[00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today we're talking about menopause and what considerations you, the beauty professional, can take. Hi, Suzanne. How are you doing today? 
[00:00:11] Hello, Darine. I'm doing really good. I'm really excited about this topic because I'm such a geek when it comes to the topic.
[00:00:20] overall wellness of bodies, not just the treatment room. So it's kind of exciting. 
[00:00:24] I love it. So why don't you kick us off by maybe defining menopause? I mean, the closer you get to menopause, maybe the more info you have. But for those of our listeners who don't know exactly what happens, Can you share that with us?
[00:00:41] Yeah. Well, in fairness, everyone knows is basically what that means is the woman has stopped menstruating each month, but there's, there is more going on in the body than that. And the reason we're bringing this out in the beauty world is because it does impact your clients, you, yourself as a female person.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00] But basically you're not diagnosed fully or, or said, say, through your doctor that you are in menopause is when you stop menstruating for 12 months in a row. Then they clarify menstrual period. Now some people are like, Oh, yay, I'm in it. And they're 11 months in and they get a period. So they're not in, they're not in menopause.
[00:01:23] Now, when you think about that, hormonally, what's going on that you have not had a period and why are we talking about this to beauty professionals? Well, because it's estrogen and progesterone. And we know if you go back to your studies in school, Hopefully you covered a little bit of hormones and how we need this to function at a cellular level, even if you wish, so you think of the skin itself, you think of the mindset itself, but basically, it is a natural biological process that we all go through.
[00:01:53] Sometimes there's the medical side that forces us into that through surgeries, right? Or [00:02:00] medications health you know, with everybody's health situations changing is medication changing that as well, right? You look at PCOS, there's so many factors involved with it. But the symptoms we hear about the hot flashes and, you know, what are some things that we, we look at like low energy and you're dealing with clients like this.
[00:02:22] So, you know, how are you managing this when you're like, with all due respects, maybe you're, you're nowhere near this you're like, Oh, I'm really sorry my mom's going through it too or my grandma or my auntie or. But I think, I think if you want to set yourself apart in this beauty industry, we're here to just give you a few tools to help you.
[00:02:41] That's, that's why this topic came up and we can see. That it's something I, well, I think this is something I've researched many, many years ago and, and talk to clients about as well. So it related to the products I was choosing to treatments and what to help them with and prevent with, or, you [00:03:00] know, so I think these are all valuable tools to have in the treatment room.
[00:03:05] For sure. 
[00:03:06] I think basically what you're saying is that Once you go through menopause and your hormone levels change in your body, not as much estrogen, that is going to impact your skin and other areas, but we're going to simplify a little bit, right? 
[00:03:22] Yeah, and the process going through it. You're 40 to 50 going through this.
[00:03:25] You're not in menopause because you haven't stopped for 12 months, the menstrual cycle, but hormonally you're on a roller coaster for 10 years. Less or more right on average, I say 10 years. So what's going on with the skin? So like, according to I'll put it, what actually read here from American Academy of Dermatology, women's skin loses about 30 percent of collagen during the first five years of menopause for the next two years, first five years to the next two, then continue to lose about [00:04:00] 2 percent years, like 2 percent a year, every year for 20 years.
[00:04:08] And everyone, yeah, you know, and then there's the, the perimenopausal, which is before the menopause, right? We start to notice things, the redness in the skin, the spottiness, the dryness in the skin, less smooth. Elasticity is loosening quickly. Like a lot of people say, Oh my God. And then, you know, they're, I don't know, say 48 and like, wow, that.
[00:04:28] Really, when it really started to notice it visually in the skin, what's going on, so you have, you know, these tools that you can start helping us that preventative when we talk about anti aging or all these things. So how are you working with your, your clients, whether or not you're a lash technician, a wax technician, a facialist, like whatever you do in this industry, maybe you're doing makeup.
[00:04:51] Maybe your makeup artist, but all this, all these things I think is huge. If you can help them, and maybe you don't have what, what you could give them, [00:05:00] but if you can refer them to what they can look at, I think it's just an asset to your knowledge as well, right? So how, how can we help the skin become plump?
[00:05:10] How can we help with elasticity? The hot flashes. Well, let's talk about product. If you, if you have a reputable brand of product, you will see in their branding that they will have product available for say, people 30 and older, then all of a sudden they'll say, Oh, but then there's these products for 50 and older, and only people like we focus on the cost of that product.
[00:05:35] Goes up with age. That's because what's needed is in the product to help combat what's going on at the cellular level with the skin. And I think that's something that if we could just kind of put that correlation back together. Of why it's that way. It's not just more expensive because you're getting older.
