Dermaplaning is the cheapest entry point on the cosmetic treatment ladder, and it is worth saying that plainly before anything else. A licensed esthetician holds a sterile blade at roughly a 45 degree angle against your skin and scrapes off dead surface cells and fine vellus hair. There is no device, no consumable cartridge, no laser, and no downtime. CareCredit’s facial cost guide describes it as not technically a medical procedure at all.
That makes the pricing unusual for this category. Most cosmetic treatments have a hard floor set by an expensive machine or a branded consumable. Dermaplaning’s only real cost is the blade and the provider’s time, which is why the honest answer to “what does it cost” depends far more on how it is sold than on where you go. This guide uses price lists that practices published as of August 2026, plus the state rules that decide who can legally hold the blade.
What Does Dermaplaning Cost Without Insurance?
The single most useful number here is the add-on price, because that is how the service is almost always sold: $40 to $50 tacked onto a facial you were already booking.
| Service | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dermaplaning added to a facial | $40 | $45 | $50 |
| Dermaplaning, standalone appointment | $60 | $100 | $250 |
| Express “peach fuzz” removal add-on | n/a | $45 | n/a |
| Facial with dermaplaning included, all in | $105 | $150 | $170 |
| Plain esthetician facial, no dermaplaning | $75 | $90 | $200 |
| Glycolic peel that includes dermaplaning | n/a | $150 | n/a |
| Microdermabrasion (DiamondTome), per session | n/a | $125 | n/a |
| Light chemical peel | $100 | n/a | $300 |
| Branded VI Peel, per session | $275 | n/a | $350 |
| HydraFacial, Signature tier | $150 | $200 | $210 |
Signature Medical Spa publishes dermaplaning at $60 standalone and $50 as an add-on. Saratoga Springs Plastic Surgery’s MediSpa publishes $80 standalone and $40 with any facial treatment, and its facial menu shows the arithmetic directly: a $110 spa signature facial becomes $150 with dermaplaning, a $115 acne clarifying facial becomes $155, and a $130 firming vitamin C facial becomes $170. Turcatti’s Aesthetics in Pennsylvania publishes $100 standalone and $40 to $45 as an add-on against a $90 signature facial.
Express Med Spa in Chicagoland sells it slightly differently: a full dermaplaning facial starting at $105, and a quicker express version using a coarse blade starting at $45 as an add-on. That is the same $40 to $50 add-on band under a different name.
The one outlier is CareCredit’s national figure of $100 to $250 for dermaplaning, published May 12 2023. Nothing in the 2026 practice lists above reaches $250 for a plain dermaplaning session. The likely explanation is the one CareCredit itself gives: dermaplaning is often combined with a chemical peel or another facial, which raises the price. When sources disagree this sharply, the practice lists are the better guide to what you will be quoted, and the national range is the better guide to what a bundled appointment costs.
What Drives the Price
Whether it is a service or an enhancement
This is the whole ballgame. The identical blade pass costs $40 as an add-on and $80 standalone at the same practice, because a standalone appointment has to carry the room, the intake, the cleanse, and the post care by itself. Nothing about the treatment changed. Only the overhead allocation did.
State licensing, which sets who can do it at all
The rules vary more than most people expect. Kentucky’s 201 KAR 12:280 prohibits dermaplane procedures, dermabrasion, microneedling, blades, knives, and lancets, then carves out narrow exceptions: basic exfoliation restricted to licensed cosmetologists or estheticians who have documented specialized training with the board, advanced extraction using lancets of two millimeters or less, and advanced exfoliation performed under physician supervision. California’s Board of Barbering and Cosmetology states more generally that its licensees may not perform procedures that penetrate the skin or affect any living tissue.
The practical effect on your bill: in states where dermaplaning is esthetician scope, you can get it at a $90 spa and pay a $40 add-on. In states where it requires physician supervision, the same service has to be delivered inside a medical practice, which prices it against that practice’s overhead rather than a spa’s.
What gets bundled in
Watch for peels that quietly include it. Saratoga Springs prices a glycolic peel at $150 and states that it includes dermaplaning. If you book that peel and then ask to add dermaplaning, you are being sold something you already bought. Ask what is already in the service before you add anything.
