Why “Fitz” is Our Thing

If you’ve ever heard us say “What’s your Fitz type?” and thought, Wait… what does that mean? You’re not alone. So let’s talk about it!

The Fitzpatrick Scale is one of the most important tools we use to evaluate risk, choose the right treatment, and fine-tune settings across devices and procedures. This framework inspired our name, because it represents individualized care across skin tones.

What the Fitzpatrick Scale is

Developed in 1975, the Fitzpatrick Scale classifies skin types based on how skin typically responds to sun exposure, including the tendency to burn or tan. In medical aesthetics, it matters because those same response patterns help guide how skin may react to certain treatments and what precautions should be taken.

It helps inform decisions like:

• which treatments are the best match (right now, for you)

• how conservative or aggressive settings should be

• how to prep your skin and support healing

• what results are realistic, and what timeline makes sense

This is how we get more consistent outcomes. We would never run the same protocol on everyone – we create custom solutions tailored to the person in front of us.

Fitz Types 1-6

Your Fitz type is about sun reactivity (burning vs tanning) after moderate UV exposure. Here’s the quick breakdown: 

• Type I: Burns easily, rarely or never tans

• Type II: Burns first, then tans lightly

• Type III: Sometimes burns, tans gradually

• Type IV: Burns minimally, tans easily

• Type V: Rarely burns, tans deeply

• Type VI: Very rarely burns, tans profusely

Where the original system has limitations & gaps

The Fitzpatrick Scale is useful. It’s also not perfect. The aesthetics industry has not always been built for everybody. And for a long time, a lot of protocols were created around one “default” patient: young, white women.

That’s not the world we live in. And it’s not how we want anyone to feel when they walk into our treatment rooms. Every race, gender, shape and orientation deserves expert-led care, not a templated execution.

The original 1975 classification system has blind spots, particularly for people of color. Skin tone, undertone, and skin behavior do not map neatly to a single category. And if a provider treats it like the be-all-end-all, that’s where you can run into issues, not only with results but with risk.

The scale is about sun reactivity. In practice, it’s often used as a proxy for race/ethnicity or baseline skin color, even though those aren’t the same thing. Human skin is far more nuanced than six buckets. The gaps get louder for deeper skin tones, mixed ancestry, undertones and pigment behavior that doesn’t track cleanly with burn/tan categories. Research shows that self-reported race and pigment traits are weak predictors of Fitzpatrick sun sensitivity, and appearance alone can be misleading.

So we treat The Fitzpatrick Scale as a starting point. Then we build from there using advanced training, clinical experience, and ongoing education to bridge the gaps across diverse skin types. That’s why we say: we know skin tones.

The Fitz Method™

The Fitz Method™ is our updated  approach built around the science of individuality.

We reject one-size-fits-all aesthetics. Instead, we create treatment roadmaps designed around you. We honor your unique Fitz type, but it’s not the only input. We also look at skin behavior and history, pigment response risk, lifestyle and sensitivity, healing patterns, and what long-term skin health truly requires.

In real life, we use this method to refine how we do things, including:

• customized procedure selection and pacing

• individualized settings and risk management

• expert-led planning that prioritizes natural results

In modernizing the system, we also modernized the name. That is why we shortened it from The Fitzpatrick Scale to The Fitz Method.

Where VISIA fits into this

And because we aren’t here for guesswork, we’ve added another layer: VISIA Skin Analysis.

It’s a quick in-office scan that uses specialized photography and software to evaluate what’s happening on the surface of your skin and underneath it. It generates a visual report that helps your provider pinpoint what’s driving your concerns, build a more personalized plan, and track progress over time.

It’s one thing to feel like your skin is improving. It’s another to be able to see it and measure it.

The vision behind the clinical approach

Michelle, Suzie and Dr. Batista guide our clinic, The Fitz Aesthetic Club, with a simple goal: make a bigger tent. The industry has historically leaned on narrow standards, and we believe every patient deserves science-backed expertise and a judgment-free atmosphere.

We want you to feel better when you leave your appointment, regardless of whether you choose treatment that day. That starts with being seen, clinically and personally.