From Cold Cream to Med Spa, A History of Esthetics in America
Here's a fun confession... in my twenties, working the Estée Lauder counter at Dillard's, I had NEVER heard the word "esthetician." Not once! I only learned it was a real job when I met my counter manager's daughter, who was an esthetician in a big city. That conversation changed my whole life.
It turns out I wasn't alone. For most of American history, skin care professionals didn't even have their own name, let alone their own license. So grab a cup of tea, because this is the story of how the facial went from cold cream at the kitchen table to the high-tech treatment rooms we know today.
This is Part 1 of our OG Esthetician series. Part 2 looks at what the old-school beauty therapist got right, and Part 3 brings it all home to virtual esthetics and modern self-care.
The early 1900s: beauty culturists and cold cream queens
Before there were estheticians, there were "beauty culturists." Skin care mostly happened at home with whatever was in the pantry: oatmeal, honey, buttermilk, cucumber. (Sound familiar, OGs? Our homemade fruit-and-yogurt masks had deep roots!)
Then a handful of determined women turned beauty into a profession.
Elizabeth Arden opened her famous Red Door Salon on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1910, offering facial treatments to women who had never been pampered like that before.
Helena Rubinstein built an empire starting from a single cream made with lanolin, and helped introduce the idea of different skin types. Yes, the whole "dry, oily, combination" conversation traces back to her!
Madam C.J. Walker went from door-to-door sales to beauty parlors, a training school for her sales agents, and a manufacturing plant. Her company is considered the most financially successful African American business of the early 20th century.
These women didn't just sell creams. They created the idea that caring for your skin was worth your time, your money, and a trip to a professional.
Mid-century: licensing arrives, and esthetics finds its name
As beauty salons spread across the country, states stepped in to protect the public. California, for example, created its Board of Cosmetology in 1927. Back then, skin care was just one small piece of a cosmetology education that focused mostly on hair.
Europeans saw things differently. In France and across Europe, skin care was already its own respected craft. In 1960, a Romanian esthetician named Christine Valmy arrived in the United States with her family, nearly penniless and unable to speak English. She opened a salon in New York and then, in the mid-1960s, a skin care school. She is widely credited with founding the first esthetics school in the US, and she was honored by Congress in the 1970s for helping establish skin care as a profession here.
This was the birth of the American esthetician as we know her. European techniques, manual extractions, steam, and those carefully memorized massage sequences came over and took root.
1978 to the 2000s: our own license, day spas, and the med spa boom
One by one, states began licensing estheticians separately from cosmetologists. California added its esthetician license in 1978. By 2002, all but four states regulated estheticians, and some went further. Utah, for example, created a two-tier system where a master esthetician completes 600 MORE hours of training on top of the basic license, including lymphatic work and anatomy.
Meanwhile, the treatment room was changing fast.
The 1980s and 1990s brought the day spa. Facials became a treat you booked alongside a massage and a pedicure.
The 1990s brought ingredients like glycolic into everyday skincare, and with them, the chemical peel craze.
Around 1996, the first medical spas are reported to have opened, blending the doctor's office with a spa setting.
In 2002, the FDA approved Botox for cosmetic use. There were roughly 25 med spas in the US that year. By 2020, there were more than 21,000.
That's an incredible amount of change in just a few decades! It's also when many estheticians started to feel the pressure to add machines, needles, and lasers just to keep up.
The 2010s to now: ring lights, devices, and the virtual treatment room
Then came social media, and everything sped up. Suddenly a 30-second video could make a treatment famous overnight. LED masks, microcurrent wands, and gua sha tools moved from the treatment room into people's bathrooms. Clients started walking in with screenshots and a list of 12 serums they "needed."
And then, in 2020, COVID closed our doors. Many of us, me included, started meeting clients on video for the first time. My very first virtual consult was for a client who couldn't come in. Today, virtual skincare consults are a real and growing part of how estheticians work, and I help clients all across the country from my studio in Evergreen.
So where does that leave the OG esthetician, with her five-step facial and memorized massage? I think she's more important than ever. That's exactly what we're digging into in Part 2: You Know You're an OG Esthetician When...
Want an OG esthetician in your corner? Book a virtual video consult, and I'll build a routine around YOUR skin, wherever you live. [VIRTUAL CONSULT LINK] In Evergreen? Kym and I would love to see you for a facial. [EVERGREEN BOOKING LINK]
