Dermaplaning Before and After

Dermaplaning is a one-visit change.

Cleveland Clinic describes it as a minimally invasive procedure that shaves away the uppermost layers of skin with a blade, lists dull skin, fine lines, mild acne scars and peach fuzz among its uses, and says dermaplaning usually isn't painful — a scratching or stinging sensation is possible — with sessions running from a few minutes to 90 minutes depending on the size of the area.

What changes is the surface itself.

In a 2023 lab study on ex vivo skin (skin studied outside the body), histology showed dermaplaning removed the stratum corneum — the outermost layer — and parts of the viable epidermis beneath it.

Expectations should stop where the evidence stops.

Cleveland Clinic cautions that dermaplaning may not reduce the appearance of deep or raised acne scars; more intensive treatments such as laser may be needed for those.

The published record is thin overall: a 2011 systematic review, which studied dermaplaning alongside topical oxygen and light therapy, found the scientific evidence for these methods "scarce, anecdotal, and not well documented", despite patient satisfaction.

One recovery expectation to reset: the detailed dermaplaning recovery timeline you may find online — a scab at 2 weeks, a return to sports at 4 to 6 weeks, sun avoidance for 6 to 12 months — is Cleveland Clinic's description of a deeper, dermatome-based resurfacing procedure, not the light blade-exfoliation treatment a med spa performs.

We found no source describing a recovery timeline for the light version.

The popular claim is that makeup goes on more smoothly after dermaplaning.

We could not find a clinical source that measures how makeup applies to freshly dermaplaned skin, so we can't confirm that claim.

What the lab evidence establishes is narrower: in the 2023 study, dermaplaning significantly increased drug permeation — drugs, not cosmetics — through skin left without its outermost layer.

That finding is the practical reason to ask your provider, after a session, when to resume makeup and which products to use: the surface at the end of an appointment is not the surface it was at the start.

Your provider's aftercare instructions are the guidance to follow.

No source on this page gives a duration.

We could not find a tier-1/2 source stating how long the smoothing from dermaplaning lasts or how often the treatment should be repeated, so we can't confirm any fixed rebooking interval you see quoted — it is unsourced as far as our research went, or it is that practice's own protocol.

Ask a licensed provider what schedule makes sense for your skin.

Two sourced points frame the question.

Any hair removal from dermaplaning is only a temporary fix, because the hair grows back — Cleveland Clinic's wording; our peach fuzz guide covers the regrowth questions.

And even the lab study's findings varied between operators — how much skin was removed, and how much permeation increased — so two sessions can differ before anything else is held equal.

Who may perform dermaplaning is not something this page can generalize: we could not confirm a single national rule.

North Carolina's rule is one verified example, and it shows how much the answer can shift.

The state's Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners had held in 2020 that dermaplaning sat outside the cosmetologist and esthetician scope; effective July 25, 2022, it reversed course and allows estheticians and cosmetologists to perform dermaplaning — while prohibiting any product, device or technique that penetrates beyond the epidermis.

That example is a reason to ask rather than assume.

When you compare spas, ask who performs dermaplaning and under what license, and how that fits your state's rules.

For what a session involves, the benefit claims and how the treatment is priced, see our dermaplaning guide.