I have nothing against cosmetic surgery, and if I was born with some sort of deformity, or a feature that I felt was horrible, I am sure I would have had it taken care of by now. I am extremely afraid of surgery, so to me the risks don’t outweigh the benefits to just “enhance” something that is already fine. At this point, even if I was offered a free surgery of some sort, I would decline, but I’m sure I might be singing a different tune in ten years! I guess my philosophy is “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

Of course I’ve gone on and on about my love for Botox, but to me that’s way less severe than surgery. Some people think of it as the precursor to cosmetic surgery, but to me it’s just a step up from getting a facial….which I guess is a step away from…cosmetic surgery. Maybe I am on a slippery slope (sorry for the endless cliches)!

Have you see Awful Plastic Surgery? As a self-admitted lover of celebrity gossip, that site is great since it features before and after pics of cosmetic surgery-loving celebrities. Of course half the pictures are just speculations, but it’s fun, trashy entertainment. And then Good Plastic Surgery is equally enthralling. If you read some of the horror stories on Awful Plastic Surgery, or watch the ”plastic surgery ruined my life” episodes on Dr. Phil, it’s hard not to be scared to death of liposuction, breast implants, and face lifts. I like Dr. 90210 because I am addicted to before and after reveals, but I have to turn away when it comes to the nasty surgery scenes. Bleck.

What are your areas of concern?
This was the question I was to ask clients when they walked into the Medical Spa I worked at. It’s astonishing how subjective beauty is, and how we see ourselves versus how the world sees us. Women would come in with huge wrinkles, saggy skin, and pock marks, and I would ask them about their concerns. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear “I don’t like this age spot on my cheek” as the response. The “age spot” would be a tiny freckle. What about all their wrinkles? I wouldn’t be rude and mention anything the client didn’t address as a problem, but I had one crazy boss who would jump at people and say “holy cow, those are some giant wrinkles you have across your forehead! But don’t worry, we can fix those with some Botox.” This abrasive, truthful approach actually worked to gain some new clients, so apparently some women like to be humiliated into action.

If I do ever think it’s “time” to get surgery, I will probably research doctors and treatments for months and months. So much can go wrong that it’s imperative to be as prepared and knowledgeable as possible. For now I’ll be attempting to age gracefully by following my anti-aging checklist (a less drastic approach to looking good), and I’m hoping that by the time I “need” cosmetic surgery, I won’t want it! I want to be okay with getting old, without caring about the inevitable wrinkles, sagging, and overall body deterioration:(

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2. Botox Backlash In Hollywood
3. Botox Tips

All of the Estheticians I worked with had official Green Peel training and were certified by the Christine Schrammek company that invented the Green Peel, and they only used the official products. A series of 3 Green Peels a month apart is recommended to clients to see the best results. The actual treatment lasts about an hour, and it consists of herbs being massaged into your skin to physically exfoliate the top several layers of skin. Then you are left to “mask” for a while, and finally a tinted moisturizer is applied to your face. The actual Green Peel herbs are a dark gritty green (not really like this picture). I didn’t want to use an official Green Peel image since this is not going to be a good review! Once your treatment is over, your face will look like it has a sunburn, but it will be covered with the tinted cream. You will come back 5 days later to have a facial, where your skin will be cleansed and any dead skin will be removed.

