Beau Institute

We are strength in numbers.

I warn you, this Blog is emotionally charged. It angers and frustrates me to know that my Alopecia Totalis or Universalis clients are not covered by their health insurance to have their eyebrows restored with permanent make up.

This is not a body adorning tattoo, this is a restorative procedure. We are simply replacing a feature they were born with and lost through an autoimmune disease. Yet, insurance companies consider eyebrow tattooing for Alopecia an elective, aesthetic procedure?

If one loses a limb or a breast, health insurance will pay for the replacement. They have even been forced to pay for the augmentation of the opposing breast in the event of a unilateral mastectomy. Obviously, the number of women with breast cancer is far greater than the number of women and men with Alopecia, but should that be a deciding factor?

The question is, what can we do to help our Alopecia clients obtain coverage for their permanent eyebrows? In my opinion, lash enhancement should be covered, as well. Again, this procedure is restorative and reframes their eyes with color as their own eyelashes once did.

Any and all ideas are welcomed. I see this as a great injustice. It is time for insurance providers to be made aware, accountable and responsible for restoring the necessary features on one’s face that are lost through Alopecia Totalis or Universalis.

Warmest regards,

Rose Marie Beauchemin
Owner, Beau Institute

My previous Blogs had addressed technical issues. This time I am writing about defining YOU and your individual skills.

It was recently brought to my attention that my bio was dull and dated. I will admit that I had not revisited it in YEARS! I was busy designing my new web site and did not give it any thought. I was dissatisfied when I read it again. I was putting this dated material out to the world, expecting them to know me, today. I rewrote it and wanted to share some basic guidelines I used that made this task much easier.

First, let me mention, it is very difficult to write about yourself and not only be objective but realize all that needs to be said. It is easy to miss things (credentials, skills) that appear obvious to others. It is a great exercise to do with an employee, business associate or close friend.

An effective bio builds an instant connection with you. It is someone’s first impression of you without the benefit of actually meeting you. It is a tool you can use to market yourself and your talents in a cohesive but more informal way.  This is your opportunity to establish trust.

Bios are to be written in third person. Do not use I’s. Infuse your bio with your personality.

Your opening paragraph must be powerful and have punch. It should talk about your skills and whatever supporting material you have about your skills. Your second paragraph can be a continuation of it but from a different aspect. All the other paragraphs support these.

Break down your points into short and easy to read paragraphs that with keep your readers attention.

- Sentences should be declarative and warm.

- Building trust is important. We are tattooing their faces.

- Don’t abbreviate. Spell things out.

- List your credentials and all of your skills that pertain to your practice.

- Be sure to let your readers know if you were involved in any activity in establishing regulations.

- Mention all services that you presently volunteer that pertain to your practice.

- Write about any media coverage you have had.

- Update and revise your bio every few years to keep it current.

- The closing should leave your audience with a personal touch, so write something about where you reside and how you spend your leisure time, if it pertains.

I hope this is helpful. Let’s let our readers and perspective clients/patients feel as though they have actually met us and we have left them with the best first impression.

Warmest regards,

Rose Marie Beauchemin
Owner, Beau Institute

Interestingly, this question came to light days before I tattooed a girl’s eyeliner who experienced tremendous discoloration of both top and bottom eyelids, due to her use of Latisse. Latisse is a product developed to accelerate eyelash growth. All 4 of my client’s eyelids actually had taken on a reddish cast. Although, I have performed permanent eyeliner on countless clients that are using Latisse, this was the most dramatic side effect I had seen.

However, I have not found Latisse users to be resistant to permanent eyeliner, even my recent client with the most discoloration. I tattooed her eyeliner over the discolored area with no resistance and she returned with perfect retention. Since my clientele is largely fueled by referrals from plastic surgeons, many clients are using Latisse.

One question still remains. Will Latisse users that have permanent eyeliner experience the same duration as those who are not using Latisse? I don’t have enough data for an opinion on this but I am watching closely. Realizing the stimulation of lash growth created by this chemical, I can see the possibility of permanent eyeliner fading a bit faster.

Retention can be increased by proper post-procedure care. Permanent cosmetic artists recommend various homecare for permanent eyeliner that are effective. My post-care is as follows:

- Place a thin coat of Vaseline placed on each eyelid with a cotton swab. Swipe it on with one end of the swab and remove the excess with the other end. If you can see it, you have too much on.

- Wash with soap and water the morning after the eyeliner tattoo. Pat lightly and keep the tattooed area dry for five days. Continue to use the Vaseline no more than twice a day. Place your back to the shower and the Vaseline will allow any water to basically roll off. Use a washcloth to wash your face so you can wash around your permanent eyeliner.

- No gardening! Bacteria will adhere to the Vaseline. No dirty work for the week.

I pack them sterile Vaseline in their goodie bag along with the written post-procedure instructions and tell them not to dip into an old jar of petroleum jelly they have had in their medicine chest for centuries. They are to only use the packed jar that I gave them.

You are welcome to our full written Post-Care Instructions.  Simply request it via email and we will email it to you.

I welcome any questions or feedback from your experiences regarding this issue. I hope you find this information helpful.

Warmest regards,

Rose Marie Beauchemin
Owner, Beau Institute

In a recent conversation with my friend and colleague, Pati Pavlik, we discussed, Dry Needling…it’s uses and it’s risks. Pati came out with the funniest comment and it totally prompted me to write this article. She said, “yeh, some of these gals just go…I’ve got this needle, now what else can I do with it?”

