•••As Big Stores now sell Fake skincare Products
Adeola Adesiyan, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dainty Spa in Lagos. In this interview with Roving Reporters, she proffers solutions to various challenges facing cosmetology field in Nigeria and introduction of Head Spa Services.
Excerpt:
Can I meet you?
My name is Adeola Adesiyan. I’m the founder and CEO of Dainty Spa and Beauty Palace. We are located at No 6, Fola jinadu crescent, gbagada estate, Lagos state.
What is Dainty Spa all about?
Dainty Spa is all about wellness and beauty, but majorly wellness. We are into services like massage therapy, spa services like skincare, facials, pedicure, manicure, wellness generally.
What inspired you to go into this field?
Okay, what inspired me was when I was in the university, I battled a lot with skin conditions like acne and pimples. And so I didn’t like the way I felt about myself, you know, people looking at me and always feeling disgusted with my skin, especially my face. So, I decided that once I am done in school, I would find a lasting solution to it. And so I decided to go to a cosmetology school, which was where I got my diploma for cosmetology, skincare services and all of that. And so since then, I’ve been able to help a lot of people who are also in my shoes.

Were you stigmatized during the challenge ?
Of course, if you have any challenges on your skin or any skin condition, people will stigmatize you. You know, there’s a way, especially pimples on your face, there’s a way it disfigures your face, even if you are beautiful, those things on your face will not let people see beyond that.
They always have this notion that you’re not taking care of your skin. That’s why all of these things are happening to you. And truly, I’m just using pimples as an example, because that was what happened to me. But there are other skin conditions too, that some people would have, and they don’t know what to do about it.
It could just be something very simple. But if they come to the spa and see an esthetician, a skincare therapist, you might be able to provide help to them. So of course, if you have any skin condition, people will generally stigmatize you. So that was what happened to me.
Is that a good thing?
No, no, no, no. That’s very wrong. Nobody should be stigmatized for anything, let alone if you have a skin condition, because you didn’t put it on yourself. It just happened one way or the other. So it’s very bad if people are stigmatizing people. It’s not a good thing. So many people have spent a lot of money on their skins, yet they haven’t got results.
What do you think is responsible for this?
Okay. Number one, I think we need to differentiate between being a cosmetologist, an esthetician, and being a dermatologist. Mine, I’m an esthetician. You understand? I’m not a dermatologist. Dermatologists, they deal with skin. They are skin doctors. So they are called skin doctors because they are into the medical field when it comes to skin treatment. We are into the peripherals. We are not into the medical aspect. So there are different types of skin problems that people have that can be within our own jurisdiction and might not be within our own jurisdiction. So for an esthetician, of course, you will know that this is not within your jurisdiction, and you have to refer the person to a dermatologist.
So, some people will say, okay, I have this, I have this, I have this. Let me go and meet an esthetician or let me go and meet a skincare therapist, and they will keep spending money. Whereas they should have gone to meet a dermatologist.
Number two, many people don’t know the right products to use on their skin. Some people don’t even know the kind of skin, the type of skin they have. So that to start with. So if you just keep buying products and buying products and you will not get your results. So you have to be informed. And how you can be informed is going to a spa or a skincare therapist to meet with the person and ask questions on how to get better results.
So let’s go back to Dainty Spa, how long have you been in existence?
We’ve been in existence since 2015. Dainty Spa started in 2015 in Akure, Ondo State. That was when I finished my diploma in cosmetology. So I came to Akure and I decided that, okay, I think Akure is a virgin ground. Most people don’t really know about spa services, wellness, and all that.

