Issue link: https://www.ascpskindeepdigital.com/i/148952
your niche Devoted to Diversity Specializing in darker skin tones is a growing niche by Rebecca Jones Tiffany Lenox was always the girl her classmates turned to for skin care advice. Now she's the go-to skin care therapist for a growing chunk of Oklahoma City's African-American population. People of color make up about 20 percent of the clientele at her Body Wrap Spalon, and she expects that number to increase. "There's definitely a lack of knowledge about African-American skin," says Lenox. "Most African-American women worry that an esthetician of a different race won't know how to treat their skin." It's a valid concern. Most skin care treatments and products are designed for light-skinned individuals, says Pamela Springer, author of Natural Radiance: A Guide for Ethnic Skin Care (Global Skin Solutions Publishing, 2009). A treatment that works well on lighter skin may be ineffective or harmful on darker skin. More and more estheticians are finding value in developing their skills in identifying clients' Fitzpatrick type—the most commonly used scale for describing skin color—and treating the skin accordingly. However, color alone isn't a reliable guide to a client's skin type. "I go by their background," Springer says. "That lets you know what the risk factors are." Her own heritage, for example, blends African, Native American, Irish, and Jewish. "I have skin that burns in the sun because of the Irish in me." Springer now even avoids using the word ethnic to describe darker skin tones. "When I say that, people automatically think African-American. But 80 percent of the world's population is 'ethnic' in the sense of being non-Caucasian. You can say skin types III-VI. I usually say global skin." Vietnamese-born TraMi Cron agrees it's important to know a client's heritage. Eighty percent of clients at her Santa Cruz clinical skin care spa have skin that reflects a Middle Eastern, Southern European, or South American heritage—and you can't always tell by looking. "Someone may look Caucasian, but they may have a lot of Italian in them," Cron says. "They come in with dark spots caused by chemical peels or waxing and they have no idea why. For anyone with any type of non-northern European ethnicity in their DNA, you have to be careful with those treatments." Missy Hill, owner of Brown Sugar Spray Tan Spa in suburban Atlanta, initially went into skin care because of her own experiences of sunburn with her Fitzpatrick type II skin. She attended a class Springer was giving on chemical peels, and everything just clicked. "I thought, 'Oh, that's it!'" she says. "Different people have different reasons for their hyperpigmentation, but we all want to correct it." Today, about half her clients are people of color, including a large number of Native Americans. Before Hill begins to work on a client, she takes a thorough history so she'll know the client's ancestry and how his or her skin is likely to react. She also makes sure the client has realistic expectations. The process of repairing sun damage often takes much longer for darker skin. All these women agree that they learned the most about caring for diverse skin types after they graduated from esthetics school. "I continually went back to school," Springer says. "I ended up connecting with a board-certified dermatologist at a predominantly black medical school who allowed me to shadow her." "You have to know how to treat all skin shades to make a living, but you have to especially reach out to learn about darker skin," Lenox says. A treatment that works well on lighter skin may be ineffective or harmful on darker skin. Rebecca Jones is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer based in Denver, Colorado. Contact her at killarneyrose@comcast.net. 11