Here’s why I think the Green Peel is a waste of time and money:
• After your treatment you are not supposed to wash your face (or body if you had a Green Peel for stretch marks) for 5 days! You are sold 3 products that you use to maintain the peel, and you can use the tinted moisturizer to cover up your skin. While your face doesn’t look terrible during the 5 days, people that have jobs where they deal with the public might feel embarrassed. You are allowed to wear eye makeup and lipstick. And remember you need to repeat this process another 2 times.
• On the third day or so, your face starts peeling. These are the top layers of skin shedding, and soon your fresher skin underneath will be revealed. Again, I saw a lot of people with Green Peels, and from a few feet away they looked fine, but up close the peeling can be somewhat noticeable, although it’s not that bad.
• A series of 3 Green Peels, with the products, runs about $1500.
• The products are nothing special, but you are required to use them after your treatment. Some of the products contain ingredients that can cause or make acne worse! Remember a lot of people get the Green Peel to help their acne!
• The Green Peel is extremely painful! Some people described the peel as “tolerable” but most people described the massaging as “excruciating” and it feels like fiberglass rubbing into your skin. After the treatment, it feels like you have a sunburn for the next day or so.
• Finally, I have not met a single person that had a series of Green Peels that saw good results!!!! Some people said their skin was softer and felt nice, but I honestly didn’t find one person that actually saw much improvement in their dark spots (hyperpigmentation). I also didn’t notice improvement in people’s acne scars, or acne either.

As I wrote in my Laser Hair Removal post, I was not happy about selling clients large Laser Hair Removal packages because I was not real convinced it was a viable option for a lot of people. Well, I was especially not happy about selling people $1500 Green Peel packages, knowing that the peels are “supposed” to do wonders, yet I had not witnessed a single person get a good result. The Green Peel was another big reason why I quit the Medical Spa because I felt like the treatment was a rip off, and the company I worked for didn’t offer refunds.

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1. Green Cream Retinol Treatment
2. Botox Tips
3. Light Therapy Acne Treatment

What is Laser Hair Removal?
At my Medical Spa, we used Palomar machines for our treatments. Palomar uses top-of-the-line Intense Pulsed Light handpieces, rather than a ”true” laser, which other companies like LightSheer use. Both IPL and true lasers can be used for successful hair reduction. “Pulsed Light hair removal works by emitting pulses of intense light into the hair follicles. The light is absorbed by the pigment in the follicles and converted to heat. The heat then loosens the hair and disables the cells responsible for growing new hair.” When I first started my job, my company told me that laser hair removal was a permanent reduction of hair, and that up to 90% of treated hair follicles would be permanently killed, never to return. We told all of our clients this, and I thought this was the greatest thing ever.

What areas of the body can be treated? How does it work?
Just about everywhere you grow hair can be treated with a laser. At the Medical Spa, we would treat everywhere on the body, except the head and under the eyebrows, since it was too close to the eyes. You come to the spa shaved, and either an ultrasound gel, or a powdery lotion will be applied to your skin. Then the technician will put the laser handpiece on your skin and pulse the machine. About a two inch area is covered for each pulse. It can take anywhere from 5 minutes to treat your upper lip to an hour or two to do a full back. It takes about two weeks after each treatment before you start seeing results. Initially your hair will grow back in after you’ve shaved it, but it will then start to fall out! I loved seeing less and less hairs each day, until most of them were gone. Then when the new hair cycle starts up, new hairs will start coming back in.

Make sure your technician is thorough! After a few weeks, if you are noticing big patches of hair that look completely untreated, the technician could have missed that area. Based on my experience, I personally would call up the spa or doctor’s office and politely mention this to them, and ask if they could touch up the area. Or when you are buying your package, as if you are entitled to extra treatments if you don’t see good results after 6 treatments. The best thing to do is during the treatment explain exactly what areas you want lasered, and be specific.

How many treatments do you need? Who is a candidate?
For someone with fair skin and dark hair, a series of 6 treatments, 8 weeks apart is ideal if you are treating areas on your body, and 6 weeks apart if you are treating areas on your face. If you have darker skin, or lighter hair, you may need more treatments to see the same results. People with blonde, red, white, or gray hair are not the best candidates because the laser has a hard time “seeing” the pigment in the follicle, so hair reduction will be minimal. Also, since the laser doesn’t “see” gray or white hair, if you are male and have a chest or face full of half gray and half dark hairs, the gray hairs will still be there after the treatments, so that is probably not something that is appealing. A series of treatments is needed because hair grows in different cycles, so you need to target all of the cycles, since only hair in the growing phase will be treated.

