Headwinds and Tailwinds: What to Expect in Aesthetics in 2026 Part 2

Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.

Tyler Terry (00:15):
All right, guys, we are back with part two of our predictions for the headwinds and tailwinds of 2026. Just to shift gears a little bit, we talked a little bit about wellness practices and how they're combining with med spas. Med spas becoming or starting to offer wellness services. Can you talk a little bit about that hybrid med spa slash wellness center? Do you think that this will become the dominant model or is that just maybe a niche within the industry?

Robin Ntoh (00:55):
Wellness centers are not new. We're starting to see more of them because of the response, I think to the insurance cutbacks. And so reduction in reimbursements, primary care physicians, gynecologists, dermatology, all these different specialties are actually now leaning into more holistic care because the opportunity exists and it's cash. And so whether they're replacing their insurance business altogether, their medical business with that completely, or they're augmenting and adding in those wellness services, it's very easy for them to do it. They already have a trusted relationship with these patients. These are people that are generally coming in once or twice or a few times a year. So they already have that relationship built. They already have that loyalty. So it's very easy for them to transition them into more wellness services. And if you think about from the patient's perspective, there's a natural inclination based upon where the market is pushing, where the market is driving things for them to want to live longer, feel better.

(02:05):
And so all of this, if you combine all of that between the need in the market and the opportunity that is being presented by these physicians, wellness is just going to continue to evolve just because it's being pushed in that direction. So the concern that you have there is that these physicians are now extending into the med spa arena. So where med spas we're really encroaching on your dermatology and your plastic surgery practices, now the med spas are going to start to see where any wellness services that they have offered will start to be encroached on by more of these general medical specialties that are going to add wellness into their offerings or replace their insurance offerings with this completely. And then they're going to start to add in the aesthetic offerings. And so it's just going to continue to push into the market and you're going to see it expand probably more so than you saw the meds spa market.

Tyler Terry (03:06):
Wow. So when you said that, Robin, I thought to myself, okay, let's just try to envision this as an audience, as our listeners. If you're a patient and you're a patient of a med spa practice and you're a patient of a wellness practice, both of those practices consider you or they're trying to get you to become lifetime patients as they should. However, who is going to earn your business if both practices of both practices are true to add the med spa that you're loyal to, they add wellness services, the wellness practice that you're loyal to, they add on med spa services, same city right down the street from each other. You're a patient of both practices in your mind who earns and who wins your business. And if you're a provider listening to this, that's the way you should think about this. That is the level of competition. It's not just that 1500 to 2000 new med spas that are opening each year. It's also the other specialties who are starting to offer aesthetic services or the other specialties that are starting to offer wellness services. So your competition is increasing a lot faster than just a 10% year over year increase in med spas or wellness practices. It's almost overnight. You just got 10,000 new competitors in the country, which is crazy.

Robin Ntoh (04:26):
And Tyler, I think a simple way to approach that is I myself, I am definitely going to be loyal first to who I know. And so if my physician started adding on wellness services and I already have a relationship with them first and foremost, that's the first thing I'm going to do is I already have trust established there. And so that might be my first choice is to go to them. The second thing that I'm going to factor in, is it convenient for me? Is it convenient for me to schedule an appointment? Is it convenient for me to get in to be seen? And then the third thing is it fit within my lifestyle and my budget based upon the offerings that they have. And that's my generation. That's me. I mean, I've got aging parents, I've got other responsibilities. And so asking myself that question, that's how I would answer it.

(05:18):
But then I think about all the research and the different ways that I've looked at the other generations in relation to aesthetics, gen Z, they might be loyal for a minute and then something's going to come up on their social media feed, or someone is going to have a more authentic approach or response or share something that's going to cue their interest and you've just potentially lost them or maybe never gained them in the first place, even though you may have been their gynecologist or their primary care physician that wasn't enough to retain them or even capture them for that new line of business. And so practices have to approach this not as just one way to look at it. You have to think about the generation that you're serving because they're going to have different ways that they're going to respond to you. So one generation may be an easy win, whereas the other generation, you're going to have to work for it differently and approach it differently.