[00:05:54] If you can talk about the collagen, the elastin and, and, and actually one of the products I remember years, years [00:06:00] ago through Sotisse was they talked about the hot flash and how in the product was going to help with the redness at that vascular level to help strengthen. The vessels, because what happens with the flashes is that push through of the cupros, right?
[00:06:15] So now you have the redness. Well, what's happening with the redness? So you think of I think I've said this before on here, but if you had a crack in your windshield, one little crack, and you put pressure on it, or you put temperature changes, drastic, hot, cold, what happens to the crack? It gets bigger.
[00:06:30] Well, same with cupros. So now it's their product that's going to be helping to strengthen. The vessel itself. And so again, it goes deeper. It goes skin deep, right? As they say, skin deep. And I think those are things that we can think about. So you think of waxing. Like maybe you have a, a client that you, you're a waxing technician.
[00:06:49] You do a lot of waxing, nothing wrong with it, but let's talk about the facial waxing. Right. And then from the neck down, you're still waxing the skin. So is there, you know, in body products [00:07:00] you could be recommending? Is there things that they, to help with this? Because sometimes people say they didn't know as they got older that their skin would get looser and you don't want them blaming it just on the waxing.
[00:07:10] Yeah. Right. 
[00:07:11] So that's why I look at this as, as a little more than menopause and, and period stopping. 
[00:07:18] Yeah. I think too, when it comes to that loss in collagen, And what happens to the skin because of that, taking that into consideration when a client maybe comes to you and is complaining that their product isn't working anymore or, you know, they've been doing this one thing and it's not working anymore and not necessarily looking at a failure in the, the product or the treatment itself, but maybe that it's not meeting the needs of the client where they are now in the way that their skin is changing.
[00:07:51] So. We're not like we're not doctors and we can't change the fact that you know people are aging [00:08:00] But I do think that you can help address those needs by understanding what the needs are right so then knowing that okay we need to increase you know, use products that contain more collagen or whatever treatments that are going to address this particular concern.
[00:08:19] Now, shifting from what you were doing before to kind of having that in mind, I think is important too. And explaining it to your client as well. We're going to shift. I'm going to give you the more expensive product, not because, you know, I want money, but because it has this and this in it that can help your skin.
[00:08:36] Yeah. And I think the thing is we need to take the price point out of it. Like, okay, cheese, for example, there's a lot of different degrees of cheese in the world, and same with the cost, but you really want this, I don't know, smoked Gouda, that's 10 years old, or wines, like there's, they're all ranging from different things for different reasons, I mean, maybe that's not the best scenario You know analogy, but you [00:09:00] kind of understand like you're not focusing on just the price point at this You have to look at what are the needs and you feel What's needed or how you can help it like we know that estrogen levels are changing in the body So when you think estrogen levels are changing estrogen is also a hormone in our body So if we're not getting it, it helps in the side of producing oil Well, we don't want to be oily, but it could be the other side.
[00:09:24] Breakouts can start happening. Acne, I remember one client, I'm four years old, I'm experiencing acne for the first time. And I said, Oh, have you been to the doctor? Again, reference your doctor. Have you spoken to them? Maybe you started menopause, like pre menopause, maybe there's hormones changing. Because you got, do you have dryness in skin?
[00:09:40] Are you noticing dryness levels in your skin changing? Again, you're bringing it back to, What in our capacity can we talk about, right? I mean, I, I look, are you tired? Like there's symptoms involved? Are you sleeping well? And you're helping them see things? Yes, we talked about before, like we feel like for psychologists in the treatment room, but [00:10:00] you kind of are in a sense that you're trying to help if you really, really want to take this to another level, right?
[00:10:04] So sebum secretion production, pardon me, can increase, right? Or decrease. Okay. You know, I had especially if they've been, if their skin type has always been oily. What do you think is going to happen when they get older? Potentially. Again, we're not, we don't know what goes on, but the idea of understanding that I think is essential to know.
[00:10:27] So, Usually products are, again, this becomes a mixology of it. All right. But I do anti aging products for clients and I give them a sebum balancing serum or a mattifying serum or a, to put under their cream. So it's now we're working on the sebum production, right? So understanding how do you start playing with this?
[00:10:47] And you, you got to get your blinders off of just, I'm doing this type of a facial and that's it. What does it mean to customize? Treatments, I think, or you're waxing a client and you're noticing they're getting [00:11:00] oilier as they're getting older, right? Try waxing some with oily skin. Does it work, Darine? Now, you got the skin, you know, why are we doing salicylic?
