The Hidden Dangers of Beauty

Normally, I barely listen to the radio when driving in my car, but today on the John Tesh Radio Show (Sunday) my ears perked up when he started to discuss the hidden "dangers" of young girls using makeup too early. Dangers in makeup? Really?

The broadcast was entitled "The Ugly Truth About Young Girls Wearing Makeup". The line that grabbed my attention was "the sooner your daughter starts wearing makeup, the sooner it might kill her!" This was a quote coming from Stacy Malkan, a cosmetic expert who wrote the book Not Just A Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. According to the John Tesh website, Malkan states "by the time most North American girls become teenagers, many have a daily make-up ritual that includes lipstick, mascara, eyeliner, nail polish and perfume, not to mention skin lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and hair color treatments." She goes on to say "in fact, experts estimate that a typical young girl now walks around with at least a dozen layers of beauty products on her body! As the makeup layers add up, so does her exposure to dangerous chemicals, and that’s very bad news for a young girl’s health."

Apparently the culprits are chronic exposure to parabens and phthalates which have been found to disrupt hormone levels during adolescent years which may result in early puberty. Malkin continues to state "one study found that HALF [sic] of all North American girls now begin to show signs of breast development by the age of 10 – which is more than two years sooner than females from our grandmother’s generation. Other studies link those unusual hormone levels to a higher depression rate among young girls, and a higher risk for breast cancer! That’s why experts recommend women of all ages find out exactly what chemicals go into their makeup."

There is a website suggested for reference to verify the ingredients in certain beauty products and cosmetics and it is called the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. I was instantly intrigued and raced to my Mac when I got home to give it a try! Here's how my products scored:

(Scale: 0-2=Low hazard; 3-6 Moderate Hazard; 7-10 High Hazard).

• Cleanser: 3 (moderate hazard) 
• Toner: 7 (high hazard) 
• Moisturizer: 5 (moderate hazard) 
• Eye Cream: 6 (moderate hazard) 
• Lip Cream: 7 (high hazard) 
• SPF 30: 7 (high hazard) 
• Concealer: 4 (moderate hazard) 
• Foundation Primer: 5 (moderate hazard) 
• Foundation: 9 (high hazard) 
• Loose Powder: 5 (moderate hazard) 
• Blush: 7 (high hazard) 
• Bronzing Powder: 8 (high hazard) 
• Eyeshadow: 7 (high hazard) 
• Mascara: 8 (high hazard) 
• Lipstick 6: (moderate hazard) 

My gosh, I'm a walking carcinogen!!! Like most women, I use an array of products, from medical grade like Obagi, spa grade like SkinCeuticals, high end department stores like Merle Norman, Estee' Lauder and Laura Mercier, right down to drug store brands like Maybelline. It seems no company's products were completely safe. And, makeup is just the beginning for young girls!

More and more young girls are taking their skin care regimens to the next level by having microdermabrasion treatments and chemical peels, with some escalating to laser and injectable therapies. Putting aside the various protocols for acneic adolescents, there has actually been a rise in the U.S. of young girls undergoing laser hair removal, photo facials, dermal filler procedures, even laser lipolysis. Where do we draw the line as clinicians? 21? 18? 16 with parental consent? I know in our medical spa we have been approached by parents inquiring as to what our policy is for treating adolescents for non-medical related conditions. The number one request is laser hair removal for ethic skin types predominately for excess facial hair. Many clinicians feel it is a low-risk procedure which can lift a child's self-esteem. Some clinicians disagree and feel a child is much too young to be exposed to laser therapies.

I'm not a laser expert and am uncertain as to if many aesthetic equipment manufacturers have performed clinical trials on adolescents for laser procedures (other than port wine stains). I'm more apt to believe the answer to this questions will become clearer as the years go on and by remembering the first rule is to "do no harm".

That, and to throw away your teenager's makeup!

Author: Paula D. Young RN runs internal operations and training at Young Medical Spa and is the author of the Medical Spa Aesthetics Course, Study Guide, and Advanced IPL & Laser Training course for medical estheticians and laser technicians.

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Do it yourself laser hair removal... Unhappy medical spas?

The're are a growing number of 'home laser hair removal' devices appearing on the market. This article on do it yourself laser hair removal supposes that medical spas and laser clinics are feeling the heat.

Want to get rid of some unsightly hair, but don’t want to spend the big bucks for electrolysis or a laser clinic? Now, you can buy your own laser and do it yourself.

And people are.

The growth of the at-home cosmetic-device market, which includes personal lasers, has some professionals buzzing. At an annual conference hosted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Barry DiBernardo, a New Jersey surgeon, delivered a talk in Seattle about the pros and cons of the DIY market on the ASPS’s “Hot Topics” panel.

“We have to make sure that the patients are getting good, safe treatments. If they are getting good, safe treatments, then whether they are doing it at home or not, I’m not as worried,” DiBernardo told Wired.com by phone. “What I’m worried about is that they are seeing things in the Skymall on the airplane and spending hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars on something that is not going to work or is unproven.”

New cosmetic medical devices including DIY lasers are expected to explode into a $1.3 billion market 2013, up from just $296 million in 2008, according to the analyst group Medical Insights. The growth in the market appears to be coming from light-based products that claim to either remove or grow hair on the human body. The Silk’n Hair was the first at-home laser device to be approved by the FDA, in 2006, although it didn’t come on the market until early 2008.

The laser hair removers damage the hair follicles that are in their growth phase, generally leading to some permanent reductions of body hair. DiBernardo questioned whether the lasers used in the home devices were powerful enough to get the kind of results that clinics achieve.

“In general, these devices are low-powered versions of the doctor versions. We’ve been doing hair removal since 1998, so we know that they work and how well they do,” he said. “I think these home devices have some effect, but they legally can’t have the power of what we fire at people.”

From nother nice post from Wired:

My own experience is that people looking to do it yourself home laser hair removal (or skin tightening or complexion light-based photo-therapies) are really looking to save money and are buying a device in the hope that it will work. Patients who are actually interested in laser hair removal or skin tightening are put off by these types of home remedies. I've never heard that a laser clinc or medical spa is suffering from this, but I may be wrong.

Does anyone running a medical spa or laser hair removal clinc feel differently? Is laser hair removal at a medspa moving to home laser hair remvoal that a do it yourself laser treatment?