenings and weekends. Gaps in the schedule can mean lost revenue and staff inefficiencies. Avoiding downtime between appointments maximize revenue and supports a successful business.  

Lindsay Miller is the president of LYCON Wax North America. Having first discovered LYCON wax in the United Kingdom 10 years ago, she has dedicated her time to growing the brand across North America, including introducing LYCON to Canada. Training and product quality are extremely important to Miller and she prides herself on building a strong team around her that can offer the best customer experience possible. LYCON continues to be a market leader in hair removal wax and is used in top spas and salons around the world.  

Identifying and treating skin concerns is the basic calling card of every skin professional. The challenge, however, lies when the skin concern or condition is not as obvious to identify as we’d hope. Melanin-rich skin, to date, represents less than 20% of skin concerns in dermatology and basic industry curriculum textbooks. Not only do skin care professionals encounter uncertainties around traditionally identifying skin conditions, but for clients with melanin-rich skin, there exists an underlying belief of some levels of immunity to certain skin conditions. The truth is, all skin is susceptible to all skin aggressors and conditions. The primary factors skin care professionals should bear in mind are the variable nuances that can be masked and less than obvious skin concerns. 

As always, The Melanin Diaries are here to provide you with a few pointers to help you successfully navigate your client support for clients with melanin-rich skin. Before we call out the usual suspects of top skin concerns for various darker skin tones, we need to lay a good foundation. Human skin is more similar than it is different. To support and care for melanin-rich skin, understanding the inherent similarities it holds with all skin is fundamental, prior to being able to understand its unique elements.  

Reference 

1. C. R Cooper: The Skin Theologian. The No Compromise Black Skin Care Guide “Pro Edition”: The Skin ProfessionalSkin professional’s Culturally Intelligent Tool for Caring for Darker Skin. (© Charmaine Cooper Publications 2022) 

C.R. Cooper is a connective, knowledgeable, and compassionate educator who has been a skin enthusiast for over 24 years. As the education manager and master educator for a renowned global institute of learning in the skin health industry, Cooper values organizational and individual industry standards, professional and personal brand integrity, but most importantly the inherent worth in every skin professional.  

Sometimes what’s old is new again. This can certainly be applied to gua sha. Gua sha (Chinese: 刮痧; pinyin: guā shā; pronounced gwahshah) began its rise to internet prominence in 2021 and has remained a topic of interest ever since. A search for #guasha results in over 2.9 billion views on TikTok, and over 728,000 posts on Instagram. Articles on gua sha can be found in magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Allure, and Harper’s Bazaar, and on news sites such as Newsweek, ABC News, Good Morning America, the Today Show, and more.

ANCIENT HISTORY 

It’s believed that the practice of gua sha can be traced back to the Paleolithic Age where hands or stones were rubbed on various parts of the body to alleviate pain or sickness, and it was documented as a form of treatment in medical journals during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) by the ancient Chinese.  

The name gua sha breaks down to mean: gua for scraping, and sha for redness. This longstanding Traditional Chinese Medicine healing method was adopted into other Asian cultures and goes by kashin in Japan, kerokan in Indonesia, gual sa in Korea, and cao gió in Vietnam, while practitioners in France know it as tribo-effleurage. Thanks to the virality of social media, as well as copious amounts of news coverage, gua sha is now universally known as a treatment modality. 

STUDIES SHOW 

 In gua sha, practitioners use a smooth-edged tool to stroke skin, gliding along the lymphatic system to improve blood circulation and aid in drainage function, resulting in the rapid rush of blood circulation to the treatment area. A 2021 study found that scraping marks (petechiae and ecchymoses) are formed when capillaries break open and blood leaks into the subcutis, and that cell debris is concurrently removed by microglia and macrophages. Hypothesizing that the nervous system and immune system interact with one another to generate a cascade of physiological responses to the scraping, through which scraping may result in therapeutic benefits. 

An earlier study conducted in 2007 aimed to study the microcirculatory effects of gua sha on skin and the subcutis in humans to elucidate physiological mechanisms responsible for the clinically observed pain-relieving effect of this treatment. Laser doppler imaging (LDI) was used to make sequential measurements of the microcirculation of surface tissue before and after gua sha treatment in 11 healthy subjects. The effect of gua sha treatment on the microcirculation of surface tissue was expressed as changes from baseline in arbitrary perfusion units (PU). It showed that gua sha caused a fourfold increase in microcirculation perfusion units at the treated area for the first 7.5 minutes following treatment and a significant increase in surface microcirculation during the entire 25 minutes of the study period following treatment (P .001). Interestingly, females showed significantly higher rates of response than males. 

ON A COSMETIC LEVEL 

As practitioners, we can appreciate that studies have shown that this daily ritual improves microcirculation up to 400%, however, most clients are looking for the reported aesthetic benefits often associated with a gua sha facial. The often-noted results include the reduction of puffiness, the sculpting of the jawline and cheekbones, the relaxation of facial muscles, the improvement of skin elasticity, and the minimization of fine lines and wrinkles. It’s also reported that gua sha promotes the production of collagen, which can help even out skin tone and reduce the appearance of discoloration, such as hyperpigmentation. While there is some anecdotal evidence to support these claims, there is little empirical research to-date to offer concrete data for reference.  

This lack of research has not affected the interest and demand in gua sha facial treatments, so it may be something worth considering if you haven’t already adopted this modality. There are a number of certification programs available to ensure proper training and methodology, and all gua sha practitioners will want to familiarize themselves with the contraindications, such as injury to skin, like sunburn, rashes, abrasions, bruising, ulceration, and lesions. Also, any clients with bleeding disorders such as leukemia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia, or those taking blood thinners should avoid this treatment. 

TOOLBOX 

Lastly, there are a number of gua sha tools including wing-type tools, s-shaped tools, rollers and more. The gua sha tools market in North America and Europe is expanding at a significant rate and is estimated to grow during the forecast period due to its popularity, the presence of a number of beauty salons, e-commerce websites offering discounts on gua sha tools, adherence to strict quality controls, and existing product development processes. The numbers show remarkable market growth, which points to future opportunities on the treatment provider end, as well as retail sales.