I love meeting my clients for the first time. They're always so excited and eager to get (for some of them) their first facial. Plus, the thought of getting in some "me" time isn't bad either. But, when I pull out my 30 question client form, I sometimes sense a little apprehension. "Wow, this is a lot of information," some of them say, or they just look big eyed at the paper until they're done.
Nobody likes filing out forms, believe me I know, but it is a necessary part of your treatment. As an esthetician, I'm not satisfied with just rubbing cremes and lotions on your face, I'm here to help you develop a skin care regimen that will leave you with self confidence and healthy skin.
The questions are simple; do you blush easily, are you prone to break outs, and the very important list of allergies. But, there are two questions that people often tell little white lies about when they initially fill out the form: how much water do you drink a day, how much caffeine a day and how much alcohol do you consume a week. I don't ask these questions to get all up in your business. I ask them to see if you may be dehydrating your skin from the inside out. Drinking alcohol dehydrates your body and for every cup of caffeine you drink, you should have 2 cups of water.
That is the last thing you want to be is dehydrated. Dehydrated skin is flaky and more prone to wrinkles and it is a catalyst in skin sensitivities. Case in point: I love jewelry, but sometimes the fake stuff breaks me out. Well, one day I had a stone necklace on. It was bitter cold outside, I was fighting a cold and pure laziness prevented me from drinking my daily intake of water. By the time I got home, my lips were super chapped and I had this HUGE hive on my neck from the stones on my necklace. So I had to walk around the next day with my cracked lips and a lumpy neck. If I would have drank my water like I was supposed to, I wouldn't have had such a reaction to the cold and the fake necklace.
It never really dawned on me that people would have untruths on their client form until I had a client who wrote that she has 7-14 drinks a week. I asked her about it because I thought maybe she read the question wrong. But, she was happy to tell me that she drinks a glass of wine every night, and if it's been one of those days, she has two. So because of that I changed up her treatment a little bit to a deeper penetrating mask to fight the dehydrating effects of alcohol.
Telling little white lies really hurts only you because it stops the esthetician from fully understanding the treatment that fits best for you. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is what it is. So, because I like to lead by example, I promise that from now on I will only check off the statement "I exercise frequently" if it's true.
