Why and how to make more women feel welcome at your medspa

As International Women’s Month wraps up, it’s a great moment to ask yourself: “How can my medspa keep celebrating and supporting women all year long?” You’re already nailing the basics — offering high-quality services delivered by skilled pros who help women feel amazing in their own skin. But why stop there when there’s so much more impact to be made?

The truth is, your medspa has the power to make every woman feel seen, valued, and celebrated. Sure, that sounds great on paper (and probably lives somewhere in your mission statement), but let’s be real — impact happens through action. It’s not about just saying you’re inclusive; it’s about making inclusivity a daily practice. Here’s why and how to get started.

Why inclusive beauty is essential for any medspa

Mainstream beauty standards have long been used to position certain types of women as more respectable, desirable, and worthy than others. Even when these beauty standards accept women from broader cultural backgrounds, they tend to exotify and pigeonhole rather than embrace individuals.

As a member of an industry that lives on the cutting edge of both aesthetics and medical technology, you can play a key role in transforming those expectations. Your business may only be a small part of a massive global conversation, but the values it follows help set the tone of who and what gets to be beautiful.

Promoting a sense of belonging across ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds is rewarding in its own right, but it’s also a great way to build and protect your business. Economically speaking, we live in uncertain times. Any economist will tell you that diversifying your assets is one of the best ways to reduce your exposure to risk. Doing the work to appeal to more kinds of women helps you literally diversify your medspa’s most valuable asset: its relationship with its clients.

How to make your medspa more accessible to all women

There’s no magic formula for fostering acceptance and love in any business, group, or place (if you find one, please share it with the rest of us). Instead, it’s best to think about the work as a long-term process and commitment that — though it may have similar goals — will look different for every business.

Even still, some common considerations have the potential to make an outsized impact. Here are five steps that may help you build toward your medspa’s vision of inclusive beauty.

Offer services for diverse needs

Your medspa likely offers all kinds of services to help women feel more confident in their bodies. But could you be doing more for different kinds of bodies? If you want to encourage a broader spectrum of women to trust your medspa, start thinking about how you serve them across these categories:

• Age: Female patients aged 35 to 54 are still the largest demographic for medspas, but that truth belies two other simple facts: Younger people are taking an interest in skin care, and the 50-something woman going to your medspa today will be a 60-something woman who still needs your business within the next decade. Your medspa should be ready to address this broadening age spectrum.

• Skin color: Skin color and type don’t just affect what products clients need — they can even determine what types of equipment and procedures are effective. For instance, some laser treatments are less effective on clients who are higher on the Fitzpatrick scale, or in other words, darker skinned. Accounting for these limitations will help you find alternatives that deliver consistent results to more women.

• Gender status: Women who weren’t assigned female at birth may have different needs and concerns than those who were. Hormone treatments in particular can cause significant changes to the skin. Do the research and offer treatments that ensure your medspa can be a source of guidance and care for all kinds of women.

• Accessibility needs: Can clients who use wheelchairs get to every part of your medspa? Can clients with sensory concerns receive their treatments in quiet, aroma-free areas? When in doubt, ask!

If your medspa offers memberships, make sure you build these considerations into what each package provides.

Foster cultural competency in staff

Different people value different things in beauty — that’s a big part of what makes aesthetics such a fascinating field. Understanding those differences, rather than treating beauty as a monolithic entity with one answer for every woman, is essential.

One of the most practical ways to expand your working definition of beauty is by broadening your hiring processes. If you only ever hire from one professional network, you may unintentionally reinforce biases that shape who gets to be part of that network. Each new voice from a previously underrepresented group can be an invaluable asset for your business.

Another way is by promoting empathy and active listening among staff members. That way, even if an employee is unfamiliar with a client’s background and expectations, they’ll be better equipped to understand them.

Use flexible payment options

As economic uncertainty mounts, we know people (especially young people) will continue to prioritize making their medspa appointments. Flexible payment options will help make your medspa even more financially welcoming to as many women as possible.

Start with the basics: make it effortless for clients to dip, swipe, and tap at the point-of-sale. But don’t stop there. Allow them to save their payment information securely so they never have to worry about having the right card on hand. Gift cards should be easy to purchase and redeem—perfect for treating themselves or their loved ones.

Take it a step further with memberships or packages that offer savings for loyal clients. Subscriptions or recurring payment plans make budgeting a breeze while giving women more opportunities to prioritize self-care without breaking the bank. If you’re using a payment card processing fee program, keep it transparent and simple to navigate. This way, your clients can spend less time stressing about payments and more time feeling at home in your medspa.

Make inclusivity part of your message

Word of mouth from regulars is an essential way to bring in new clients. Unfortunately, relying solely on word of mouth for marketing risks the same kinds of unintentional biases we talked about for hiring processes — clients will only sing your praises to people they know, and those people will tend to be similar to them. That’s why it’s important to use your marketing to share your medspa’s message of inclusive beauty.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Feature more kinds of faces and bodies in the images you share

• Seek out education on more cultural holidays and celebrate them across your business

• Ensure your email, SMS, and social media messages include alt text for better accessibility

As the medspa industry grows, the kind of clients it attracts must grow, too. The need for greater diversity in self-care isn’t just a statement of values — it’s simple business sense. By making your medspa more inclusive of all kinds of women, you’re building a business that’s better equipped to survive and thrive for years to come.