The Making of an Esthetician

As Colleen mentioned in her latest post, we finally saw a body wrap demo at school on Tuesday. I’m so glad we did because there are quite a few things you need to know.The first one being how to set up the bed. It’s quite different from setting up a bed for a facial. It’s not difficult or anything, but you do need to know the correct order to put the fitted sheet, flat sheet, blanket and thermal wrap. The second one is how to properly drape the client. Other things you need to know are–although I’m really not sure why and if someone can tell me that would be great:

Start with the client’s right leg

Use your hand to follow the dry brush as you go

Brush in the direction of the client’s heart

Go in a clockwise direction when you get to the stomach

How to wrap the client in each layer and for how long

At which point do you incorporate a facial if that’s what the client wants.

This is all really important information to know.

Which brings me back to the importance of demos. Once I’ve seen a demo, I just feel better about doing the treatment because at least I have an idea of how it’s supposed to be done.

So right now I feel pretty good about doing all the items on our menu.  Nothing is scary anymore!  :) We are officially done with theory so I hope Tuesday nights will not only be a demo night, but another night where we can practice on each other. We could use all the practice we can get!

1. Sienna, Esthetician/Owner - Faces by Sienna Skin Studio
   July 14th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

   I remember the first time I had to do a body wrap..I was out of school for nearly 2 years. So, imagine my distress! All I did was look it up in my Milady and pray that the client didn’t sense my lack of experience! But, now we have youtube.com! I always do a search on youtube for different treatments- it is really nice to see other estheticians’ procedures! I hope that this little tip helps! Happy “Youtube”ing ; )

2. Christine Cook, Spa Director - re:fresh, a day spa
   July 14th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

   Sandra - here are the answers to a couple of your questions:
   The hand follows the dry brush because the additional contact gives the perception of a more nurturing approach. If you want to do a brisker, more invigorating treatment you’d not necessarily want to use the trailing hand.

   You brush in the direction of the heart because this means you are following the natural flow of blood circulation. In particular you don’t want blood to flow “against” the direction of the valves in the veins for example, brushing down the legs. It’s probably not a huge problem because the pressure you will be using is not great. Often when dry brushing is taught you will be encouraged to follow the path of lymph flow in the body, so that the treatment will also have a detox component.

   Clockwise brushing on the abdomen is also because it follows the natural direction of the movement of the contents of the large intestine (ascending, transverse and descending colon.)

3. Sandra
   July 17th, 2008 at 9:02 am

   Sienna: I never thought about looking on YouTube for this, but earlier this month my fiance and I were going to a wedding and neither one of us knew how to tie a tie so we googled it and there was a video about it on YouTube! After reading your comment, I went online and looked up videos on facials and I was amazed how many there were! I think I’m going to be going on YouTube a lot! Thanks for the great tip!!!

4. Sienna, Owner/Esthetician - Faces by Sienna Skin Studio
   July 17th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

   Sandra,
   I am glad that I was able to share that tip with you..it is amazing what you can watch online these days, I youtube things constantly!!!!
   ; )