Female face shaving is more common than you think
Dermaplaning, or full-face shaving for women, has recently taken hold on TikTok and YouTube due in part to tutorials by beauty influencers such as Jackie Aina and Jaclyn Hill
Brooklyn 23-year-old Horn began spending more time online last year when the pandemic broke out and was trapped in his home in Kansas City, Missouri. She joined TikTok and started watching the skincare tutorial video. One was by influencer Jaclyn Hill on the topic of derma planning or facial shaving, which caught her eye. Inspired, Horn rushed to Wal-Mart, bought a simple blade, went home, oiled it, and shaved all of his baby’s hair. She began shaving on a regular basis and posted her video with the caption “Normalize women with more hairy faces.” (She recognizes the irony of hair loss she was trying to normalize. Her message was a call for greater transparency on the topic, she said.)
Many women regularly remove their eyebrows, sideburns, and upper lip hair, but recently it has become more common to shave the entire woman’s face. Certainly there is precedent. Japanese woodblock prints of the 16th century depict a woman shaving her face with a long, thin blade. Queen Elizabeth removed all forehead hair, including eyebrows. Marilyn Monroe is rumored to have shaved her entire face to smooth her skin. Today, some influencers, estheticians, and dermatologists are pushing the practice not only as a way to get rid of unwanted hair, but also as a peeling technique, but it looks dramatic.
Dr. David Kim, a dermatologist at Union Square Dermatologist in San Francisco, explains: Dead skin cells and dirt and oil accumulate here to remove the fine hair called vellus hair and the outermost layer of the skin. The goal is to achieve smoother, brighter skin and condition the skin to absorb the product more effectively. He said it can work especially for those who haven’t stripped with acid yet or aren’t using retinol. However, Dr. Kim does not recommend this method for patients with sensitive skin conditions such as rosacea and eczema, or for patients with acne, moles, psoriasis, or active infections.
Dermaplanning is one of the main questions Dr. Kim’s young patient asked during a pandemic (along with acne in the buttocks and back, fungal infections in the crotch, exfoliating acids, and vitamin C products). He chalked it to the popularity of dermaplaning on social media in its fun tutorial. “I’m very happy to see the layers of skin peeling off your face,” he said.
Female face shaving is more common than you think
