Why does nobody talk about using too much pressure during extractions?

I spent like 6 years pressing way too hard on clients' skin during extractions, thinking that was the only way to really get gunk out. Last week a client winced and I looked closer at her skin under the mag lamp and saw all these tiny burst capillaries I'd probably been causing for years. Has anyone else realized they were doing extractions wrong and had to completely change their technique?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessawebb22d ago

Honestly, I gotta push back a little here. I feel like there's a difference between Using Too Much Pressure and actually having a heavy hand. I apply a fair amount of pressure but I anchor my fingers right next to the extraction site so the force goes INTO the skin, not spreading out and popping capillaries. Gentle doesn't always mean effective for deep congestion, I had to learn the hard way that it's more about the angle and where you brace than just pressing lighter.

felix48822d ago

Oh man, I feel this so hard. I was the queen of pushing down like I was trying to pop a pimple through a brick wall. I used to think that if I wasn't pressing until my fingers turned white, I wasn't doing it right. Then I had this one client who literally cried during a session and I finally realized something was up. Took me a solid few months of retraining my hands to go gentle, and now I barely use any force at all. My clients actually started thanking me instead of just suffering through it, which was a big hint I'd been doing it wrong the whole time.