Is Laser Hair Removal permanent?
Good question. We would tell clients that you would see a Permanent reduction of up to 90% of hairs. I was under the impression that Permanent meant for as long as you shall live, you will never see the hairs again that were treated with the laser. However, we had client after client come in that was treated by the company ours took over, and they had seen NO reduction in hair. The old company used a different laser, so I attributed this problem to the old laser. Then I had clients come in and say they had several treatments done with the Palomar laser, and saw absolutely no results. I had clients come in that had been treated successfully at other places, but that a few years later, all of their hair came back! A few women came in and claimed they had at least 12 treatments, but that all the hair eventually came back. I had one male client come in with a face-full of brown hair, and he had been getting continual treatments at our spa for three years on his beard, with only patchy results. He was upset because he now had to constantly shave because beard looked funny, but yet the hair just wouldn’t go away!

After seeing all of these problems, I finally started to research laser hair removal. Apparently companies are allowed to use the words “permanent reduction” but that doesn’t have to mean the hair will never return. “Permanent” apparently means the hair will be gone longer than its natural growth cycle. So that could explain why people were seeing great results for a year or two, only to find the hair coming back in. Our bodies are resilient, and hair follicles will do their best to try to repair themselves. Too bad the hair you don’t want is resilient, yet the hair on people’s heads is so susceptible to balding.

Does it hurt?
Laser hair removal is described as a snapping rubberband on your skin. On my underarms, I would describe it as a quick dull pinch. On my bikini area, I would describe it as a match quickly touching my skin, similar to how a Photo Facial feels for me. It is not a pleasant feeling, but I was able to tolerate it since the treatment took about 10 minutes. On my legs, I could barely feel it at all. The coarser and darker your hair, the more pain you will feel. As you have more and more treatments, there will be less hair, so the pain will be less.

Is Laser Hair Removal worth it? What is the cost?
I’ve had 5 treatments on my underarms, and while I have seen a reduction, I don’t think I’m at the point where I don’t need to shave anymore. I’ve had other areas treated with lackluster results, but my underarms are the only area that have been treated 5 times (remember 6 is how many treatments you are supposed to get). As much as I’ve heard about laser treatments not working, I still want to get more treatments to see what will happen. I think it’s worth it to try if you have a lot of money and you have dark hair and need to shave constantly. Countless women came into my Medical Spa with dark upper lip hair, and I personally would pay the money to get that lasered, even if the results weren’t permanent. With waxing and shaving as the other alternatives, I think laser hair removal is the best option, if you can afford it.

Treatments run from $300+ for a series of upper lip treatments to $6000 for a full-body series of treatments. A series of underarm or bikini treatments can cost you $1000 or more.

Maintenance
The last month I worked at the Medical Spa, we were finally telling clients they may need “maintenance touch-ups” to maintain their results. So after your initial 6 treatments, you may need to come in once or twice a year for more treatments. That gets expensive!

Precautions
Read my post about a Guide to Medical Spas, which talks about what you need to know before you have any cosmetic medical treatment done. There are a lot of potential dangers when it comes to getting laser treatments. True lasers, and IPL machines can burn you if you are in the hands of an unskilled technician. You do not want to tan before you have a treatment, or be on photo-sensitive medication, since the laser could burn your skin. Pregnant women should not get treated. If you are under the age of 20, or even 25, you are still growing, so there’s a chance that new hairs will grow that weren’t initially treated. Also, if you are going through hormonal fluctuations or menopause, new hairs can possibly grow that weren’t treated by the laser. That means you would later need additional treatments.

There are a lot of different brands of laser and IPL hair removal machines out there! Definitely do your research about the brand a place uses before you start treatments, and don’t take a place’s word for it that their laser is “the best.” I’ve heard that Palomar and Lightsheer are good, but I’ve also heard about other brands that don’t give good results. Also research true lasers vs. IPL hair reduction, since some people say true lasers work better for darker skin types.

