if healing is what we're striving for, then why is it so triggering?
It’s taken me some time to determine how I can reintroduce myself on the blog after my Hayley hiatus. I’ve started by trying to write a recap blog and filming myself sharing the experience but nothing really felt - for lack of a better word - authentic. Mostly because I would feel myself spiraling when reliving the experience. I start to word vomit some not so nice things about myself or sob in front of my camera about how uncomfortable I am with all of this. You don’t want to see that footage, I promise you…
Taking a TSC Time out; why I'm taking a Hayley Hiatus
Please read this important announcement….
My love letter to the TSC team...
I don’t often like to write about my “success” because it makes me feel as though I think that I’m holier than thou or that I think I’ve made it. Which is false but there is a fine line I am going to dance on today because I have to acknowledge certain people that have really supported me and helped make TSC what it is today. Which is far more of a success than I ever anticipated it to be. And if you’re reading this thinking; “How is your company successful Hayley?”, I’ll break it down:
Year of Yin check in...
Some of you may remember that I proclaimed 2019 to be my year of Yin. A year that I would surrender more, go with the flow, not over-criticize or control, and just aspire to tap into my intuitive voice a little more deeply. Since we are already in June (how did that happen???) I felt like it was appropriate for me to do a little self-reflecting check-in and share what’s been going on and what I’ve learned so far. It dawned on me during the last week of May that everything I sought out to do in 2019, I have already accomplished so far. To have my years worth of to-dos already crossed off doing really resonate with the intention I set up for myself to just take it easy but there is a beauty about the space that I’m in now. I’ve taken classes, traveled, created more content, upgraded my offerings, did some events, and still managed to Marie Kondo at least a few rooms in my apartment. Now that the rest of the year is a bit of a blank slate, I really want to allow what I created and expanded to within the first 6 months to have some time to sink in. Especially the advanced education I invested in. Which leads me to a valuable item of discovery that I want to share with all of you today….
Planet Friendly Skin Habits
There are a lot of promises out there from the skincare industry that disconnect us from what may be the most important thing to remember. Our skin reflects the health of our environment. Whether it’s from the stress of our work, the pollution in our air, or the constant relocation we have to do. Each aspect of our atmosphere will show up in our skin and the changes are often not in our control. So what can we do? Our planet’s health is in big trouble and that health scare not only makes the future of our planet feel uncertain, but also the immediate impact it has on our health. Since April is Earth Month, I wanted to share a few tips on how a little shift to your skincare products can make a big impact overtime. Especially as a collective! Unfortunately in the skincare industry, single use products are completely accepted as the norm. Everywhere from spas to retail stores to how we promote usage for home care. Why not rethink of ways that you can lessen the impact on our precious Earth? Here are some ideas and links to repurpose, recycle and reuse with zero waste:
How holistic work fits in a modern world
As an esthetician in LA who has built a business on the premise that I am holistic, I feel like I’m in constantly swimming upstream with the general public about how to treat the skin. So much so that I find myself continuously navigating how holistic work fits in a modern world. From rescheduling clients because of their botox appointments to desperately trying to convince another one that micro-needling will not fix their skin's barrier. It had become inevitable that I would have to find a common ground amongst the sea of modern skincare with the reckless promise of "quick fix" but something happened to me that changed my compliance to this exhausting back and forth. My agreeable filter disappeared and I decided to be honest about the truth behind it all.
Okay, now I’m about to make a bold statement but it’s the truth…are you ready????:
Rewriting your skin story
When it comes to our skin, it’s easy to fall into categories that are very limiting to growth or change. If you have dry skin, you’re immediately meant to get wrinkles faster. If you have oily skin, your pores will forever be clogged and you’ll most likely breakout. If you have sensitive skin, then you better watch out for every product or procedure out there because you’ll most likely have a reaction from it. Come on people, it’s 2019. It’s time we rewrite our skin stories.
To all the estheticians I was before...
