Meet Dan! (And other facial discoveries)

The Dans. Chillin' before class starts.

Meet Dan.

Just like cosmetology students get those crazy heads on a stick with real hair, aesthetics students receive a “Dan” with a belt.  The belt is used to strap this bodiless representation of a person to a facial bed. Then, as you probably guessed, you practice all your cleansing techniques and facial massage movements on Dan.

Yes, Dan gives all of us a little of the heebie-geebies. He's a little smaller than the average person and he strangely resembles one of the pre-cogs from the movie Minority Report.  

This is pretty much my view of Dan during facial movement practice.

We began the cleansing portion of facials last week. I did a cleansing for one of my classmates and she did the same for me. There is one technique in the cleansing we're learning called “scissor the lips"… meaning that you take your first and second finger and run the first one above the lips and under the nose, and the second finger below the lips. Get it? Scissor the lips. Anyway, the first time Tasha did this on my face, we both couldn’t help but giggle like we were kids sitting in the last pew at church. We quickly composed ourselves and got back to cleansing.

An interesting tidbit about facials… did you know that your aesthetician should always remain in some type of physical contact with you throughout your entire facial? It’s just good aesthetics etiquette. While this sounds easy, it really is a challenge. Anytime we need to “refill” our hands with something (water, a cleanser, etc.), we have to keep one hand touching the head or face of the client and use the other one to get whatever it is that we need. So - - what happens when you need both hands to open up a container or reach for two sponges? I’m glad you asked. It’s what I call the “lean in” technique. You lean your body towards the client so that they feel your “presence” and grab whatever stuff you need as quickly as possible. J Luckily your client’s eyes are closed for almost the entire time, so they’re pretty oblivious to some of the chaos that can happen around them during the process.

In summary, I’m giving my first shot at non-Dan facial cleansing a 7.6! We have a short time for feedback when we finish a facial. My classmate only had two pieces of feedback for me - to use heavier pressure on the face and to be extra cautious with a couple of my movements that potentially cut off nasal airflow. What??  

Gettin’ Beauty Schooled,

Rita