Tyler Terry (06:13):
Yeah, I just thought of Gen Z. I mean, you're also competing against people, other practices that aren't even local, right? They might have a TikTok shop as their social commerce, and the patient sees that as they're flipping through the posts and they decide to click on it and buy a skincare product or whatever the case may be, because that's the way that they consume content. That's the way that they allow their loyalty as a patient to be divided. But the other part too is as you're starting to offer services, what is your strategy to survey your patients or to make them aware? So what are you doing to market to those patients? Your current patient database that you offer that? And then how can you thoughtfully ask the question or survey that patient? Do you send out a SurveyMonkey or is it part of the new consult experience when they come in so that they can even understand? Because otherwise, how are they supposed to know unless they saw an advertisement or they became educated at the point of care? So you need to think, how can I proactively lean into making sure that patients know that I offer this service or that I can solve that pain point?

Robin Ntoh (07:27):
Well, and I think that's where a med spa is generally going to have the advantage over a wellness center is that wellness centers lean into what they know based upon how they manage a medical practice. And so they aren't first and foremost focused on marketing or a CRM to help manage the engagement from an automated perspective. And a med spa is going to lean into those marketing lanes and they're going to have a better focus on them and a better understanding of them. And so I think that's where the med spa is going to have an advantage over the wellness centers, but it doesn't mean the wellness centers aren't going to start to adapt and learn those things as well. So where the competition may not be there right now, I think it's just a matter of time before they get smart and they lean into those different modalities of where they need to emphasize and position themselves so that they can start to capture that market.

Tyler Terry (08:23):
Let's go ahead and shift gears a little bit and talk about marketing and differentiation. We've talked about differentiation a little bit, but let's talk about before and after photos or even videos for patient education. What content actually converts in 2026?

Robin Ntoh (08:45):
What actually converts in 2026?

Tyler Terry (08:49):
Yeah. Do we think, is it short form videos, long form videos, YouTube videos? Is it before and afters? Is it content that we send to the patient before they even walk into the practice?

Robin Ntoh (09:01):
It's all of it, Tyler. It's all of it. And I think practices just do one are short sighted.

Tyler Terry (09:10):
It's true. I

Robin Ntoh (09:10):
Think it goes back to there's a buzzword that I've been wanting to say that I think is so critical. Experience driven care.

Tyler Terry (09:20):
Writing that down.

Robin Ntoh (09:21):
I think that it is so critical. Patients want experiences. Okay, let's talk about our favorite, Tyler. Let's talk about Disney.

Tyler Terry (09:32):
Yes.

Robin Ntoh (09:32):
Disney creates an experience that is emotional, an emotional experience gets them the ability to charge a premium price, but they have learned how to build that experience around an emotion and it works. But I think patients want the same thing. They want an experience. They don't want just a treatment. They don't want just a one and done. They want an experience that is meaningful. It's like when you go in and your aesthetician is doing a facial, but well, your face mask is on. They do that little extra hand massage. I think that that's part of the experience. And so we think about not just a procedure that you're delivering, but are you delivering a full experience?

Tyler Terry (10:24):
Yeah. Yeah. I think of the term the chef's kiss. What is the chef's kiss for any of your treatment plans or treatments or why do patients remember your practice? What are you going to be absolutely sure that they remember as a reason to rave about your practice, to leave a review? How are you just giving 110% really? Which I know sounds cheesy, but how do you go above and beyond? And you mentioned Disney. It is our favorite by far and away. When I worked at Disney, I worked at Disney for a year, and it was really talking about, I mean, one of the things I learned was focusing on each individual's experience as if it was their one and only time. You don't ever know if it's their one and only time that they're ever at the park that day, that moment first and only time they're with their kids or the last time with their kids or their loved ones. And how do you instill that nostalgia? How do you try to predict the things that they love, the things that matter to them, the storytelling. There's the sense when you're walking down main Street, there's the story behind the ride. There's so many things as to why things are happening the way that they're happening at every, everything's deliberate. Everything's intentional at Disney. Robin, you taught me multiple things when we went to Disney World, but there's so much to why things are happening. They're not just happening. It is literally by design. It is intentional.

Robin Ntoh (12:06):
It is. It is. It's all intentional. And I don't think practice is focused on that intentional and they don't think about that experience and what they're trying to do to create that experience. Sometimes we'll do this tabletop exercise. We'll take them through a patient journey, map out that patient's journey from beginning to end, but every minute detail. And then you tell me, was that an experience that equated to an a plus or was it just a B? Okay, well then you tell me. Would you go back to your practice? Take the time to go mystery shop in other practice to see what they're doing differently. See if you walk away and say, oh my gosh, I would spend my money there because they delivered an exceptional experience. I think there's so often we just miss the boat on what we can do better because we just don't even look at what we can do better.

