What is Dermal Sciences?
“So what are you studying at uni?”
This is usually how the small talk goes when I haven’t seen someone in 437 years or I meet someone completely new. When I respond, “I’m studying for a Bachelors of Dermal Sciences (Health Sciences)”, they usually ask, “What’s that?” After just a couple of these conversations, I realised how unique and niche my area of study is and is not commonly heard of. So today I will explain to you what my studies revolve around.
Most people think I’m studying to become a glorified “beauty therapist”, which is far from the truth. At Victoria University, Australia, this 4-year degree is only 20ish years old, which explains why so many people have not heard of it before. My degree consists of heavily focusing on the anatomy and physiology of the largest organ in the body, the skin. We also learn about the chemistry behind cosmetic products, the biology of lymph health and wound healing and the physics behind laser and light-based modalities. Once we finish the degree, we are then university-qualified Dermal Clinicians.
Dermal clinicians specialise in skin care and non-surgical therapies for acute and chronic skin problems, illnesses, and diseases. Dermal health professionals’ education is broad and may also have a focus and branch out into public health, skin health, education, and prevention programs.
Why did I choose to study this?
- For my own self-interest (I wanted better skin! jks but fr!)
- ̶F̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶e̶a̶t̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶u̶c̶t̶s̶
- Be able to educate people and raise awareness about normalising skin problems/conditions and enhancing our body image beliefs.
- Help with the early identification and prevention of skin cancer, which is a huge problem, especially in Australia.
As I am currently in my last year of the degree, I have decided to give back to the community and share information about what I’ve learnt in the past 4 years (This is free information guys!! Researched by me so you don’t have to 😉) about managing certain skin conditions and just overall skin health tips and tricks, treatments that I think are amazing and some that aren’t worth it. I might even delve into what I think of “skinfluencers” or something 😅. You guys can also let me know if there’s a specific topic you guys want me to talk about!
So, welcome to my little space called Let’s Talk Skin!
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read this!
Until the next post,
-D
