What is a skin graze? A skin graze is when the top layer of skin lifts during waxing, leaving a small amount of exposed skin with a burn-like appearance.
Although this heals up within a few days, it can be annoying and an inconvenience for clients (who wants a flaky scab around their brows). It can also be stressful for therapists. Due to the appearance of the graze, clients often assume they must have been burned or that the therapist has done something incorrectly, but this usually isn’t the case.
So what causes skin grazing?
Grazing is much more likely to occur when a client’s skin is sensitised. This can be down to medications such as Roccutae/ acne treatments, antibiotics, and anti-depressants or sunburn, sun damage or sunbed use. Hormones and hormonal changes can also be to blame, so it’s extremely important to inform your therapist of any changes at all.
Recently, many salons and therapists have experienced a rise in skin grazing. This is due to the most common cause of skin grazing; skin care!
Many skin care products now on the market, from cleansers and toners to serums, contain active ingredients such as AHA / Vitamin A or often some types of Retinol / retinoid or Tretinoin. These ingredients remove dead skin cells but can also remove the skin’s protective barrier and make the skin much more susceptible to lifting.
What can we do as therapists?
Use a barrier! Especially where skin lifting has occurred previously, skin can be weaker so we always advise using a skin oil/ barrier prior to waxing. Talc can also work well to create a barrier between the skin and the wax to help prevent lifting.
Test the wax temperature; we recommend testing the temperature of the wax on the client’s palm so they can confirm with you this feels ok for them.
Consult with your clients and educate them on which products make skin unsuitable for waxing treatments. Often clients are unaware of their skin care ingredients.
Provide aftercare; make sure your client has read through what not to do following their waxing treatment.
We can do our part as therapists but clients, it’s really important that you tell us about any previous grazing. It is your responsibility to read our consultation forms thoroughly, tell us what you are using and understand what you are putting on your skin, as well as always following your aftercare!
So you’ve grazed during your treatment, what now?
Don’t panic. It often appears worse than it is and doesn’t cause any lasting problems. The area will be tender for a couple of days so try to be gentle when washing and avoid applying make-up to the area at least until it’s lightly scabbed.
Applying an antiseptic cream can help the graze heal up quicker. We recommend Sudocrem to dry it up super quickly.
Avoid sun and sunbeds and use SPF on the area once healed.
We recommend waiting a minimum of 3 months before waxing this area again and always inform your therapist, so that they can take steps to avoid your skin grazing again in the future.