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Make Time Work for You
By Dan Coughlin
International Trends: Redefining Indigenous
By Richard Williams
Embrace the culture of your country and provide a unique experience for your clients.
Spa Products’ Limitless Future
By Karen Newman
Education Can Help Prevent Skin Cancer
"SunSafe in the Middle School Years" was a middle school research project conducted to improve awareness and educate teenagers about the prevention of skin cancer and the need for sun protection. The research study has been published in the January issue of Pediatrics.
The study provided a two-year follow-up period indicating that teens who participated in the program were much better about using sun protection devices than those teens who had not participated in the program.
The "SunSafe" project involved the cooperation of schools staff, recreational sports program coaches, parents and health care professionals. According to the study results, this may be the intervention needed to improve the behaviors of teens in protecting themselves better from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
The research took place within 10 communities in Vermont and New Hampshire. Funding was provided by the National Cancer Institute and was directed by pediatrician Ardis Olsen, MD and colleagues.
According to the "Primary Care Practice Manual" produced through the project, reducing sun exposure can eliminate 90 percent of skin cancers that currently occur in 1 of 5 Americans.
The middle school years were noted as being an especially important time to be sure that teenagers are given the important information regarding the risks and precautions of sun exposure. The project establishes that the teenage years are influential as a time when children begin to establish their own health habits. The hopes to influence these habits in a healthy way can prevent many individuals from having to suffer from future skin cancer.
Some of the findings from the study include that only about 30 percent of middle school students protect themselves from the sun. Seventy percent of the children surveyed had suffered from a sunburn during the previous summer.
Statistics indicate that one or more blistering sunburn before 20 years of age doubles the risk of getting skin cancer.
Children have three times as much exposure to the sun as adults. Therefore, statistically, the majority of lifetime sun exposure occurs by the age of 18 years.
Health care providers should take part in the responsibility to discuss sun exposure with the teenagers as well as parents, teachers and coaches. However, this study found that only one-third of physicians had spoken to their patients about this subject.
Pediatricians who incorporated the "SunSafe" information message into their visits with their patients resulted in nearly a 10 percent increase of informed teenagers.
The approach of the SunSafe project was not to simply use classroom instruction, but to include poster contests, buttons and other means of promoting the sun-safety message. A medical device was also used to allow children to see skin changes that are not visible to the naked eye in normal light.
According to the researchers, public health efforts for the different approaches as used by SunSafe seem to show promise for establishing changes in adolescent behaviors in order to reduce skin cancer risks.
By Patricia Shehan, All Headline News, January 11, 2007
Spargo Salon and Day Spa Re-opens
Spargo Salon and Day Spa had a grand re-opening for its new location at 1001 Cecelia Drive in Pewaukee, WI. The new space triples the size of the facility to 7,800 square feet, and was constructed with the input of both industry professionals and consumers. 262-695-7400
Spas Give Shopping Malls a Face-lift
Amy Andrade had been thinking about Botox for a while. So when she spotted a spa-like "cosmedical" clinic in an upscale mall in Dallas, she was immediately interested.
When she learned the clinic was connected with one of Texas' leading medical institutions, she was sold.
She had Botox injected into her 32-year-old forehead and near her eyes to smooth out infinitesimal wrinkles.
"It was great. I felt like I was getting a facial," said the furniture showroom manager.
Medical spas like the one at Dallas' NorthPark Center are booming. The number in the United States has jumped to about 2,500 this year from 50 in 2002, when Botox injections won federal approval.
Such spas offer minimally invasive cosmetic procedures such as injections of Botox, which relaxes facial muscles to make lines fade, and fillers like Restylane, which add volume.
Not all medical spas have ties with a major medical institution like the Klinger Advanced Aesthetics Cosmedical Center, Spa and Salon, which has teamed up with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Some "cosmedical" clinics don't even require their practitioners to be plastic surgeons or dermatologists.
Dr. Richard A. D'Amico of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said the procedures may look like simple injections, but serious complications could result if someone isn't properly trained.
And Kate Parsons, director of the Center for Ethics at Webster University in St. Louis, said she is worried that as such services become more widely available, people will be less inclined to examine why they want to look younger.
"I guess my concern is that we're not examining that as much as we could be," Parsons said. "It is becoming increasingly accepted as one more option among the array of cosmetics and fashion."
