hannah: Give your skin a chance

‘It’s not about what you’re doing for your skin, it’s about how you do it,’ was the famous motto of Hannie Hakze (1954-2006). Getting the most out of what your own skin has to offer – that is what hannah is all about.

hannah offers skin care for customers who don’t want cosmetic surgery, but want their skin to look healthy and beautiful, no matter their age. Their client base therefore unsurprisingly ranges from male to female, and from 16-year-olds with acne problems, to 86-year-olds with sagging skin and everything in between. “And what is the one thing they will have in common?” asks director Monica van Ee. “Beautiful, radiant skin.”

More than skin care

From its start in 1979 the brand has grown to be represented by almost 450 ‘skincoaches’ in 2019. With a passion for (female) Dutch enterprises, hannah wants to give her skincoaches room to set up their own independent companies across the Netherlands.

Qualified beauticians can come to hannah for a four-day course where they will learn all about hannah’s treatment methods, the way their products work and how to empathically work with customers. After getting familiar with the basics of the hannah Xperience, they can enter follow up courses on hannah’s patented Connective Tissue Massages or Wrinkle Reduction Therapy, to name but a few.

Getting to know your skin

The first introduction to the hannah Xperience is a quick-fire round of questions regarding the customer’s habits and health to really get to know the people and their skin. The questions are followed by a skin analysis to set up an individual treatment plan for each customer.

During the analysis, the moisture and fat content of the skin get measured, as well as light sensitivity and pH measurements, to establish how resilient the skin is to bacteria and outside influences. All these measurements guide the skincoach to the best products and treatments for each individual client. These personalised products are then used in the five steps of the hannah-system: cleaning, peeling, stimulating, repairing and protecting the skin. Seeing as skin improvement doesn’t just happen on its own but is an active process, it’s essential to the hannah Xperience to continue using the products at home for effective and long-term skin improvement.

Innovative massage

When Hannie Hakze developed and first started giving her Connective Tissue Massage, the public didn’t take her seriously at all. Being used to only injecting the skin with products, the idea of ‘moving’ the skin around seemed almost like witchcraft, it was said at the time . 40 years on, the treatment has become a staple on the skincare market and different versions of it are being used by beauticians around the country.

The Connective Tissue Massage works on the deeper located layers of skin, the subcutaneous connective tissue, to stimulate the circulation and reduce blockage so the skin can take in nutrients better. When the circulation is bad and the skin can’t absorb the nutrients, wrinkles and acne develop, as well as subcutaneous adhesion. The massage therefore doesn’t just temporarily make you feel relaxed, it has longer term effects on the health and look of your skin too.

A scar of time

The techniques of the Connective Tissue Massage have been further developed in hannah’s Wrinkle Reduction Therapy, where scars, wrinkles and volume loss get tackled to give the skin a lifting effect. Wrinkles could be seen as a scar of time, the main thing the two have in common is that the natural volume of the skin has changed in a in a specific part of the face. hannah’s Scar and Wrinkle Reduction Therapy was developed with the goal to return that natural volume to its original place with the aid of targeted massage techniques.

Scars are areas of the skin where the subcutaneous connective tissue is adhered and the volume has shifted. Through shifting the volume back to its original position the adhesion between the scar and the connective tissue is removed, leaving the customer with more supple skin and significantly less visible scars.

The products and treatments hannah has developed give people a chance to stall or even eliminate the need for drastic surgeries. Instead, it allows them to celebrate their natural skin. “Luckily, we are getting older, a privilege not everyone has been given,” says van Ee. “Embrace it and let your skin speak. Give your skin a chance.”

Web: www.hannah.nl