Blade grade and appointment length
Express Med Spa distinguishes its express add-on using a coarse blade from its full dermaplaning facial. That is a real difference in what you get: a quick vellus hair pass versus a full exfoliation with cleanse and finish. A $45 quote and a $105 quote at the same business are two different appointments, not a discount.
Who holds the license, and where
A plastic surgery practice’s medispa, an independent med spa, and a standalone esthetics studio all land in the same $40 to $50 add-on band in the lists above, so provider type matters less here than it does for device treatments. Metro pricing and gratuity matter more. CareCredit notes that 18 to 20 percent is customary for spa services, which is $8 to $10 on an add-on and $16 to $20 on a standalone.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
There is no insurance angle at all. Dermaplaning is cosmetic, no health plan covers it, and there is no network rate or claim to file. Every price you see is retail, quoted in advance, by a business that wants the booking.
The tax advantaged accounts are closed too. IRS Publication 502 says you generally cannot include in medical expenses the amount you pay for cosmetic surgery, which it defines as a procedure directed at improving appearance that does not meaningfully promote the proper function of the body or prevent or treat illness or disease. The exception covers deformity from a congenital abnormality, a personal injury from an accident or trauma, or a disfiguring disease. A routine dermaplaning appointment does not qualify, so an HSA or FSA card is not an option.
Because this is retail rather than medical billing, the protections you would use on a hospital bill do not reach it. Hospital charity care applies to medically necessary care only. If you put a package on a medical credit card and fall behind, it behaves like ordinary consumer debt, and our guide to medical bills in collections covers where that line falls.
How to Pay Less
Never book it standalone if you get facials. This is the single biggest saving available and it takes no negotiation. The same practice that charges $80 for a standalone visit charges $40 to add it to a facial. If you get a facial two or three times a year anyway, adding dermaplaning to each one costs $80 to $150 a year total, against $240 for three standalone visits.
Ask what is already included. Some peels and branded facials include dermaplaning in the base price. A $150 glycolic peel that includes it is a better buy than a $115 facial plus a $40 add-on, and you would never know from the menu. Ask the front desk to read you the steps before you add anything, and run the quote through our fair price checker if it feels high.
Ask for the series price, and ask what happens if you stop. Practices in this category sell packages of three to six that are not posted anywhere. Unlike hospitals, they are under no obligation to publish a price. Ask directly for the three session and six session numbers, and ask whether unused sessions are refundable. The posture that works on any provider bill works here, and our guide to negotiating medical bills has the wording.
Do not pay a medical practice price for an esthetician service. In states where dermaplaning is within esthetician scope, a spa can legally deliver it and prices it accordingly. If a medical office quotes you $150 for a plain dermaplaning session, call a licensed esthetics studio in the same city and compare. The state board that licenses your provider is the authority on who can legally do it, not the practice’s marketing.
Know what it does not do, so you do not buy it twice. Dermaplaning is manual surface exfoliation. It does not do what a chemical peel does at $100 to $300 for a light peel, and it does not do what microneedling does, because neither of those stays on the surface. If your concern is texture, scarring, or pigment, the $40 add-on is not a cheaper version of those treatments. It is a different treatment that happens to feel similar.
Compare it honestly against a HydraFacial. A HydraFacial Signature is $150 to $210 and delivers device driven exfoliation, extraction, and hydration in one session. A facial with dermaplaning is $105 to $170 for the whole appointment. The gap is real but not enormous, and if you are booking monthly the annual difference is $500 or more. The branded device does more. Whether it does $500 a year more is your call.
The Bottom Line
Budget $40 to $50 to add dermaplaning to a facial and $60 to $250 for a standalone appointment as of August 2026, with most published 2026 practice prices for a standalone session landing between $60 and $105. If someone quotes you above $150 for a plain dermaplaning session, ask what else is in it, because something usually is.
This is the cheapest rung on the cosmetic ladder, and that is a feature. It is a reasonable place to start if you want a smoother face and better makeup application without committing to a device treatment or a peel. It is not a substitute for either one, and the practices that sell it as an add-on rather than a service are pricing it correctly.