[00:11:13] What's the point of peels? Anti age that's what we hear, but why? So I think that's what the challenge is, is to kind of help people understand the why behind it. So, you know, it's an anti age or this is a, what's another word I could use like an antioxidant, but why? And I think if you want to set yourself apart in this world today, that's so saturated a beauty professionals, how can you change this?
[00:11:42] And it doesn't matter what service you're doing. Maybe your lash tech, and you don't know a lot about skin. Have you thought about hooking up with another professional that is? And then you can work together. Hey, I got a great person, she can help you with this. But it needs to collaborate both [00:12:00] ways, right?
[00:12:00] But again, that's that community we've talked about, and building and working together. You know how, I mean, we know hydration is important, especially through menopause. There's so many things. 
[00:12:13] Yeah, and I think it really comes back to When your client comes to see you for a concern, if they're in their 40s and they start breaking out, I mean, every time we talk about a symptom, I get more and more like not enthusiastically looking forward to this, but, you know, then you're breaking out, you're, part of what you do is, you know, try to them.
[00:12:37] find the solution or try to help them to get to a place where they're happy with their skin. But if you're not, and if you don't do facials, like you're a lash tech or you're a nail tech and your client is talking to you about this stuff, just having a little bit of like, it could be hormones, you know, just, just being able to build that rapport too, I think [00:13:00] is 
[00:13:00] important.
[00:13:01] Hmm. 
[00:13:01] Yeah. Cause I mean, in the end, I think everyone got into this industry because they want to help others. Yeah, right. And it's not like I remember I was in this at a very young age and I didn't know a single thing about menopause and I mean I would come from an immigrant family where the my mom did not talk about anything like that.
[00:13:20] You know, it wasn't a discussion it was a hush topic of things so I had to really reach out to learn about it because I had older brothers, so it wasn't around me had girlfriends talk about some things but I'm like, Oh, what's that, but then come to the industry. You know, I was so young and then having a lot of clients over the age of 40 will say.
[00:13:38] I can't relate to them and they basically told me that, which was fair, but I said, Hey, but this is what I've, I've learned. This is the things I've found. This is what someone else told me. You know, my other, my other client mentioned that, you know, she's, you know, she settles down at night. So she has a good night's sleep.
[00:13:56] She's changed her routine. Like you're, you're just offering. [00:14:00] Those considerations, right? Like of what you can maybe help your client with and what are some things. And again, I mean, there's so much more to it. There's diet and lifestyle and I don't mean diets. I mean, what are you eating? Like, especially in this world of the keto, a low carbs, like.
[00:14:16] Those aren't I mean, we're not going to get into into that because I think if that's the case, you should go see maybe a dietitian and talk to someone or personal trainer who has that background, but exercise is a huge part of this. It all correlates and I think we need to think outside of the treatment we're doing or.
[00:14:35] What we're thinking about when we're doing like, you know, all the good properties that in chamomile or rosehip or you start, you know, vitamin C and retinols, like why start asking yourself why, and you dig into the why more and more and more. And I think it'll help help with a little more information for your toolbox.
[00:14:55] So those considerations that you can give your client. 
[00:14:58] Yeah, for sure. [00:15:00] I think, you know, knowing what to look for is important to make. We're not dieticians, but, you know, just like you can say antioxidants in your skincare products are good for your skin, eating high antioxidant food is good, so kind of looking at your skin health from the inside out as well.
[00:15:19] And just, you know, mentioning that to your clients, everybody can Google it, so there's lots of information out there. Take some courses! 
[00:15:28] Yeah, there's so much free free things being given out there by actual, you know, high level professionals offering free, I like, as you know, I shared with you, I, I was just listening to one about menopause, even though we talked about this a few weeks ago, ironically, it came up and this is from the fitness side of things, right?
[00:15:46] But it was a dietician talking about it all. And then, which led me down the rabbit hole of digging in more and then Tara and I were talking and she says, Hey, have you researched or looked at the fact how Japanese women don't [00:16:00] have the level of hot flashes we do? And what did I say? Why? So I went and googled and started looking and reason like, and it's just again, there's so much to it though.
[00:16:10] There's genetics, there's lifestyle, there's, you know, we live in a high stress environment, I guess you could say our North American world and you, that's one thing you can look at a most of the world does not live at the levels we live at. They don't do it in the same way. So how is stress affecting you?
[00:16:27] So now when we've talked about holistic treatments, how can you change your room setting as elastic, a wax tap, whatever it may be, you know, are you helping them de stress? Again, stress is part of it. It's cortisol. Cortisol affects sleep, like, and then you're in menopause. Well, good lord, there's a whole, you know, tornado effect on, right?
