Recently, one of the newer members of our editorial team had the chance to get a facial for free. And she wanted to turn it down. Because that's weird, I cornered her, and she confessed: She was scared. "What if, um, the facialist is mean to me? Because I have some acne?" she asked. I had to set her straight. First of all, an aesthetician is never going to be mean to you. If she is, walk out. And secondly, if I know one thing after leaving IDI, it's that these aestheticians love extractions. The more, the better. Seriously, they live for them.

Proof: When we covered skin conditions, a picture of what are known as "solar comedones" flashed on to the screen. They're basically really, really deep blackheads that have become compacted due to overexposure to the sun or pollution. As Holm explained how they form, she turned to us, eyes wide. "How fun would that be to extract," she says, gesturing to the screen. I find myself murmuring agreement and nodding along with the others. "They smell really bad when they come out," she reveals. Instead of being disgusted, I start searching for YouTube videos of solar comedone extractions.

The takeaway: Don't Google "solar comedone extraction videos" unless you want to be horrified. Oh, and your aesthetician actually likes performing extractions. If she doesn't, she's in the wrong business.

If I believed every beauty magazine I read, I'd picture my pores as jacked up little cells, constantly doing reps of opening and closing. This, however, is not true. Pores don't work out. They don't open and close with heat and cold. It is easier to do extractions on pores when they're heated, but the instructor says that's because the sebum, dirt and oil inside is softer and comes out more easily. And once a pore is stretched out, it's not going to close back up. Meaning, if you've got a previously mentioned solar comedone-like situation going on, those hollows are going to fill back up with crap more easily than ever once extracted.

If you do have blackheads extracted that are leaving crater-like holes in your face, a good aesthetician will put you on an exfoliation routine -- it's the only way to prevent your pores from filling back up with the crud she just took out.