What Laser Hair Removal has to do with me quitting my job
Before I knew anything, I thought laser reduction was the best thing ever! I was also getting free treatments, so I wanted to work at the spa long enough to complete my series of 6 treatments on all of the areas I was concerned about. After reading that treatments weren’t necessarily permanent, I didn’t have much motive to stay (except for the free Botox), and there were other reasons I wanted to quit as well. The biggest problem is that I felt we were misleading clients, and I don’t like to lie to people. The Medical Spa was very sales oriented, and I was not cut out for selling people $6000 laser hair removal packages, knowing they’d probably see results that weren’t really a 90% reduction, and from my research, I didn’t feel like the results would necessarily be permanent. I wasn’t allowed to tell people what I really thought, and my sales sucked because I wasn’t excited about what I was selling people. That’s why I started this website – to tell people what I think is the truth about skin care procedures.

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1. Laser Hair Removal – Worth Another Chance?
2. Celebs Get Free Laser Tattoo Removal at Vegas MTV VMAs
3. Stretch Mark Removal

Oh no, I’m not the least bit envious….Oh Britney, why can’t I be you for just long enough to collect my free swag? Here’s what Jennifer Garner, Pamela Anderson, Jennifer Hudson, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, and a bunch of other celebs will get in their gift bags full of $10,000 worth of stuff:

Beauty products
• Neutrogena skin care for women and men
• Acqua di Parma fragrance
• A Linea-Pro hair-straightening iron
• One-year membership to Exhale for yoga and spa treatments

Other cool stuff
• A Dooney and Burke faux-croc duffel bag
• A $2000 VIP package for The Palms Casino Resort
• Burberry boxers and Vans for the guys
• Hagar Satat jewelry trinkets for the girls
• A USB turntable and gold headphones
• A new HD Tivo

Laser Tattoo Removal !!!
Ha! The celebs get $1000 toward laser tattoo removal from a Los Angeles- based Dr. Tattoff. I’m not sure if I’d trust a doctor with a fake name, but hey it’s free! It looks like Dr. Tattoff is casting for a new reality show. Now’s your chance to get free tattoo removal treatments!

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1. Laser Hair Removal – Worth Another Chance?
2. Laser Hair Removal Info
3. Stretch Mark Removal

I’m always concerned about sweating because I sweat even when I’m cold! When I’m anxious it gets worse. I’ve tried every deodorant out there, although I haven’t tried Drysol, the prescription one. But Certain Dri, the super strong over-the-counter one, did nothing for me, except make me itch like crazy. Hmm I just noticed there’s a new antiperspirant for excessive sweating called Maxim that you can get on the internet. I haven’t tried it either. It’s annoying because there’s so many things I can’t wear because of the sweating problem. When antiperspirants don’t work, there’s always a surgical option, but that’s pretty extreme.

Botox to treat sweating!
Luckily Botox can now be used for sweating! We offered the treatment at my Medical Spa, but for some reason not too many people did it. The one or two people that actually had the treatment said that they had good results, and I’ve read about it being pretty successful. Last night I was watching “Dr. 90210″ and Dr. Will Kirby (he was on my favorite show Big Brother) did Botox injections on his male friend’s underarms. First Dr. Kirby shaved the patient’s armpits, and then he applied cornstarch. Over that he applied iodine, and waited a few minutes. When the patient started sweating, you could see purple dots where there was sweating. Dr. Kirby then did a quick series of Botox injections into the armpits, and then he was done! Since I’ve had Botox, I can tell you that the pain isn’t bad at all, and I hate needles! I am pretty nervous about getting shots in my underarms, but I doubt it really hurts that much.