[00:16:49] Look around. And it sounds horrible. But, you know, I mentioned to you, I said, you know, oddly enough, like, culturally, most of the Oh, I think I have the quote on it. I should, [00:17:00] I should try to find it. I have it here. Okay. A common belief among traditional somatic cultures, for example, Mayan women and the Cree women of Canada, is the women must enter menopause to access their somatic healing powers. So they're also, if you look at the, the Leadership levels of culture, women are higher after their elders, their spiritual workers, their spiritual leaders there in those cultures, because now they're, they've, they have so much experience in life and they've done their part by menstruating and giving life and investing their whole world to their children.
[00:17:40] And then you look at cultures, how they uplift their elders. You know, so it's, it's such a mindset. They're positive thinkers when it comes to menopause. They think it's just amazing. This is great. It's, it's what did I say to you? New. It's a renewal of the body. a new phase, a new phase of ourselves, right?
[00:17:58] And not a negative, 
[00:17:59] not looking at [00:18:00] it in a negative way. It's 
[00:18:01] North America. We focus on, Oh my God, this is awful. I'm going to look older. My skin's going to say, I'm not going to sleep. I'm going to get out flashes. We blame weight gain on it. Yes. To some degree because estrogen when we're lacking estrogen, it actually will use the fat on our body and if we don't have the fat on our body, it will save fat on our body.
[00:18:26] So it's going to find ways for estrogen to do its job, to help the rest of our body. Our skin, hair and nails are always last, but it doesn't mean estrogen is just at a skin level, if that makes sense. 
[00:18:40] Right. Yes. The hormones, they control everything. In fact, everything. 
[00:18:44] They sure do. But yeah, like around the world, like, you know, they they talk about the Mayan Papua New Guinea, like they're, they're looking that they don't have the symptoms that North America has.
[00:18:55] And it just, I'm, I'm, I get all geeky and fascinated by that stuff, but [00:19:00] cause I look at, okay, what else is going on? Again, that's, I think why we're looking at that holistic side and why North America is shifting a little bit into, you know, dieticians have shifted into stress, how to stress, decrease stress and how to help your body.
[00:19:17] And I mean, a lot of professionals across the board are shifting into that holistic side, which I don't know. I think it all correlates myself. 
[00:19:29] No, I do too. I think that. I feel we just did an episode on trends and that holistic trend, and we're, I believe we talk about like bringing that holistic experience, probably every episode because it's so important.
[00:19:44] And this is another reason why it benefits your clients. It helps to alleviate maybe briefly their stress, which is then helps with some of the symptoms that they may be going through if they're menopausal. It all comes back [00:20:00] to. What can you do when you're providing a service that is really well rounded?
[00:20:06] And I look at it too from the perspective of like, okay, it's not one more thing you have to learn or it's not one more thing that you could feel overwhelming, but it's really, it's so competitive and how do you set yourself apart is how I would look at it. Like what is my niche? Maybe your niche is you have a younger client base and this isn't for you.
[00:20:26] That's. You know your clients, but if you do have older clients getting to a deeper understanding of what might be going to would benefit both of you, I believe. 
[00:20:36] Well, here's something to consider. If you have a lot of younger clients, do they have aunts? Do they have older siblings? Do they have a mom, a grandma?
[00:20:46] Who are their friends? You know, when you start and that's, that's what I did, I targeted, I had a younger, I did have older clients, but yeah, you, you kind of, you kind of attract who you are. We've talked about that too, but then I also went [00:21:00] after the, you know, I, it was generational, like I'd have a client who her mom and her grandma and an aunt.
[00:21:07] And so I, cause I, I offered, I gave considerations to each age group, if you wish, or did I have an abundance of women over 70? No. But also generationally, not the people that would do these things for themselves, right? So that's changing because you got the baby boomers who are retiring and that's, that's a very different world than, than like my age group and having the, the mom and the grandma, that type of thing.
[00:21:33] Their mindset's very different, right? The baby boomers are about taking care of themselves. So don't pigeon hole yourself in at it because it's fear you don't understand you're, you know, 20 some 30 some years old, maybe even early forties, whatever. Think about what are some things or who the people you know already telling you this information say, Oh, you know, Sally told me that, you know, once she started exercising twice a week [00:22:00] that, you know, she was sleeping better.
[00:22:01] And then she was sleeping better and now her hot flashes are better. Like, did you, did you know, like, if you talk to your doctor, maybe that would be a good idea. And we're always referenced to our doctor. Because the liabilities and we're not professionals in the industry and I get it and that's okay, but it's up to the person to make that decision.