When I stopped laughing, we realized we agreed on all points and particularly on the over-promising that we hear with this technique. With the fillers we have today as well as the use of Botox, I would not want to risk scarring someone when there are better solutions for getting rid of lines and wrinkles. If you dry needle the peri-oral vertical lines surrounding the mouth on a very fair woman, these lines can heal white and shiny. The idea of dry needling is to stimulate collagen to fill out a wrinkle but since we would be working from the outside in, we take on certain risks, like scarring. It is best to fill out the wrinkle from inside, thereby pushing the wrinkle out. This can only be done with a filler.

Aside from the fact, dry needling will not give our client the much needed volume in this area that will reduce these lines most effectively.

On a woman with a darker complexion, (Fitzpatrick 4 – 6) dry needling can cause hyper-pigmentation. Why would I risk these results when I can send her to a plastic surgeon or dermatologist’s office that can administer the appropriate filler to eliminate these lines from under the skin without these risks? These fillers can also help to create some collagen response and prevent the lines from returning with the initial intensity. It serves us well to have relationships with these surgeons and doctors to refer to and in turn, they will often refer permanent make up clients to us.

Your clients may complain that they can’t afford fillers and they don’t want to get started with them since they have to be maintained. However, I tell them, so does permanent make up. I explain to my clients the incredible youthful appearance of reducing or removing vertical lines from their face such as the nasal labial folds (lines alongside the nose), the frown lines in the center of the forehead that resemble a number 11 and the marionette lines that jut down vertically from the corners of the mouth. I explain that fillers and Botox are not for the wealthy, just like permanent make up isn’t just for the wealthy. I tell them how affordable fillers have become. I kiddingly tell them they will willingly skip a meal a day if they have to, in order to pay for their fillers once they see how good they look. There is no way I can achieve these results for my client with dry needling.

Another example of over-promising results would be to dry needle horizontal or vertical lines in a forehead. We can not keep someone from continuing to move their forehead and deepening these lines. This is muscular, and dry needling can again create either white, shiny lines or hyper-pigmentation. Botox will prevent these lines from deepening or perhaps, this client needs a brow lift? If she meets with a plastic surgeon she can become informed of other affordable solutions and make informed decisions. As Pati stated, we cannot cure all ills with our needles. I liken it to giving the client with severe ptosis a wide eyeliner. What is the point? She needs what I cannot give her with just my needle and that is a Blepharoplasty. I tell her how affordable a Bleph truly is and give her some plastic surgeons cards so she can consult with them and decide.

Where do I believe dry needling has a place? Dry needling relaxes scars and can be most effective in smoothing out banded and uneven areas of scar tissue, especially from burns. I find it useful on Breast Augmentation scars, Mastopexy scars, and sometimes when tattooing banded areola grafts following Mastectomies. If a scar is bumpy and uneven, it often returns much smoother.

I recently consulted with a client (Fitzpatrick 1-2) that was severely burned across her entire brow line by hot wax. I was stunned that a brow waxing could ever pose this degree of risk. First, I will tattoo her eyebrows, since her follicles were destroyed and then will continue to work on the bumpy areas with dry needling to smooth them out.

I have attempted to dry needle Indian and Middle-Eastern complexions to restore or stimulate melanin for Vitiligo. This is a very difficult skin color to match due to its even and creamy finish. I have not had success with dry needling and Vitiligo so I have always had to tattoo the areas with color. It is worth the try.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Pati Pavlik about dry needling techniques.

Warmest regards,

Rose Marie Beauchemin
Owner, Beau Institute

I was terribly disappointed I didn’t get to see my friend, Pati Pavlik, on my recent trip to the West Coast where I attended the SPCP Conference. An unseasonable snow storm had struck the Tehachapi Mountain region where Pati lives and created icy conditions on the mountain roads.

Instead, we decided to spend some time on the phone catching up on our personal and business lives. After I relayed all the great details of the conference and we were caught up, our conversation as always turned to procedures.

Pati and I always discuss what we were doing, new tricks and shortcuts that work for us and any new approaches to procedures. Pati mentioned she received an email from a practitioner saying she was doing a bloodline (tattooing without color) to outline her procedures before tattooing with color.

 The purpose was to open the skin to allow the topical anesthetic to get into the broken skin thus making the procedure more comfortable. I was immediately inspired to write and elaborate on this question.

Although the concept may sound reasonable, Pati and I both agree on the following opposing view. Once you alert the skin with any type of trauma, a flight and fight response is immediately triggered causing the release of histamines and creating erythema (redness and swelling).

Once the tissue swells, even a minimal amount it is much more difficult to get color in. The skin doesn’t know or care if your needle has color on it. It simply reacts to how many times you are traveling over it with your needle. Therefore, to me it makes better sense to pre-numb the area well, dip into your color and deposit it from the first pass thus eliminating going over the area an additional time.

My motto has always been, get in and out of the skin before it knows I was even there and before it has time to swell. Color retention is greatly improved and healing time is reduced when you are not working through swollen tissue. You can also complete procedures much quicker when you are not working so hard to get color into skin.

Drawing a bloodline is a technique that has been used by tattoo artists for years. However, any tattoo artist that does permanent make up will attest that the face is a very different surface. Due to constant exposure, the face is much more resistant to tattooing, especially on those that have had a lot of sun exposure.

Why make it more difficult to get color in by doing a bloodline? Also, bear in mind, if a woman has body art done and it swells a little, this poses no problem. But if her new permanent eyeliner swells, she may lose time from work and/or have to cancel social commitments. Why risk additional trauma by doing a bloodline?

Yes, we are tattooing but there are tattoo techniques that are less effective for facial work.

(Pati Pavlik has been tattooing body art for more than 35 years and permanent cosmetics for more than 25 years. She resides, practices and teaches in Tehachapi, CA.)

Warmest regards,

Rose Marie Beauchemin
Owner, Beau Institute