Capital Aesthetic Skin of Color
Most of the aesthetic industry was built around one kind of skin, and everything else was handled as a special case. This practice was not. Devices, settings, injector training and aftercare here are chosen so that Fitzpatrick I through VI are treated to the same standard, in the same building, by the same team.
01 / Why it matters
Lasers and light based devices work by sending energy toward pigment. Deeper skin carries more pigment in the path of that energy, which is the entire reason these treatments were once believed to be safe only for light skin types. The device is not the expertise. The settings, the training and what happens afterward are.
01
Energy meant for fair skin, delivered into deeper skin, can burn. It can also leave behind the post inflammatory hyperpigmentation a patient walked in hoping to have treated. This is why a practice either knows how to run the device on Fitzpatrick IV to VI or it does not.
Ask any provider what they change for deeper skin. The answer is the test.
02
In the practice's own words, the advanced laser and light based devices available today allow our technicians to carefully calibrate customized settings tailored specifically to darker Fitzpatrick IV to VI skin type for safe and effective results.
Pulse duration and device cooling adjusted to your exact classification
03
Post procedure soothing and protective protocols support sensitive skin through the whole course of treatment, not only on the day of it. Deeper skin is more likely to respond to injury with pigment, so the weeks after a session are part of the plan.
Protective aftercare included, not sold as an upgrade
reduction of visible hair at nine months, reported by the practice for most Fitzpatrick IV to VI laser hair removal patients
smoother skin by one year after the initial treatment, reported by the practice for the same group
02 / The expertise
Each carries its suite serial, the same way every service in the practice does. Consultations are complimentary, and the plan is written for your Fitzpatrick classification rather than an average of everyone.
03 / On the record
Quoted from Capital Aesthetic + Laser Center's own service pages, unchanged.
Lasers are a form of light therapy used to target hair, pigment, sunspots, or capillaries to remove them from skin. Although once believed to only be safe for light skin types. We at CALC are knowledgeable and trained to treat all skin types.
The advanced laser and light based devices available today allow our technicians to carefully calibrate customized settings tailored specifically to darker Fitzpatrick IV to VI skin type for safe and effective results.
Your expert technician will adjust settings like duration and device cooling for your comfort, a priority for dark complexions.
SkinPen microneedling works on all skin types and tones.
PRP Hair Restoration is safe for all skin types and ages.
04 / Conditions
Named plainly, because most patients search by the thing on their face rather than by the name of a device.
Uneven pigmentation, sunspots and photodamage, reduced with technology the practice states is safe for all skin types.
Laser skin toning IPL Chemical peels
Treated as a long game with a maintenance plan, not a one session promise. Laser Genesis and skin toning sit at the center of it.
Laser skin toning Skin health plan
The dark marks left behind by acne, ingrown hairs or a procedure run at the wrong setting elsewhere. Treated by tone first.
Pigment protocol Microneedling
Long term hair reduction with fewer ingrown hairs, on a device and setting matched to your Fitzpatrick classification.
Laser hair removal Six to eight sessions
Acne scars, large pores, fine lines, stretch marks and uneven texture, on a device the manufacturer and the practice both state works on all skin types and tones.
SkinPen Secret RF microneedling
The small raised growths commonly called facial moles, removed painlessly. Common in deeper skin, and often left untreated for lack of a provider who will.
DPN removal
Redness, capillaries, spider veins and surface imperfections on the face, neck, chest, arms and hands.
IPL Xeo Laser vein treatment
Platelet rich plasma using your own plasma to wake dormant follicles, stated by the practice to be safe for all skin types and ages.
PRP hair restoration
05 / The safety story
One provider spends her career on the aesthetics of skin and formulates the products that maintain it. The other spends his on how injured skin repairs itself. That combination is the reason this page can be written honestly.
Michelle German PA-C
Skin authority@capitalaestheticdc
Michelle is the stand out for me. She clearly loves what she does and it shows.
CJ Johnson, patient
Physician Assistant and Aesthetic Director
A board certified physician assistant with an intrinsic eye for beauty and ten years of advanced knowledge in aesthetic medicine. She holds a bachelor of science in biology from the University of South Carolina and completed the physician assistant post graduate program at Howard University.
She is the name behind German Aesthetics, the practice's own medical grade skincare line, which is how a large number of patients meet her before they ever sit in her chair. Home care is not an afterthought on pigment cases, it is half of the result.
The practice has published a long running body of writing built around her chair: injectables for skin of color, facial balancing for diverse patients, lip and dermal filler for Black patients, and non surgical rejuvenation. It is the closest thing in DC to a stated point of view on injecting a full range of faces.
German Aesthetics Medical grade skincare, formulated in house
Dr. Johnson Founder
Wound and aesthetic training@doctorwounds
Thank you Dr. Johnson for providing such excellent, gentle and skilled services. I am so happy with my results.
Linda, Bethesda MD
Founder and Medical Director, board certified physician
Board certified by the American Board of Wound Management and the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine, and founder and surgical director of Comprehensive Wound Care Services Corporation. He trained in general surgery and held a fellowship as the Sylvester J. Carter Fellow in Hand and Plastic Surgery at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center of Cornell University.
Wound care is the medicine of how skin closes, scars and pigments after it has been injured. Every aesthetic procedure is a controlled injury, which makes that background the most relevant credential on this page for anyone whose skin tends to mark.
He has practiced wound care reconstruction and aesthetic procedures since 2010, speaks professionally on wound care and aesthetic medicine education, and has presented multiple research projects at national conferences.
American Board of Wound Management American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine
The full range
Reference imagery for tone, texture and pigment. Not patients, not results, and not retouched into something else. Actual patient photography is shown to you during your consultation.
06 / Where we stand
Specializing in skin of color has never meant treating fair skin as an afterthought. It means the practice refuses to have a default patient at all. The freckled woman with rosacea and persistent redness is having the same conversation about pigment and inflammation as the patient with a Fitzpatrick VI classification asking about laser hair removal. Both of them get a protocol written for their skin, and neither of them gets the other one's settings.
The market has made this the unclaimed position. Practices either say nothing about tone at all, or they say it once in a page footer. We would rather put it on a page of its own and be held to it.
07 / Reviews
Reviews are published as the patient wrote them. We have not labeled anyone's skin tone, and we have not added a word to make a review say more than it says.
The best services ever. I feel beautiful and really cared for. I see Laura regularly for facials and laser, and Michelle provides the very best injectables. I look naturally beautiful after a visit with her. I just walk out glowing.
CA+LC is the absolute best at what they do. I did a Microneedling and RF treatment, and my skin has never looked better. There was no downtime, and I started to see the results within the first few days.
When I turned 40 I sought an aesthetician at Capital Aesthetics who helped me embrace aging gracefully. After just a few months, my skin was radiant. Now at 46, my skin feels better than in my 30s.
Laura has been working miracles on my skin and I love the skincare offered here. I always feel like they care about my skin and not just recommended products just because.
Michelle is amazing. Don't think, just book because she has so much knowledge to honestly answer any questions you might have. I've been going to her for years and I wouldn't trust my facial needs to anyone else.
Consultations are complimentary, in person on Wednesdays and virtual through the week. Or call the Laser Suite at 202-908-2284.