A couple of weeks ago I experienced getting dermaplaned for the first time with my sister. Our mom previously had it done and liked it so much that she got us gift cards so we could go ourselves! I wanted to share my experience and show a couple before and after shots I got while I was there.

Firstly, let’s get into what dermaplaning is. If you did not know, dermaplaning is essentially shaving your face with a very high quality, medical-grade scalpel to remove vellus hairs(read: peach fuzz) and built-up dead skin. This procedure is supposed to benefit you in two ways: it heightens the ability for your skin to absorb skincare products better and also allows makeup to apply smoother across the face. I was intrigued but unlikely to ever pay to have it done professionally. I’ve used those eyebrow shaver sticks in the past to shave my upper lip and almost every single time I’ve used them, I’ve broken out. I was certain that if I got my entire face dermaplaned that I would break out EVERYWHERE. That was not entirely true.. read on.

The session started with a quick cleanse of my skin with a bit of alcohol. After that, the esthetician began shaving away in the direction of my hair growth; first starting at my cheeks and then moving to my forehead and nose/upper lip region. I felt and heard little to no sensation while I was getting everything done. I had expected some sort of scratching noise but found nothing audible really occurred. The process was fairly relaxing, actually!

After everything had been ‘planed, there was a round of witch hazel swept across my face. This was to further cleanse my now wide-open facial pores. My worries about breaking out were eased a bit because witch hazel is a strong astringent that is known for clearing and preventing breakouts. After the witch hazel was applied, a cooling rod was drawn over my entire face to close the pores. Process complete!

I had a handful of pimples pop up in the week following my dermaplaning procedure but they weren’t anything I couldn’t handle nor were they very painful. I assume they were a byproduct of the procedure and my skins way of removing toxins that were now closer to the surface of my face. The weirdest thing that happened was that over the following week, I noticed that my face was always clammy. Regardless of how many times I washed my face, it felt sticky (I guess) because there were no longer hairs left to make it soft to the touch. I didn’t love that.

Another weird sensation I experienced post-procedure were the super heightened feelings on my skin. I was suddenly hyper-aware of whenever I was touching my face or if a stray hair brushed against the skin. It wasn’t a positive nor a negative– just a strange sensation that I had noticed. It must have been something else to do with the fact that there were suddenly no hairs on my face to warn my skin “hey something is about to touch you” *insert shrugging emoji here*

As for the claim of a smoother makeup application, I absolutely can speak to that. Both liquid and powder products applied in a noticeably different manner. It took some time to be able to differentiate between the product ACTUALLY applying in a different way and my face just being extra aware of my makeup brushes touching my face. The most notable feeling was with my bronzer on the sides of my face– this is an area that I never focused hair removal on in the past and was seemingly the most obvious difference for me in terms of the weird “feeling” sensation. Below you will see my cheek/bronzer region before and after I got dermaplaned:

With the pros and cons considered, I’m fairly confident enough to say that I likely won’t get dermaplaned again. It was definitely a cool thing to have done but I didn’t love having breakouts afterward. I know that even happens after something like a facial but that and the clamminess were too much for me. It was fun, though, and I’m glad I finally got to test out and learn about dermaplaning. I suggest trying it at least once to see how you like it!

If you have been dermaplaned before, let me know what happened! I’m curious if the clamminess was just something I dealt with– my sister said she didn’t have the same issue. I find it interesting that we all have such different reactions to the same things in life and I’m curious to hear. Hit up the comments below ↓↓↓

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