2019 marks the 13th year of my career as an esthetician. I don’t know how it happened but somehow my entire adulthood has been dedicated to serving people with some fresh skin. I don’t have any possible way to break down the number of people that I’ve seen but upwards of 20,000 people is my estimate based on some fast math. Many of these clients I saw once, many I kept as forever clients, and then there’s every circumstance in between in which I managed to get to know, help, and connect with someone even for just a short time together. I think about each day I’ve been able to have doing this job since my days back in beauty school. The consistency of it is that I wake up and know that at some point in the day, I get to expand my knowledge by learning something new about someone new and keeping in my heart that my responsibility is to just make them feel worthy and comfortable with exactly who they are. I discovered early on that there are little and big ways to accomplish this and my success rate is only equal to how worthy and comfortable I feel with myself as well. There are versions of the esthetician that I am now that I’ve always had in me but with a little time, and a lot of experience, all the estheticians I was before are the layers of who I get to be today.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
This very date, January 1st, is when many of us feel inspired to commit to whatever the necessary changes we need to make in order to experience our "best year yet". We often push ourselves to break bad habits and form new routines like jumping into a new exercise routine, eliminating all bad foods, or starting a new 10-step skin regimen. These extreme changes can end up shocking our systems that our bodies end up quitting before we have a choice in the matter.
Giving the gift of self-care
Every year my clients comment on how easy it must be for me to come up with gift ideas for family members because I could just restock all of their skincare. But the truth is that buying skincare for someone may seem like a great gift, but not everyone on the receiving end finds it to be as useful or thoughtful as you may think. Buying someone anything that has to do with their self-care, healthcare, or beauty care can be a little tricky. If you’re not careful, the gift can come off a bit offensive regardless of how well thought out you may feel the intent was. There are a few things I’ve learned over the years that may help you navigate giving the gift of self-care this year.
Why is receiving so difficult?
Each year during the season of giving, I find it to be so difficult for many of us to be on the receiving end of gifts. Like many of you, I find it much easier to be the nurturer and giver because I feel so wonderfully fulfilled by helping others. But the sneaky other side of that statement is that I often equate receiving with worthiness and I feel greedy if I take too much. So much so that I have seemingly no problem pouring from an empty cup? It just goes to show that many of us have some work to do before we go into potentially stressful holiday dynamics with colleagues and family.
Optimizing your facial
It’s pretty clear at the end of a treatment if someone will benefit from our time together or not. A facial is not just an opportunity to relax or a time to get your skin cleared up, it’s an opportunity for an updated education on your skin’s health by tuning into what your skin is telling us. If we miss out on our chance to listen in, there can be some confusion as to why our skin responds in the way that it does post-treatment. There are a few simple steps that I like to tune into in order to make sure my clients feel supported but the key is if they are ready to participate in what can optimize the facial’s potential. Here are a few key steps towards achieving that very important skin care goal.
The benefits of Yin listening
These last few weeks have been so wonderfully busy that I found myself feeling intensely inspired to write again. As I sit down to word vomit out all of my thoughts, I discovered that today is the social media holiday that I will indulge in gladly; National Esthetician Day! I think we all know by now that this is the only career that I’ve had and that regardless of the years that have gone by, I’m still equally as obsessed with my work as ever. To celebrate this with a quick post on social media would not do justice to the people I want to continuously honor during my time as an esthetician. The clients, my fellow estis, my apprentices, and not to sound like a social media influencers, but my followers have all given me the platform to honor what I love to do every day and without this mix of beautiful people I somehow manifested into my life, who knows where I would be.
The Rebirth of Therapeutic Skin Coach
Just like anyone else who owns a business, it’s very common to have to exercise your elevator pitch of what your business is. I was used to having to try and put my business into a category and would become increasingly frustrated when people wouldn’t fully understand the all-encompassing work that comes out of me in order to make this dream of mine come true. Therapeutic Skin Coach has become something greater than I expected and when it started to become its own entity, I got really scared because it felt like I was exposing myself to the world. At the end of the day, Therapeutic Skin Coach isn’t just my blog, my facial practice, my social media presence...Therapeutic Skin Coach is me. It’s my philosophies, my teachings, my blood, sweat, and tears, and my nurturing. After all, I came up with the name when asked how I would describe myself. Coming back to that reality is something that felt like I couldn’t hide from and in order to truly honor everything I had built, I needed to get to the root of what it is that I want to represent and share.