At my Medical Spa, the injector says she does about 8 shots on each underarm, and uses a total of 100 units of Botox for both sides. That’s a lot of Botox, and it would cost at least $1000! The good news is that Botox for your underarms lasts 6-7 months, as opposed to the 3-4 months in your forehead. There’s more good news. A lot of times insurance will cover Botox for sweating!! So check with your health insurance, and then with your Dermatologist. I don’t know how “much” sweating you have to do to be considered having Hyperhidrosis, and I have a feeling your health insurance wouldn’t pay for the treatment if you weren’t considered an excessive sweater. Also, if you do have excessive sweating, read up on it, and ask your doctor about it, because this could be a symptom of a larger health problem.

On Dr. 90210, Dr. Kirby said it would take about 3 days to start sweating less, and within a week, you should be not sweating at all in the treated area, or not much. I totally want to try Botox for sweating, but just haven’t done it yet. I would only do it if it’s covered by my insurance. Right now Botox is mostly used to treat the underarms, but the hands, feet, and face can also possibly be treated.

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1. 101 Uses For Botox
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Make sure you are receiving Botox Cosmetic
Currently, Botox Cosmetic is the only Botulinum toxin A that is FDA approved for cosmetic use. Before you receive your treatment, don’t hesitate to ask to see the box and bottle of the Botox, to confirm that it’s the real thing. Of course, an unscrupulous person could always put something other than Botox Cosmetic in the bottle, so you need to make sure you are at a trustworthy practice. If you’ve heard about the deaths or paralysis of people that had Botox injections, they were not injected with Botox Cosmetic. Here in Nevada, a doctor has recently been accused of injecting his patients with something other than Botox Cosmetic, but telling them it was the real thing, and he faces serious jail time if he’s found guilty.

Botox Cosmetic is not cheap
Allergan, the maker of Botox Cosmetic, currently charges all of its buyers $505 per 100 unit vial. That means a Medical Spa or Doctor is paying $5.05 per unit of Botox, plus they need to pay the injector, the rest of the staff, and all the bills that go along with running a medical establishment. So if you see Botox specials at places for $99, or $6 a unit, you probably aren’t going to get a good treatment! At the Medical Spa I worked at, we would charge between $9.50 and $13 a unit, depending on the special we were running. I personally got 35 units, which covered my forehead, between my eyes, and around my eyes. That’s about $350. Most of our clients got between 20 and 80 units, depending on the severity of their wrinkles.

Botox injections require skill and practice
In Nevada, you only need to be a Medical Assistant to inject Botox. In other states, you must be a Nurse or Doctor, however any type of Doctor can take a weekend course in Botox and then be able to inject it. Just because a Doctor is doing your treatment doesn’t mean you will get good results. Botox must be injected very precisely, and skill and practice are necessary for good results. When I got my Botox at the Medical Spa I worked at, my treatments were done by a Medical Assistant, yet she had been doing injections for several years, was trained by Allergan, and she had worked on hundreds and hundreds of happy clients. I saw Doctors that were affiliated with the Spa that didn’t provide the best results to clients, and the clients were happier with the Medical Assistant. Also, at the Medical Spa, one Medical Assistant literally had a week of training before she was injecting clients!!! That freaked me out. Read about my Insider Guide to Medical Spas here. Ask for referrals from your friends, ask a place to see before and after pictures, ask how long the person has been doing injections, and check with the Better Business Bureau before choosing an establishment. The official Botox website also has a list of Doctors with whom they are affiliated.

On a side note, I saw great results with the 35 units the Medical Assistant recommended, however when I asked another doctor and a nurse how many units they thought I needed, they both said 60. I’m not exactly sure what to make of that.

