Fashion and Beauty 20th May 2024 by Amie Edmonds

Dermaplaning 101: How To Do It At Home

Here's what you need to know.

Photo by Pexels

There are some things that are certain in life, like the fact that you can’t please everyone, pizza and garlic dip will always be a winning combo and that we all have hair on our faces.

I’m ‘lucky’ enough that my hair is light, so I’ve never had major problems with facial hair. I get my ‘tache waxed and my brows threaded like many people, but I’ve never felt the need to go the whole hog. Until I heard of dermaplaning.

Basically, dermaplaning is an exfoliating treatment that removes the hair (or peach fuzz, as we usually call it) and dead skin cells from your face. Contrary to popular belief, hair removal isn’t the main result of dermaplaning, it’s just a side-effect.

If you dermaplan professionally, it can work wonders for your skin by removing the first dull layer, resulting in improved skin texture and appearance. But you can also do it at home with the help of a dermaplaning tool.

I knew all about dermaplaning, but still, I had my worries. Even though my beloved internet told me I wouldn’t be left with stubble that needed to be removed every second day or so, I couldn’t get that fear out of my head. But I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and got on with it.

So how did it go? What do you need to know? And most importantly, am I walking around looking like I literally shaved my face with a Venus razor?

 

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Firstly, you need to make sure your face is clean, that goes without saying. Then you want to throw on the ultimate ‘get shit done’ playlist and get up and close with a mirror. The key to this actually working for you is the angle at which you hold the blade itself. You want to point it at your face at a 45-degree angle. Don’t worry, if you’re not exactly a pro with angles, you’ll soon be able to feel if you’re using the dermaplaning blade correctly (it took me a minute to get the hang of it).

It doesn’t hurt whatsoever, but there’s a gentle tug that’ll let you know if it’s actually removing anything. Simply drag the blade in short strokes downwards (the shorter the better), going with the direction of the peach fuzz rather than against.

This I learned the hard way. In my mind, when it comes to shaving (and waxing, in particular) you go against the hair to remove it. It was like my hands had a mind of their own and immediately went against the direction of said peach fuzz.

There was a notable difference in the texture of my skin in the parts where I went against the hairs, compared to where I followed the instructions and went with the hairs. Not stubble, exactly, more like soft, subtle, fake stubble. But it definitely didn’t look or feel like I took an actual razor to my face.

Five minutes later I had gone over almost every inch of my fave, and I was pretty happy that I didn’t resemble a peach. Dermaplaning at home can dry out your skin almost instantly, so I followed the instructions and dosed my skin in moisturiser.

Later, and time and time again since, skincare and makeup applied like an absolute dream. I could almost feel my skincare products melting into my skin perfectly, and my makeup set better than ever.

All in all, dermaplaning at home takes about five minutes – there’s no downtime, no stubble and products apply beautifully afterwards. Just make sure it’s something you really want to try, and watch a few tutorials first while you’re at it, Enjoy your new, super smooth skin!

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