By Jamie Stengel, Associated Press, December 18, 2006
Maly's Opens 100th Location
Maly’s newly opened location in Los Gates, CA, is the salon product distributor’s 100th store. The company marked this occasion by offering special promotions and giveaways at every location during the week of the Los Gates store’s opening. 408-356-3281
How to Maximize Your After-tax Dollars in 2006
By: William J. Lynott
Dermatologists Turn Focus to Ethnic Skin Conditions
Carlotta Aiken's cheeks are sprinkled with brown spots, just like her grandmother had.
"She lived to be 93," Mrs. Aiken tells Dr. Simon Yoo, who is using a laser to remove the spots, a benign skin condition called dermatosis papulosa nigra.
Mrs. Aiken, a 58-year-old art teacher, is a volunteer in a study at Northwestern University's Center for Ethnic Skin, and she is playing a small part in a growing movement.
At clinics and research centers in Chicago, New York, Washington, Detroit and Miami, dermatologists are developing better treatments for skin problems of people with dark skin. Some skin doctors concentrate their practices on blacks, Hispanics and Asians, people who previously were neglected by drug and cosmetic company research.
"I have African-American patients come to me frustrated that their previous dermatologists didn't understand their hair and scalp disorders and pigmentation problems," said Dr. Diane Jackson-Richards, who specializes in multicultural dermatology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. "I treat all races of people, but I've seen over the years how I've been sought out by patients of color."
The nation's changing demographics drive the movement, said Dr. Rebat Halder, chairman of the Dermatology Department at Howard University Hospital.
"By midcentury, half the U.S. population will be of pigmented skins," Dr. Halder said. He edited the first comprehensive textbook on the dermatology of ethnic skin, which was published this year. Dermatology conferences are adding more ethnic skin sessions to their agendas, he said.
A growing number of blacks, Hispanics and Asians are entering dermatology, which also fuels the trend, said Dr. Victoria Holloway Barbosa, director of the six-year-old L'Oreal Institute for Ethnic Hair and Skin Research in Chicago.
"It's long overdue," Dr. Barbosa said of the attention.
L'Oreal, the cosmetic company, sponsors an ethnic-skin research symposium with Howard University every other year, and funds its own research.
"We do both basic science research to understand specific differences in hair and skin and also talk directly to consumers to understand their common problems," Dr. Barbosa said.
Dark skin has many advantages, she said. Pigment protects the skin from the sun's damaging effects, and some research shows that darker skin is stronger structurally as well.
But dark skin can react differently than white skin to cosmetic treatments and medications. It is more prone to discoloration after injury, and more inclined to keloids, a type of scar that can be unsightly and sometimes itchy or painful.
A doctor unfamiliar with keloids might try to cut them out, which can cause them to return larger, said Dr. Heather Woolery-Lloyd, director of ethnic skin care at the University of Miami Cosmetic Center.
"I see patients all the time who've had keloids cut out on their shoulders. The doctors didn't realize it wasn't the best choice," Dr. Woolery-Lloyd said.
Instead, she uses a series of steroid injections.
Women with dark skin sometimes develop melasma, also called "the mask of pregnancy," a darkening of the face related to hormones. Vitiligo, a disorder affecting pop star Michael Jackson, leads to white patches on the skin.
A type of scarring hair loss that starts at the crown of the head can affect black women. The Skin of Color Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York is conducting a study to compare common treatments for that type of hair loss, which used to be called "hot comb alopecia," but now is called "central centifugal cicatricial alopecia."
Researchers aren't sure of its cause. One theory holds that hair-processing techniques such as chemical relaxers and tight braiding may contribute, said Dr. Roopal Kundu, director of Northwestern University's center.
Dr. Kundu, who is Indian, said her heritage gave her "an innate curiosity about understanding the biological differences in hair, skin and nails in persons from India and also those with darker pigmented skins."
Dermatologists can improve the way they communicate with patients if they understand cultural grooming and hair styling practices, she said.
"For me, education is critical for all my patients," Dr. Kundu said. "I try to give handouts on everything I diagnose."
By Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press, November 27, 2006
Skin Care Consultants Celebrates 30 Years in Business
Skin Care Consultants is celebrating 30 years in the industry. The company was founded, and is still run, by husband-and-wife team Hubert and Pat Lam. 877-694-9777, hubert@lamskin.com