Not scary vampire facial: 5 Questions for Jennifer Laframboise

Q: Tell us about yourself and how you came to run this business. How has business been?

A: I am native to North Dakota, and I decided to start this to give back to my community. I worked at Altru for 18 years and just kind of wanted to be able to be more personable. I opened up Total Skin, and I really strive to reach the rural communities. Well, you know, COVID. But (business has) actually been pretty good. People are finding us, and we're a smaller clinic so we have that more homey feel. We take our time and learn about each of our patients and their needs.

Q: What can you offer that other businesses like yours can't?

A: I guess that would be part of it, that homey feel. We have time to spend with our patients and find out all their individual needs, versus treating every patient the same. We treat both medical dermatology and cosmetic dermatology. Our slogan is ‘caring for your skin is caring for you.’ Your skin is your biggest organ, and definitely everything affects that, whether it's internal or external.

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Q: What's an aesthetic service that people should try, and why?

A: If there was only one aesthetic service that I could do it would be Botox. I think so many people are nervous about trying it, and it's actually FDA approved for many different treatments where we use a lot higher dosing for things like migraines, lung spasticity, muscle rigidity and bladder spasms. The small amount that we use, it's so safe, and it just makes you feel relaxed and opens your eyes. It's an amazing treatment that many people are just not educated about. It's just a scary stigma out there, and it shouldn't be.

Q: Why should men come for services? What specific services would men try and be surprised about?

A: Lots of men grew up outside working on a farm or doing construction work and have had so many hours of sun without shirts on, and definitely are a higher risk for any types of skin cancer. But also we offer a great service with laser hair reduction, and so all those guys that are losing their hair on their head and it's growing twice as much on their back, it's pain free, and we can get rid of all that unwanted hair.

Q: What is microneedling? I think it's called a Vampire Facial; it sounds scary.

A: It's absolutely not scary, but, if you Google it, you will see pictures of blood running down people's faces, and those are people that should not be performing the treatment. It actually is the No. 1 sought after anti-aging treatment right now. We're creating channels in the skin, so it's actually destroying some of your skin, but in that we're adding growth factor to those channels. So that induces more collagen and elastin, and just a lot more volume. It's not immediate results, but can take three to six months and then we're seeing amazing results.