Skincare Clinics Pivot to Longevity, Adjacent Wellness Categories

Amid the wellness boom, skincare chains are increasingly building their business models around preventative care and long-term treatment frameworks rather than pure beauty

Skincare clinic chains are moving deeper into the wellness economy, with consumers increasingly evaluating treatments through the lens of prevention, health and long-term maintenance.

That shift is creating different business models in the industry landscape. Some operators are expanding into adjacent wellness categories such as NAD+ and peptides, while others are using diagnostics to turn skin health into a measurable, longitudinal plan. More focused providers are reframing a single service around efficiency and skin health.

One of the clearest signs of that shift is the rise of adjacent wellness services inside aesthetics chains.

At LaserAway, expansion into treatments like NAD+ and glutathione reflects how closely consumers now connect skin, aging and wellness. But as social media trends drive consumer interest, large chains must intentionally vet such innovations and ideas thoroughly to retain consumer trust.

“There is a lot of noise about treatments, and a lot of it is on social media,” LaserAway CEO Scott Heckmann told Athletech News. “You don’t really know how reliable the source is.”

For LaserAway, the answer is a tightly controlled innovation pipeline. Treatments are tested internally, piloted in select markets and tracked through patient feedback before a broader rollout.

“We want to make sure that, number one, it’s safe, and number two, are we seeing results?” Heckmann said. “And if the risk-reward profile seems to be encouraging, we spend more time on it.”

That process can take up to a year and has guided LaserAway’s move into wellness-adjacent injectables. Heckmann said the company found traction with NAD+ and glutathione after piloting the services and seeing interest from both staff and patients.

“There are some skin benefits to those treatments,” Heckmann said. “We felt like it was adjacent enough to aesthetics; it made sense.”

The company is also looking outside the U.S. for early signals. Heckmann said LaserAway’s leadership team travels to South Korea roughly every three months to evaluate emerging technologies and treatment protocols, using the market as an indicator of where aesthetics and skin health may be heading.

That kind of disciplined experimentation matters as the company scales. Heckmann said LaserAway has opened more than 200 locations, and as it grows, patient feedback becomes part of how the company protects consistency across markets. LaserAway ties patient surveys to medical records, allowing it to identify differences in outcomes across skin types, demographics or locations and adjust protocols where needed.

“We do pay very close attention to that data,” Heckmann said.

Milan Laser is approaching a similar consumer shift through a more specialized model.

Rather than expanding across a broad treatment menu, the company has built its business around laser hair removal and is positioning the service as a long-term skin health solution.

What once may have been seen as aesthetics, the desire to remove hair, is now seen as a longevity and skin health solution. Shaving and waxing can contribute to ingrown hairs, razor burn, chronic irritation and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. For athletes and frequent exercisers, those issues can be amplified by sweat, friction from athletic wear and repeated movement.

“Laser hair removal is one of the few treatments that improves skin health while also removing a daily physical and mental burden,” Clint Weiler, the CEO of Milan Laser, told ATN. “When the follicle stops producing hair, it eliminates the cycle of growth, irritation and inflammation that comes with shaving or waxing.”

Like LaserAway, Milan is operating in a procedure-based category, but its growth thesis is based on narrowing the offer rather than broadening it. The company is betting that consumers increasingly want fewer recurring maintenance tasks and more durable outcomes.

“People are moving away from maintenance and toward lasting outcomes,” Weiler said.

Milan’s pricing model reinforces that positioning. The company includes unlimited treatments and lifetime touch-ups with every body area, a structure designed to account for hormonal changes, aging, pregnancy and other life stages that can affect hair growth.

Outside of laser hair removal, medical aesthetics chain Ovme shows how diagnostics are becoming a bigger part of the consumer experience and the clinic business model.

The brand uses Visia imaging to assess the skin beneath the surface, giving providers and patients a baseline that can guide treatment plans over time. The scan helps patients understand what is changing, why certain treatments are being recommended and how their skin is progressing. It measures everything from pigmentation, sun damage and vascular conditions to texture, pore size and underlying UV damage, offering a data-driven view of skin health beyond what is visible.

“Skin health at Ovme is defined as a long-term, proactive approach to improving and maintaining the quality, function and appearance of the skin, not just addressing isolated concerns,” Iman Shamloul, PA-C, Ovme’s clinical director of talent development, told ATN. “Clients are no longer just seeking corrective treatments, they’re prioritizing preventative care, regenerative solutions and long-term skin optimization.”

Services are packaged as treatment plans that combine multiple modalities and evolve as the skin changes. The goal is to move patients away from one-off treatments and into a more consistent care model, where providers can reassess the skin, adjust recommendations and keep patients engaged over time.

“Clients are no longer just seeking corrective treatments,” Shamloul said. “They’re prioritizing preventative care, regenerative solutions and long-term skin optimization.”