Progetto estetista 2.0

The Project Beautician 2.0 is much more complex than one can ever imagine, but MM Cosmetica makes it easier to apply. It involves clearly underlining the evident difference between the “old style” beautician in respect to the “beautician 2.0”: the former employs outdated methods, does not have a thorough knowledge of cosmetology and cosmetic products, passively practises without any innovation and never keeps up the latest products, thinking it knows everything and she has nothing new to learn; the latter is instead a new professional figure, with experience in every field, great manual skills and knowledge and enterprising spirit: to sum up, a great beautician, who can deal with every kind innovation and be able to use it being fully committed to each customer satisfaction.

WE are making the qualities of a 2.0 beautician become real, forming a new generation of modern beauticians (not considering their age). Do you want to join them?

M. Proust said: “I’ve been going to sleep early at night for a long time”: it is a really interesting quote, with a meaning far deeper than it seems. “For a long time” implies something more important: it was a long-lasting habit, but at some point it ended; it could go on “for a long time”, but it did not.

That is the central theme of this announcement: abandoning what has been done “for a long time” and moving forward. The third millennium world, which belongs to us by right after all the challenges we have faced so far, raises so many areas of interest to examine that, if all of them were to be taken into consideration, the modern beautician should be a doctor, a psychologist, a dermatologist, a chemist, a chiropodist, a physiotherapist, a retailer and a tax consultant as well.

But you should not worry about it.
Even though some beauticians often have to carry out tasks that are particular to other professional figures when in need, they actually are required to do only one thing, but to do it properly: the beautician. But if every beautician continues to work as beauticians have been working for these last 30 years, which means following those same procedures, thinking in that same way and, above all, possessing that same knowledge, obviously a new problem will present itself: the “extinction of their species”. An extinction far more horrible than pandas’ one, a silent extinction, because a wide range of other professional figures cannot wait to take beauticians’ place: doctors, chemists, naturopaths, chiropodists… What has happened to the Professional Cosmetic world since 2008 was both dreadful and silent. It has been a long agony for many beauty centres, while other professional figures were in beauticians’ place, but nobody was shocked or complained about it. The market improved thanks to the old but still effective method base on supply and demand, but many centres were forced to close.

So what is the one and only way to prevent this important professional figure from having a bitter end? The question itself contains the answer: professionalism.
Beauticians’ awareness of their duty to keep up with the latest innovations, to study, to always try new methods, asking for advice and challenging themselves, is the only way to survive and even to reach success in a field that has the potentiality to improve, but still does not take enough advantage of this great potential.
Unfortunately, there are few professionalized figures who, after some years at school, believe that they have nothing new to learn, and therefore, they isolate themselves in a self-referential world, built on boundaries and lies.

These figures will be beauticians who will complain about ineffective cosmetic products and the lack of procedures, who will use equipment which is not in accordance with the law or even useless; they will not be able to manage money or their colleagues/owners/employees, wondering why they are making so many sacrifices without getting a satisfying economic result. I named this kind of figures “beauticians 1.0”: the generation of beauticians (it does not matter whether they belong to the old or the new generation) without any specific demand, or with many unfounded demands, who will have to fight in order not to disappear.

The protector of the modern cosmetic, opposed to “old beauticians”, is the beautician 2.0, who is characterised by:

•    An impeccable training in the cosmetic field;
•    A deep knowledge of beauty technology (starting from the scientific concepts on which they are based);
•    Competences in managing economic and administrative matters connected to running a business;
•    A correct and authoritative management of the employees;
•    A pleasant and effective manual skill, both for massages and treatments;
•    A deep knowledge of the human anatomy, especially when it comes to skin, nails, the lymphatic system, the muscular system, the main tendons and insertions, the main articulations;
•    Knowledge of the basic marketing concepts and the most common commercial techniques;
•    A good competence in organizing and planning activities;
•    The aptitude to recognize that none of these skills or this knowledge lasts for ever, and this is the reason why a continuous training and updating is required.

In 2004, together with my wife Mara, I inaugurated the academy of professional training for beauticians, and since then its slogan has been: “Those who are successful in life have never stopped learning”. Since 2014 we have offered 24 training and updating courses every year, and every beautician who took them got an evident and measurable benefit, also due to the fact that they challenged themselves.
My wish for everyone reading this text is to get the greater benefit, but above all to activate an unstoppable and incessant mechanism of personal and professional growth. The results will be evident sooner than you imagine!
Mario Bonavia - 2016