Dermaplaning. It’s the hottest topic among the beauty crowd with everyone from makeup artists to dermatologists getting involved in the chat.
GLAMOUR UK cover star Huda Kattan famously vlogged about it (the video now has over 4 million views).
So what is it? The high-profile beauty prep treatment involves using a single blade to remove the hair and dead skin cells from the surface of your skin. In other words, it’s shaving – but to prepare your skin for makeup application – and you definitely don’t need a big bushy beard to benefit from the treatment, either.
Dermaplaning targets the ‘peach fuzz’ (the invisible, baby hairs that commonly crop up on cheeks and around the hairline). This hair is technically known as vellus hair and is distinctly different from the dark, thick terminal hair, which grows on our heads, underarms and pubic area. Another important point to make is that vellus hair doesn’t grow back stubbly.
Contrary to its recent popularity, dermaplaning has been around for a lot longer than you might think. In fact, Cleopatra was the original advocate and it’s also a longstanding tradition in Indian culture. So, there must be something in it, right? To find out, I thought I would give it a go and see if it really did help to ensure smooth foundation application.
A post shared by Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty) on Mar 24, 2018 at 11:47am PDT
Using a single razor blade at a 45 degree angle, I gently scratched the surface of my skin. I had initially thought that I wouldn’t be a good advocate for the treatment as I didn’t have any facial hair but was in for a rude awakening when a palm-full of blonde fluff fell into my bathroom sink upon first swipe.
A few swipes (and fluff balls) later, I set the blade down to assess the results. Visually, there was no difference. But my skin did feel super smooth to the touch and when I applied foundation, it seemed to adhere to my skin with greater ease, rather than gathering on the hairs and looking powdery. Other than that, I didn’t notice enough of an improvement in my overall complexion to make the treatment a regular addition to my already lengthy beauty regime.