I started with training people as well. And then from there, it started growing and growing till I left Ondo State. And now I’m in Lagos State and the ministry is moving. So how many people have you trained, if you are to recollect? Can you recollect the number of people you’ve trained so far? I can’t recollect though. I’ve trained, well, I think if I’m to count, I should be counting like maybe 50 to 60 students.
What are the challenges facing the this field ?
We have a few challenges actually. And one is getting original products to be able to attend to your clients, treat your client’s conditions, getting original products. Because we have a lot of fake products out here in the market in Nigeria. So you have to be sure about which is which.
Even big stores are selling fake products. So one has to be very careful. And if you are going to go for original product, like ordering from outside the country, we all know what the exchange rate is saying. So it’s usually very expensive. That’s one major challenge.
Another challenge is those who are out there that have not gone through the proper training and are doing these things, they are doing these services for people. And they are just trying to make money and also destroying people’s skin. So and then because of that, people have also been stigmatized.
So we have fake people in this market. And we also have fake products in this market. I think that’s a major, major challenge in this industry.
How will people differentiate between professionals and quacks ?
Well, unless you meet with them and you talk to them. For example, When I have a client, the first thing I do is I do consultation. When I speak with my client, I do consultation and I give you information. I orientate you about the services I want to do for you and how long the procedure will be and analyze your skin type.
These fake ones, they don’t know all these things. They just, maybe they went somewhere to just learn the skill or maybe they’re just watching YouTube or whatever to just say, okay, let me see how they do this thing. And then they’ll just go into it. But they don’t have the proper knowledge.
You will know because by the time you’re asking them questions, you are going deep, you are digging deep. They won’t be able to answer many questions. So that’s how you will know.
If not, you will not really know because some of these people know how to do these things, but they don’t know the theoretical aspect of it, which is very, very, very, very, very important in skincare.
Would you advise schools to add this field to their curriculum they offer ?
Yeah, I would say that it would be a plus. And then if you caught these fake people as well, you know, if anyone is in university and also have a knowledge about cosmetology, skincare and all that, it’s a plus for them because when they come outside here and it’s something they have passion for, they can easily go into it because they have a prior knowledge in the university.
And if they want to advance, they can also advance, get more training and get certified. So I think the government should just let schools have more entrepreneurial studies, not just all these sewing and hairdressing they are putting now, not just that. Even skincare, cosmetology, they should include it and even other entrepreneurial studies as well.
Is skin issues life-threatening?
Yeah, to an extent. It’s not all skin issues. I don’t think we have many skin issues that are life-threatening. The only way it can be life-threatening is if you use bad products, like if you continuously use steroids on your skin, you know, products that will destroy your skin and that can cause skin cancer and also cause kidney failure.
So those are the extreme parts of it. But if you’re not someone like that, even if you have any skin condition, it might not be, it cannot be life-threatening.
Except maybe you can’t bear it and you can’t bear the way you look at yourself in the mirror then you go ahead and commit suicide. So there’s really no skin condition that I feel is life-threatening.
So now that you said fake products are in the market, do you feel NAFDAC is doing enough in this aspect?
They are not doing enough because we have a lot of non-Nigerian products that are in Nigeria. A lot of people that are into skincare and those that are not even into skincare, they know this products I’m talking about.
They are from our neighboring countries and a lot of their products are products that have a larger percentage of hydroquinone inside of it. Hydroquinone is a lightning agent, which is not a bad agent, but you shouldn’t use less than 2% of it.
However these people will put more than 2% of it and they will now write it on their label that it doesn’t have hydroquinone.
Thank God for some people that have come out now.they are into all these things and they just go ahead and do a search on the ingredients on a particular product.
And when they do that research, they will see that not just hydroquinone that is inside this product, there are steroids inside this product and these people have lied on their label that none of this thing is there.
So I feel that before any product comes to Nigeria and even Nigerian product as well, I feel that NAFDAC should not just say, oh, people should come and register this thing. And when you see NAFDAC number, that’s the end.
I feel that people should go through a rigorous process of doing a research on the ingredients they actually use. And so when they see those ingredients, they will know that this one cannot be applied on the skin.
If you go to the U.S. today, there are some products you cannot take there because it has been banned in that country. It should be like that here in Nigeria. In Nigeria, anything goes.
I understand you have introduced a new service. Can you give details?
I noticed that the general well-being of the body is much more important. If you take care of yourself very well, your skin will appreciate you for it.
Now I’m introducing a new service, which is called Head Spa. And it’s really, really relaxing. You massage the head, you wash the scalp, you massage the scalp. It’s a very relaxing process, which takes about 40 minutes or thereabouts. People should come and patronize us and check it out. It’s really, really nice.
Why should people go for Head Spa?
Head Spa has a lot of benefits. We have most of our stress, we feel it more on our back, our shoulders, our neck. You always see people trying to, you know, do their neck, put their neck left and right, just to balance it, maybe because of stress or just to rub their shoulders and all of that.

That’s the major place where you have stress in your body. Especially people that are into the corporate world, always pressing laptop. Even everybody is always pressing phone. Your shoulders, your arms, your neck is doing something.
So one of the benefits of this Head Spa is that it relieves stress and pain. You know, the tension that has been there for a very long time, it will be relieved.
Number two, because Head Spa involves washing your hair and washing your scalp, probably your scalp has been itching you for a very long time. we treat it, we wash it, we help you to massage it very well. So if you have migraine or you have headache, it’s something that can help you to relieve that pain and take that stress away from it and it’s really, really relaxing.
You can actually sleep off while we are doing this. And it’s affordable. Yeah, very affordable.