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Q&A From "Exfoliation Amplified: Getting Better Results From This Essential Skin Care Step"

By: Ahmed Abdullah, MD
Posted: November 20, 2009

1. What exfoliation process would best benefit ingrown hairs?

Although exfoliation will not directly help ingrown hairs, it may help prevent them by keeping the pores from clogging with dead skin cells and eliminating keratin build up.

2.How often should a client exfoliate if they have hormonal breakouts?

I recommend that those with hormonal breakouts exfoliate daily to twice daily. This prevents the shedding “sticky” cells from clogging pores and making the breakouts worse.

3. Is manual dermabrasion as effective as microdermabrasion?

Both manual and microdermabrasion are forms of mechanical exfoliation and are effective if done appropriately. The machine utilized in microdermabrasion is beneficial in that it makes the process uniform and even. Manual dermabrasion, on the other hand, is not efficient and may be very uneven. Therefore, there is risk of causing inflammation in areas where dermabrasion is applied too deeply or causing no result in areas where the dermabrasion was superficial.

4. Do you believe that frequent exfoliation can lead to thinned skin?

No. If done appropriately, exfoliation can actually lead to a thickened, healthy dermis.

5. A controversial article some time ago claimed that exfoliation, particularly chemical exfoliation, may deplete the dermis and that products that plump up the dermis should be applied to the skin. What are your views on this?

The basic premise of that article was flawed. Proper exfoliation, throughout time, actually increases the thickness of the dermis and stimulates collagen formation. There are no products that will actually “plump up” the dermis when applied topically to the skin. However, there are products that can be injected into the skin to plump it up.