What’s Up With Salmon Skin?

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By Valerie Monroe

Can’t get enough Valerie Monroe? There’s more at https://valeriemonroe.substack.com.

A WEEK AFTER returning from a 14-day jaunt to Tokyo, I’m still spinning. I don’t often write about Japan + beauty news but my skin seemed especially smooth on my most recent trip. Wouldn’t it be funny if we learned jet lag enhanced your complexion? When I land back in the US, it’s always around five minutes earlier on the same day I left Japan. By my (admittedly loose) calculations, I should be almost an hour younger today than I would’ve been if I hadn’t been traveling. Might I be accruing a more youthful complexion as a result of those saved minutes?

In my dreams.

Actually, if there is a difference in my skin, I wonder if it’s partly due to diet. I’ve been eating salmon (baked, broiled, raw, you name it) three or four times a week. Salmon contains omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants (including astaxanthin), vitamin A, and protein, all of which are good for your skin. (Also, I’ve been eating less sugar by avoiding something sweet after dinner.) Anybody want to up their salmon intake for several months to see if there’s an effect on your complexion?

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A reader recently wrote she was tired of reading about my granddaughter; she just wanted to know how not to eff up her face. I would’ve written back, but she unsubscribed, so I figured she’d had enough of me. But the stories here about M are not unrelated to the subject matter.

I believe one of the ways we avoid f*cking up our face is by engaging in supportive activities and relationships—especially as we age, when support in general might be declining. And I hope my M anecdotes heighten your mood. Research has shown a positive mood can directly modulate our vision, literally widening the scope of our visual field, which then enhances our awareness by broadening our perspective. The exercise I keep nudging you to try? It helps you see your face less as a discrete object and more as a reflection of who you are: a (grand)child lover, or a puppy lover, or a friend lover (lover, obviously, being the leveling factor). Want to really f*ck up your face? Get yourself into a terrible mood by scanning it for flaws. But really, don’t!

I’ve written previously about facial hair and how to deal with it, but there’s a new trend a reader recently asked about… and it’s a doozy.

Q: I’ve been seeing this intriguing “hair identifier spray for dermaplaning” video. It’s a white substance you spray on your face to make facial hair more noticeable, so dermaplaning is easier. Do you think dermaplaning is beneficial for ladies in our age group? Does it make product absorb better? Also, how do you not cut yourself?

A: Because I’ve seen the video you’re referring to, Dear Reader, I know what a “hair identifier spray” might be. I think if you need a spray to identify your hair, you’re either in possession of very little hair or limited eyesight. Which leads me to believe a spray that helps you locate hair is most likely less beneficial to you than it is to a company that markets said spray. According to Jessica Weiser, MD, I’m right.

“Dermaplaning entails using a single straight blade (glorified in a small handle for ease of use) to remove facial hair and to help exfoliate dead skin cells at the skin surface,” she said. “Honestly, it’s not vastly different from shaving with a razor. While a dermaplane uses a single longer blade, a razor uses multiple shorter parallel blades—but basically results in the same outcome: a smooth face!”

When I was beauty director at O, The Oprah Magazine, I discovered that many women shave their face (often in the shower). This surprised me. What wasn’t surprising was that marketers, seeing an opportunity to do what they do, invented a brilliant alternative, available in the privacy of a doctor’s office. They called it dermaplaning and it became a coveted aesthetic treatment. Such is how much of the beauty industry works: kidnap (or create) a need; find a different way to fill it; charge people for it.

“There are exfoliating benefits of dermaplaning, and makeup can sit more evenly on a hair-free face,” said Weiser. “But unfortunately, there’ve been no notable studies that show skincare products penetrate more effectively post-dermaplaning.

“Also, when the hairs are cut mid-shaft (at the thicker point of the hair), there will be a couple of days when it feels like stubble,” she said. As the hairs grow out, they’ll begin to taper at the far end and eventually feel softer again.

“The primary benefit of dermaplaning is smoothness,” said Weiser, “which is desirable for some women. But for others, the idea is less appealing, especially given the stubble phase. I don’t generally encourage dermaplaning as a beneficial or especially effective aesthetic procedure.”

If you happen to have an abundance of down on your face and it bothers you, dermaplaning can be a useful option, especially with a kit you can use at home. Just don’t expect it to do anything more than remove hair and ease makeup application. As for the hair-identifier situation, if you think you need it, you probably don’t need to be dermaplaning.