Are facials beneficial or harmful?
I feel that EVERY DAY skin care is more important that facials, Botox, fillers, and lasers. Most of the time, when I first see a patient, they are using the wrong skin care. I tell them that they must improve their regimen or they are wasting money on Botox. Many dermatologists employ aestheticians to help them make these skin care recommendations to their patients. I feel the aesthetician plays a crucial role. It is important that aestheticians are well trained. The problem with facials is:
1. They may be performed by unskilled, untrained people. (training requirements vary from state to state and are minimal.
2. The aesthetician often does not take into account the patient’s skin type when choosing facial products.
3. Aestheticians are not trained on the skin typing system.
4. The client may go in for a facial once a month but does not do the necessary skin care in between. They get a false sense of security because they are getting facials.
5. In some instances, those with acne break out after a facial. Friction may be the cause of this. Here is the study. It is not a perfect study but it is the only one I have found that has looked at acne after facials
Acneiform eruptions after facial beauty treatment
International Journal of Dermatology
Volume 38, Issue 3, Date: March 1999, Pages: 196-199
Neena Khanna, Siddhartha Datta Gupta

Facials are beneficial when:
1. A well trained facialist properly chooses skin care ingredients right for your Baumann Skin Type. Aestheticians can sign up at www.SkinIQ.com for free to use my system to determine skin type.
2. A well trained aesthetician does blackhead or comedone extractions
3. They remind the client to use the proper skin care daily
4. They are relaxing which improves skin.
5. They are combines with chemical peel and light treatment to treat acne and sun spots.

So it all comes down to how good the aesthetician is. There are no national standards and no way for you as a client to know who is good. Please send me the names of your aestheticians that use my skin typing system and are well trained and I will post them under the Q and A section. Should I consider beginning a training course for aestheticians? If you are interested, email me at DRB@derm.net.

In my recent blog at www.skinguru.com, many people were upset when I said that facials have no long term skin benefits and that they may worsen acne in the short term. Some poorly designed studies have shown this. There have been no good studies done on this topic. I think it is time that we look at this scientifically. if you live in Miami and want to participate in looking into this, email me at cosmeticresearch@med.miami.edu. We will take research quality photos of your face, you will get a series of facials and then we will take a second set of photographs and compare. Lets let the data and photos evaluate the short term effects. We will tackle the long term effects in a future study. Feel free to comment about your thoughts on facials.

Hi everyone! Here are some articles about what we have been up to. Genetic trials are starting looking at the genes that affect skin appearance. I am sorry that I don;t yet know how to add these links as hyperlinks. We are updating the blog software so I should be able to soon. In the meantime- just cut and paste.
. I will keep you posted on our research findings! Have a great holiday!
Leslie Baumann MD

(See article at bottom of the page- not the one on fillers)
http://download.journals.elsevierhealth.com/pdfs/journals/0037-6337/PIIS0037633708708933.pdf

http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Modern+Medicine+Now/University-based-research-facility-brings-together/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/567326

http://www.miamiherald.com/925/story/804081.html

Can you believe the ridiculous claims begin made by the companies that have snake venom in thier products? Have any of you used these? Please tell! Let’s dispell the myths!!! I doubt they work but am curious about how they are making these claims.

I have not been blogging as regularly as I like. I am so sorry. We have been so involved in research, and I have been swamped. I can’t tell you about all the research I am doing but of course skin care products are a huge part of the research. In addition, we have been working with Reloxin, the new botulinum toxin that will compete with Botox, and it may get FDA approved soon. I am not sure if you know that I was one of the researchers on Botox in 1998-2000 and have been working with the new toxins such as Reloxin that are being developed. (We worked on Myobloc as well). I will keep you posted on FDA approval of Reloxin. We are also working on many new dermal fillers for wrinkles and skin care products to hit the market. The most exciting research I am doing now is looking at the genes involved in the various skin types. If we can identify which genes contribute to the 16 Baumann Skin Types, then we will be able to develop new therapies quickly. We have made great progress already. I wish I could tell you more. See this link.
http://www.mdconsult.com/das/news/body/111661999-2/mnfp/0/202766/1.html?pos=&tlt=W&date=week&specialty=true

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for a Yahoo blog on stocking stuffer ideas at www.skinguru.com.

Leslie Baumann MD

I have recently received many emails from dermatologists around the world asking about my training program. Yes I train international dermatologist from around the world and have done so since 1997. There is some confusion because several fellows have told me that they accidentally applied to the wrong University of Miami Cosmetic Dermatology training program called the GEST fellowship, and ended up in the wrong department. If you want to apply for the University of Miami Cosmetic Dermatology Fellowship with Dr. Leslie Baumann MD, then email Susan@derm.net or visit www.derm.net under education or link directly at http://www.derm.net/education.shtml.
On this skintypesolutions site you will see under the blogs that Dr. Sachev, Dr. Montiero and Dr. Welsh are blogging. They were my fellows in the University of Miami program. Feel free to ask them about the experience. I have trained over 65 dermatologist around the world including Thailand, China, Korea, Germany, UK, Latin America (many countries), Brazil, and Italy. In some cases we offer a scholarship to come train with us. I even had a fellow recently from Nigeria. The rules are that you must be a board certified dermatologist in your country and you must show proof of this. You will be taught all about the Baumann Skin Typing System and how to recommend skin care to your patients. You will become part of our huge research team that is collecting skin type data from around the world. In addition, you will learn about dermal fillers (Restylane, Sculptra, Juvederm, Prevelle Silk, Evolence, etc), botulinum toxin (Botox and Reloxin), and chemical peels. We use over 20 lasers including the Fraxel, Pearl, Cutera systems, Dornier and Lumenis. This University of Miami Cosmetic Fellowship has been recognized in Skin and Allergy news for its superior training. The reason I am mentioning it here on SkinTypeSolutions.com is that this site gets so much traffic that many fellows around the world have told me that they were directed here by Google when they typed my name for the fellowship info and could not find it on this site. If you are interested In the GEST (Graduate Education Specialty Training) fellowship at the University of Miami, visit www.derm.net for info, please go to www.derm.net or email Susan@derm.net who is in charge of the program. Coming soon are aesthetician training programs. If you are interested in this, please email DRB@derm.net. Have a great day! If anyone is looking for a doctor around the world that I trained, email DrB@derm.net to find a doctor in your area. The new edition of my textbook “Cosmetic dermatology: Principles and Practice (McGraw Hill) comes out in Jan 2009. It will be in 8 languages so look for it in your home country. I look forward to training you!
Dr. Leslie Baumann MD

I found this cute website with make up suggestions and all kinds of advice. I still am lookign for good foundations for the various skin types. Can you tell me your favorite foundations are and please include your skin type in the comments section of this blog. Here is the site I found

www.theluxuryspot.com

Here is the first one:

http://www.glamour.com/beauty/blogs/girls-in-the-beauty-department/2008/11/your-skinquiries-answered-part.html.

Please come ask a question.

Leslie

http://thejetsetgirls.blogspot.com/2008/11/peek-inside-dr-leslie-baumanns-carry-on.html

http://www.glamour.com/beauty/blogs/girls-in-the-beauty-department/2008/11/got-a-question-for-a-derm-or-p.html