Usually we’d do just about anything to achieve model-esque skin. Dunk our faces in ice? Check. Go at it with a blue light? Definitely. Smother ourselves in snail mucus? Of course. Our skincare routine consists solely of the saying, “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” with the caveat “if it worked for a model, it can work for me.” Albeit, the method is a tad dangerous, which is why we consulted professional help when it came to Victoria’s Secret angel Josephine Skriver’s DIY dermaplaning technique.
The 25-year-old model recently talked to Harper’s Bazaar about her nighttime beauty routine, which included a tip about shaving her face twice a week. “A fun thing lately I love to do lately is I shave my face,” she says. “I know it’s gonna sound scary, at first I was like—’don’t do it!’ My friend has been doing it for a long time, and she really swears by it. Her skin has cleaned out a lot. I only do this once, max twice a week.”
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Before we answer whether you should implement this into your own routine, let’s revisit why people are shaving their face in the first place. According to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Sandy Skotnicki, the professional version of face-shaving, known as dermaplaning, is a procedure where “a 10 inch surgical steel scalpel blade is essentially scraped over the skin of the face to remove the dead upper layers of the epidermis called the stratum corneum.”
Yet, as much hype as the facial has received for touting improvement in skin health, fading of acne scars and hyperpigementation, Skotnicki isn’t convinced. She said, “Removing the top few layers of skin with dermaplaning and to a lesser extent shaving gives you smoother skin, but I don’t agree it will increase skin turnover [which would cause quicker regeneration of healthy cells], which I have read in some blogs. You need to get down deeper into the epidermis for that.”
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But if you’ve fallen in love with the idea of dermaplaning (because there are countless success stories, plus Skriver’s perfect skin), we still wouldn’t recommend DIYing every week. According to Dr. Skotnicki ,the stratum corneum takes up to two weeks to replace itself, so you would be removing healthy cells, too. Plus, without proper care and treatment, you’re only stripping away your skin’s natural barrier that keeps bacteria out and hydration in.
Even though we enable a you-never-know skin care attitude, we’ll still opt for the professional treatment over the DIY shaving. Better to err on the side of safety and healthy, glowing skin.