Skin Basics 101 for Aestheticians: Skin Typing & Aging Analysis Used on Collaboration

Skin typing and aging analysis should be used together to provide better pre-treatment diagnostics for clients prior to deciding on the procedures and  treatment that they will be best served by.

The skin typing used would logically be the Fitzpatrick Skin Typing System developed by Dr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, called the most important dermatologist of the past 100 years by many and an acknowledged expert in the field.  The Fitzpatrick system requires asking each client questions concerning skin color, unaltered eye and hair color, ethnicity and response to ultra violet light without sun protection.  Using the answers to the questions, Fitzpatrick lists six types of skin, Types I, II, II, IV, V, and VI.  These cover a variety of ethnic considerations and skin color, eye and hair color and sun reactions ranging from always burn and freckle to tan, never burn and never freckle, and everything in between.

There are two primary aging analysis systems are the Rubin Classification of Aging Analysis, and the Glogau Classification System.  The Glogau Classification system measures the degree and amount of photodamage, assigning a numerical designation. Skin changes are classified from minimal to severe with moderate and advanced in between.  Each patient be comes categorized based on keratoses, wrinkles, pigmentation changes, use of makeup and acne scarring.  The Glogau system is sometimes criticized for being too complicated and having too many variables, and the fact that not all clients fall into the categories easily.

The simpler Rubin system uses only the aging that is directly connected to photodamage or sun exposure.  Rubin’s categories are pigment changes, texture changes and wrinkling.  His analysis helps the professional clinician to understand how tough the skin has become do to negative environmental exposure.  The Rubin system addresses only photoaging and it has categories that include pigmentation, texture and keratoses and wrinkling alterations.  

It can seem complex, but when seeing a client for the first time, explaining the reasons for your questioning well give them a desire to be straight forward in providing you with information.  This would concern the amount of makeup they wear, their skin shade, pigmentation amount, the amount of sun blocker they usually use and the strength, their hair and eye color, ethic background and ancestry, etc.  Then you will be able to chart each client using the Fitzpatrick scale, the Glogau system and the Rubin system and make a value judgment based on their past sun exposure.  

While not an exact science, it is a tool that can help you in helping your clients and should be studied.