(13:04):
We just don't even assess it. We just keep going on with the same things over and over again and it doesn't really change. And so practices wonder why their competition is beating them. Well, if you haven't taken a look at what you're doing in the past even 18 months or 12 months, look at what you're doing that could be better. Are you continuously driving an excellent patient experience? One of the things though, I wanted to challenge the conversation point around education is there's this other buzzword that's in the market called informed consumerism. And if you really think about that, it goes back to what you were talking about is that educated patient. And there's so many ways going back to you said YouTube and you're talking about short format, long format, all these different ways that people can get information in front of them. But I think the point isn't the format as much as it's the fact that people like to research more than anything, and they're going to look at those different videos.

(14:07):
They're going to look at reviews, they're going to look at whatever education materials are out there in whatever format they're in. But it goes back to this concept that people want to self-educate, and oftentimes they self-educate before they even book an appointment. And so that's that concept of informed consumerism, and that's really what the market is starting to see based upon what we put into it. And so as practices, think about how they show up in the marketplace in the digital market, are they actually showing up where customers or prospects can find them to do their diligence, to do the research that they're wanting to do, which is generally anywhere after six o'clock at night up to I was up at two this morning doing research. When you think about when they're actually able to do it, is it available for them to do it? And are they getting that right? Education, and are you showing up as being the person that's doing that educating? And so, and form consumerism is a good buzzword to think about as you think about your practice moving into 2026 and on into 2027.

Tyler Terry (15:17):
I love it. You're teaching me something, I haven't heard of that phrase, informed consumerism, wrote it down. And when I think of self-education, the key as the practice is going to be in guiding the patient, we know that the patient is going to self-educate. So how do we guide them to the water? How do we send a text or an email or push notification to educate that patient on the service that they're here for? Or how do we look at the timing of how much time they're waiting in the waiting room? Is that where I want to educate the patient? Is it on their phone? Okay, this subset of patients, they're on their phone. Let's have 'em download the app and while they're on their phone, let's have 'em watch a video or this subset of patients, we need them to watch videos in the room while they're waiting. And for this high ticket procedure, there's 20 minutes of wait time. Anyways, let's make sure that they self-educate, because again, if we know they're going to do it, let's make sure that we guide them to the water. Otherwise, it's trusting Dr. Google or Dr. Jett, GPT or some random website. It might be a competitor, might not be. And then you end up answering questions based on the information that they received from another source.

Robin Ntoh (16:36):
You are so right, Tyler, you are so right. And yeah, it could be the waiting room and that's their first area of opportunity, but it should happen before then. The point is, it's anytime the patient has any opportunity to engage with anything that is electronic or digital, it should be out there. And you want to show up first. You want to be what's in front of them. And sometimes you have to be the one that drives that, because if you leave it up to the internet, they're going to stumble on you maybe. But if you are the one that's providing the link or the content or that drip campaign in your CRM that sends that information to them at the timing that you want them to have it based upon the procedure that they're interested in, then you're controlling more of how you deliver that when they get it and what they're getting.

(17:31):
And that's critical, I think, in today's patient journey, is continuously feeding them that information. Think of that drip campaign that we think about in sales so often, but it's very applicable in managing that patient from their first contact all the way through and even after, that's when you want to continue to facilitate on that education, continue to send them information. Because remember, they only remember 10%. They didn't hear you say, you're going to peel in two days, and then lo and behold, they peel and they didn't remember that. And then the patient's upset and what do they do? Some of them just don't come back because they didn't hear you say that. And aesthetician or injector didn't pick up the phone and call them and say, listen, just wanted to check on you. Remember, you're going to peel. Oh, I forgot about that. And now you just actually preserved the relationship because you followed up versus them not remembering and they're all upset and then they just go off to a different provider because they just don't remember

Tyler Terry (18:30):
That extra one minute call or automated text or email can be the difference of a lifetime patient to your practice or not.

Robin Ntoh (18:39):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Those little things that make up the difference. It's not just one thing, it's one plus one plus one plus one. It's a lot of ones, but guess what? They eventually equal a hundred, but they all add up.

