My first esthetician kit from 1998 had a paper textbook and a VHS tape

I was cleaning out my garage last weekend and found my old training materials from when I got licensed in Portland three decades ago. Has anyone else noticed how much the product knowledge requirements have changed since the early days?

3 comments

3 Comments

gracec161mo ago

Disagree on the knowledge requirements part. Back then you had to actually memorize ingredient functions and chemical reactions because you couldn't just pull up Google on your phone during a service. I've had newer estheticians ask me why their acne products aren't working and they can't tell me the difference between salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide without looking it up.

max_torres441mo ago

My buddy runs a salon and told me about a new hire who tried to mix two different chemical exfoliants together without checking if they'd react. Ruined a whole set of towels and the client's skin was wrecked for a week. Google can't save you from that kind of mistake if you don't know the basics first.

betty_kelly91mo ago

The whole world's like that now... people skip learning the foundations of anything because they figure they can just look it up later. I see it with cooking too, young folks trying fancy recipes but burning everything because they never learned basic knife skills or how to control heat. It's like we traded real understanding for quick answers and now we're surprised when things go wrong. There's no shortcut for muscle memory and actually knowing why something works the way it does.