[00:22:18] Yeah, I think a lot of us do 
[00:22:20] that with, with the conversation sharing, right? It's like, Oh, I have a client who did this and it worked really well for them. Isn't that what we do in this 
[00:22:26] industry? We call it the gossip, but it's not, I don't call that gossip. I call that information. Like, did you know that?
[00:22:34] You're not naming 
[00:22:35] your client, so there's no confidentiality issues, but you know, you can share 
[00:22:40] general information. Yeah, or I've done it where, like I shared this, this class that I told you about, and now, you know, it's all about women's health, and I just want to share that information with people. And if, if, if anything, that could be something, maybe you're not comfortable with it, you don't have the knowledge for it, you're really not sure, you're not a.
[00:22:59] [00:23:00] You know, get excited by it like I do, and that's okay, but can you give them a resource to something? That they can now look at and watch and, and I invite you to watch and challenge yourself to open that mindset of the things you can learn. You know, we all know that SPF is a huge thing. So if they're not using it, that should be your first thing, all ages.
[00:23:21] Get them on SPF. There's cloudy, on a cloudy day, you still should be having SPF. 
[00:23:29] So. Yeah. Always educating that too, right? Not assuming that they already know. The younger generation is better 
[00:23:36] at it. Yeah. And not an earring. Yeah. Interesting. That's one of the one things they do have. I'm like, Bravo. Good for you.
[00:23:45] Keep going. My nieces are like already talking SPF. It's like, wow, we're talking that's high school and junior high. That's awesome. That's good. So again, on that recap, not to sound depressing, but [00:24:00] you definitely lose that collagen. That's a hard blow. When I saw that statistics, I was like, I, we need to share that.
[00:24:08] That's huge. Yeah. Huge information, right? Absolutely. 
[00:24:13] And I think again, like we said, this is good info for you to have, to equip yourself so that when you're doing your treatment recommendations, you kind of have a knowledge of like why this is, Possibly why this is happening, you know, because it's always like, well, it depends.
[00:24:30] There's many factors. Yeah, everyone experiences 
[00:24:38] I have, I have recommended clients all the time to see whether it was a dietician, a doctor, a pharmacist, a personal trainer, a natural path or whatever, like get all your resources together. And then you, I think you have a better idea to make a decision. I think when you're that practitioner, you're that beauty professional and you're offering some ideas to [00:25:00] them.
[00:25:00] You're not selling them anything, you're just offering. And I think it just, I don't know, it takes you to a different level in this industry as you're building rapport with people. And like I said, you want to set yourself apart, take the blinders off, start looking into a few more things. And it's not really jumping on the trend.
[00:25:20] I think it's the fact that like one of the things, the biggest reason is because of menopause. There's no fund. Well, there's very limited funding going on on the research of women's health. They're trying to change that and that's what the big yelling is out on social media right now. It's intermittent fasting.
[00:25:39] It's this diet. It's that diet. It's this and this and this and there's doctors doing it, too. So on that note, just be mindful. Yes, they're very intelligent, but usually They're selling a membership, they're selling a product of theirs, they're selling something with it. You just want to listen to the podcasts of information or [00:26:00] the YouTube channels of information.
[00:26:01] Try not to make that impulsive decision to join someone's membership or buy these products. Just get information first. And I think if you listen to a vast, you know, it probably led that they were inquisitive and wanted to know why too. That's what one doctor I was following, she was just so interested.
[00:26:18] Why is this when she went through it? What do you mean there's no answers? What are you talking about? We don't have any information as a doctor. We don't have any information on this. What hasn't been researched? Why hasn't it been researched? Because there's no funding or very, very limited amount of funding because there's so many more other death level problems out there in the world.
[00:26:38] Menopause is not usually a death in the end. Right. Like, and I think that just becomes that demand supply demand thing. Right. And, and anyways, but that's the biggest thing I think is going to change because more and more researching and want to know about women's health. It's a huge, huge topic, huge topic.
[00:26:55] Absolutely. Well, I think if any of our listeners have any [00:27:00] experience with, yeah, things, treatments they've Done with clients or just something that they can share with us feedback wise. We'd love to hear from you.
[00:27:11] Yes, please do. I mean, again, this is what, why we do this. We're trying to share information so we can pass it around. You can always, even on our YouTube page, you can, you can find it there and just make a comment below and then others can see it and we can also share it ourselves as well. 
[00:27:28] Absolutely.
[00:27:28] Well, thanks for listening and we'll be back next week with a new episode.