Tyler Terry (18:55):
This is the perfect segue. This is a really important piece I feel like talking about educational content versus promotional content. So a challenge for everybody listening, you might think, I have content, I have tons of content, I have videos. Well, one, are those videos, were they produced by your practice or were they produced by the manufacturer by the company? And two, are they promotional or are they educational? Now, it's not wrong if they're from the industry, if they're from the company, from your rep or if they're promotional, but the idea here is to have that perfect mix, that perfect blend or balance or an infusion of promotional content and educational content. And if you have it, well, where do I feed the patient, the educational content? Do patients want to watch promotional content 10 minutes before their service, their treatment? They probably need, maybe they want to, but what do they need to do? They need, and they should probably consume educational content so that they have better questions and they're more informed, and then that would lead to a better consultation. So Robin, those are my thoughts, but I'll pass it over to you.

Robin Ntoh (20:10):
No, I think you're spot on. I think promotional has its place. It drives new leads. It's the hook that starts to generate or feed the interest. But educational content is really, I think, the most important. And it's not just content that's educational, it's education forward, content that's warm, that's human, that's digestible, that explains why not just what.

Tyler Terry (20:43):
Wow. I guarantee the things that are hard. It's not easy to create content. It's not easy to take a day or a half day to sit and film videos of you talking about the service, but I guarantee because that very reason, if you do it, that has the potential to be the differentiator because you know that if it was hard for you, it's hard for your competitors. And that could be a key, even if it's just a small little chef's kiss, that could be your chef's kiss, that you don't just have videos that they can find on YouTube or on Instagram. These videos are videos that they only see when they're at your practice or when they're a patient of yours.

Robin Ntoh (21:21):
Oh, absolutely. And I think that it also gives you opportunity to put in those real stories before and after photos, but before and after photos with a story, both work, but the story just takes it up a whole notch, and that just feeds into that educational content and goes back to what you said that chef's kiss that ultimate cherry on top.

Tyler Terry (21:47):
I love the story piece, and that's an important reminder when you have that story. Again, it takes time, but you have that set of before and after photos. There's typically a spot where you can add some information and that could kind of cue up for you to remember that story, to share that story, or for the patient to read about the story as they're browsing through your before and afters. Because we know that patients want to look at, not every time, but a lot of times they want to look at before and afters for the service that they're interested in.

Robin Ntoh (22:15):
Most definitely. I think that it keeps circling back to that whole concept of authenticity. The story really feeds that area of authenticity, which patients really want, and that's all generations. They just want authenticity and transparency.

Tyler Terry (22:34):
Yeah, absolutely. So I know we're winding down to the very end. A couple final things for us to touch on before we close the episode, but the first one I want to talk about is Amazon slash big tech entering into this industry. Do you think that's something that's going to disrupt the industry, or is that something that we've just been dealing with for a long time and we're just seeing a little bit more of it?

Robin Ntoh (23:01):
Amazon has the means to disrupt, but they don't know what they don't know.

Tyler Terry (23:06):
Ooh, that's powerful.

Robin Ntoh (23:08):
And I think that's one of the things that healthcare is just unique, and there are a lot of learnings that just next tech has gained because of our 30 plus years in this space. You learn along the way. Things as simple as aesthetics is a great way to paraphrase an industry, but plastics is very different than dermatology, which is very different than med Spa, which is very different than wellness. They're all very different. Even though they might all offer Botox or Juvederm, they still operate very differently. And their needs for technology have some similarities and some things that are very much the same, but also they have very different ways of approaching their business. And the way that their technology solves for that is different as well. And that's something where learnings, and this is where expertise really wins the day, is just knowing what you know. And they don't know what they don't know yet. It doesn't mean they can't learn quickly, it just means that they will probably find themselves in a situation where there's so much around compliance and regulatory that we know there's 50 states and 50 different flavors of some of the regulatory that we deal with, that we deal with oftentimes, again, learnings that we already have insights to. I think it's going to be harder for people to step into the technology space without having some of that awareness or learnings.

Tyler Terry (24:44):
And I have a lot of questions, but again, I know we're towards the end, so I'll have to say before another episode, but to segue into department store aesthetics, we're seeing that more often, not everywhere, but there are department stores that are offering aesthetics. What are your thoughts on that?

