It’s Time to Lose the Inferiority Complex

I have a feeling this one might ruffle a few feathers, and perhaps it has too.

I think the professional beauty industry has an inferiority complex.

For years, we have been fighting to prove that we are more than “just beauty therapists”. We’ve adopted new titles such as skin therapist, dermal therapist, skin specialist, advanced skin therapists and in many cases those titles accurately reflect the additional education therapists have undertaken.

But I sometimes wonder whether underneath all of this a profession desperately trying to prove that we deserve a seat at the table.

What if we stopped trying to prove it?

Recently, I saw a well-known aesthetic doctor say publicly that when it comes to skincare advice, he would rather someone see a qualified skin therapist than an appearance medicine nurse or doctor.

And salons shared it everywhere.

I completely understand why. It was wonderful recognition for our industry.

But it also made me think.

Why did hearing it from a doctor make us feel more legitimate?

We already knew this.

We know how many hours therapists spend looking at skin.

We know how much ongoing education happens after the initial qualification.

We know that a good therapist doesn’t simply sell someone a cleanser and moisturiser. They assess the skin, ask questions, understand ingredients, monitor changes, adjust programmes, perform treatments and build relationships with clients that can last for years.

Yet somehow, when someone with “Dr” in front of their name says it, we collectively breathe a sigh of relief.

“See! We really do know what we’re talking about.”

I think we need to stop.

Your title isn’t going to give you authority

There’s nothing wrong with calling yourself a skin therapist, dermal therapist or skin specialist if that accurately represents your education and scope.

But changing the word beauty isn’t what elevates our profession.

Knowledge does.

Results do.

Experience does.

Continuing education does.

Knowing when something is outside your scope does.

And having the confidence to refer a client to a doctor, dermatologist, nutrition professional or other practitioner when appropriate does too.

True expertise doesn’t require you to pretend you can do everything.

In fact, I think knowing the boundaries of your expertise is one of the greatest signs of professionalism.

We don’t need to become medicine to matter

This is where I think our industry sometimes gets lost.

As skin has become more clinical, technical and device-driven, we’ve started looking towards medicine as the benchmark of credibility.

But why?

A dermatologist has a role.

An appearance medicine nurse has a role.

A doctor has a role.

And a professional skin therapist has a role.

They don’t have to compete.

There are things those professions are qualified to do that therapists aren’t.

And there are things an experienced skin therapist may spend considerably more time studying, observing and working with every single day.

That doesn’t make one profession superior to another.

It makes them different.

So how do we become more confident?

I don’t think confidence comes from changing what we call ourselves.

It comes from becoming exceptionally good at what we do.

Know your ingredients beyond the marketing brochure.

Understand why you are recommending something rather than simply repeating what a brand taught you.

Follow your clients’ skin journeys and document the results.

Keep learning.

Ask better questions.

Challenge information rather than automatically accepting the latest TikTok ingredient or treatment trend.

Stay firmly within your scope and become brilliant within it.

And perhaps most importantly, stop apologising for selling skincare.

Retail isn’t the embarrassing commercial side of being a therapist. If you genuinely believe a client’s homecare will influence their result, recommending it is part of doing your job properly.

Grow your wings

I would love to see our industry stop looking sideways for validation.

We don’t need doctors telling us we’re valuable.

We don’t need increasingly complicated titles to prove we’re intelligent.

And we don’t need to make ourselves sound more medical to earn respect.

We need education.

We need standards.

We need evidence.

We need results.

And we need the confidence to stand behind what we know while being equally confident about what we don’t know.

So perhaps it’s time we stopped trying so hard to escape the words beauty therapist.

There is nothing small about being a great one.

Grow your wings. Stand a little taller. Know your craft. Own your place.

Because maybe this profession doesn’t need a new title.

Maybe it just needs more confidence in the one it already has.

• Terri Grace