Robin Ntoh (25:01):
Well, department stores have always dabbled in this space. Think about it. What is the largest percentage of the first floor of any department store?

Tyler Terry (25:10):
I would say it's cosmetics.

Robin Ntoh (25:12):
Skincare, makeup? Yeah, it's all cosmetics. So they've always played in this space. It's a matter of what they can carry. Does it have the highest efficacy in their products? Because let's face it, physicians have the right to carry products that can do more for your skin, and being treated by a doctor is definitely going to be the right place if you want to have the highest level of treatment care for your skin. So they absolutely, they're just expanding on what they already do. The question is, is it where people really want to get their skincare or are they going to get the best outcomes? It's a decision for that patient, but they're going to try because anything, women will go into a med spa and they'll buy candles, and anything that a med spa doesn't really treat for, but just because people will buy it, they're going to sell it. I think the same is very true for a department store.

Tyler Terry (26:11):
Yeah, that's true. I just want to really shift gears to the final part of this, Robin, just to hear some of your thoughts on predictions for 2026. Any predictions that you have that stand out in terms of financial health, long-term success, maybe something with memberships, but what are some things that you envision 2026 shaping up to be?

Robin Ntoh (26:36):
I think we're going to see more and more around the arena of evolving biological and regenerative different of healthcare. So we think of exosomes and peptides. It's not going away. It has a lot of regulatory concerns, but the industry, the market is demanding it. And so we're going to see people trying to fulfill that demand, right, wrong or indifferent. It is definitely out there and we're going to see more of it, and that's where wellness tends to fit into that arena. So that is a plus in many ways for those that want to grow their business. But I also think that it brings its own level of regulatory and compliance to be concerned about. I think the second thing would be definitely consumerism. The more that we think about who we're marketing to and who we're treating and how we treat them, it's going to go back to what does the customer, what does the client, what does the prospect need, and what do you have to provide them to earn their trust so that they'll book an appointment with you so that they'll become your patient. And so education, authenticity, offerings, those are all going to drive a lot of what we see around that informed consumerism. And then I think the last thing is we're going to see more around compliance. The more med spas and enter the market, the more wellness centers that open, the more opportunity for regulatory and compliance to step in, because you see, you see risk, you see where people have concerns around ethical aesthetic standards, and I think there's going to be an increasing focus on professionalism, safety, and absolutely around patient trust.

Tyler Terry (28:35):
Just to add on two things, really, one category that I think will continue to grow, which is at home treatments or at home technology really, which the two that come to mind for me would be red light masks. My wife, she uses that actually, it's a red light device for her, and she uses that every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. And I have friends and family members who do the same thing. So I'm seeing it personally. And then also wearable devices like the RA ring. I think that's something that will continue to gain traction for people to want to track their vitals, track different things about them so that we talked about ballet body, having that athletic look or desire, but really investing into your best self. So those are the two things that I would share. Red light therapy and wearables, like a wearable ring that can track your health.

Robin Ntoh (29:37):
Absolutely. I think those are definitely spot on. We'll see more of that. For sure.

Tyler Terry (29:42):
Well, any final thoughts, Robin, before we close the episode?

Robin Ntoh (29:46):
No, I'm excited about 2026. I think 2025 was a year of a little bit of tenacity and uncertainty, but as weher in well into 2026, I think that we're going to see some settling and we're going to see where people are very intentional and focused, and those that actually get in line with that are going to find themselves flourishing.

Tyler Terry (30:14):
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Great points. Robin. For those of you listening, want to thank you for taking time out of your days to follow along with the conversation that Robin and I just had. Robin, it's always such a pleasure to co-host with you and to jam out on these episodes.

Robin Ntoh (30:34):
Oh my gosh, it's so much fun. Now jam out. We need some music to go with that.

Tyler Terry (30:39):
Definitely. And for those of you listening, I get just as excited to learn from Robin when I'm on these episodes co-hosting, as I'm sure you're taking down lots of notes. So again, thank you for following along and look forward to many more episodes in the future. Please be sure to check out the show notes for any links that we have included and make sure that you are subscribing to the episode. But until next time, I hope everybody has a great rest of their day and happy new year.

Robin Ntoh (31:09):
Happy New Year.

Announcer (31:11):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech, visit nextech.com, or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.