Ask if the results are guaranteed
While every patient is different and won’t get the same exact results, there are several factors that can effect your treatment. Botox needs to be mixed with sterile saline, but some unscrupulous places may dilute the Botox too much, which can make it less effective, or it can wear off faster. Botox also needs to be used within a few days after it’s mixed, so if you aren’t getting fresh Botox, you might not get good results. You also want to get an ample amount of units, so it’s best to pay per unit, rather than per area. Some place may charge $99 an area, but who knows how much Botox they are injecting. You need to tell a skilled injector what results you are hoping to achieve, and you need to let him or her decide how many units you will need to achieve those results. If you only have $100 and want “some” Botox, save your money til you can afford to get the units you need. If you are being treated at a reputable place, you should be really happy with your results. But see if you can get some sort of guarantee in writing, so that you don’t get Botox that fades after two weeks, and you’re out a lot of money.

Continued use of Botox and Side Effects
Since Botox Cosmetic hasn’t been around that long, no one really knows what its long term effects will be. It’s recommended to get Botox every 3-4 months, although with continued use, you should need it less often, and may need less units to achieve the same results. But if you continually get it, who knows how it will effect your looks in 10, 20, 30 years. That scares me a bit! Make sure to tell your Botox provider what medications you are on before the treatment, and don’t drink alcohol before the treatment. Botox parties may be fun (if you get a skilled injector) but you don’t want to be drinking at them! Don’t lie down for 4 hours after the injections, and don’t rub your face. The good thing about Botox is that while you have it, it will prevent your wrinkles from getting worse, so you are sort of stopping the clock. However, if you stop getting it, the wrinkles you had before will come back, and it will be like you never had the treatment.

Related posts:

1. My Botox Experience
2. Bye Bye Botox
3. Botox For Excessive Sweating

The pain actually wasn’t bad at all, and it just stung a tiny bit around my eyes. A topical numbing agent was first applied to my skin, and the actual procedure took 10 minutes. Probably about 10 pricks total were made around my eyes, between my brows, and in my forehead. All together I got 35 units. Normally I have faint wrinkles in my forehead and between my eyebrows, and small crows feet around my eyes. It took several days before I started to see results from the treatment, and a full two weeks before I had the maximum results. All the wrinkles were essentially gone, and when I smiled, my cheeks puffed out just a bit more under my eyes. My eyebrows were slightly lifted, and the best part was that my eyes looked totally even for the first time ever! I have one slightly droopy eye, but the Botox totally fixed that!! I also had one unit injected under my bottom lip to cause it to pout. I already have big lips, so I wasn’t crazy about the results on me, but it would be good for someone with thinner lips.

The day after I got the treatment, I had a horrible headache, and I was paranoid it would never go away, but it did! That was the only side effect I had. When the Botox took effect, my forehead felt a bit stiff, and it was hard to lift my eyebrows up that much, and it was impossible to furrow my brows, so I had to frown with my mouth to show expression! It felt a little weird having a stiff forehead – kind of like I put a big piece of masking tape there – but it wasn’t a big deal. No one noticed I looked any different, so it looked very natural, and I would get compliments all the time at the Medical Spa about how I looked young. Before the Botox, I think I looked almost my age. After about two months, the Botox started to wear off slightly in my forehead, and I was able to move my forehead more. It took three months for the Botox to wear off in my forehead, and four months around my eyes. At four months, I had it done again, but was told I didn’t need quite as much the second time, since the wrinkles weren’t as pronounced. I was able to move my forehead more the second time around, so if you don’t get as much Botox, you will have the ability to have more facial expressions. But if you don’t get enough, you won’t see the results you’re looking for. It’s best to tell the injector what you’re trying to accomplish and let he or she tell you how much Botox you will need.

Overall, of all the beauty treatments I’ve tried, Botox, and sunscreen have made the biggest improvements in keeping my skin looking young. Since I didn’t have to pay for the expensive treatment, it was great, but I will probably only continue to get it around my eyes, since it doesn’t take a lot of units in that area, and the wrinkles there bother me the most. I will write a separate post about Botox tips.

ps. This picture of me was taken on Friday. Sheesh, my California Tan has totally worn off (or maybe the flash was just really bright!)

Related posts:

1. Botox Tips
2. Bye Bye Botox
3. Botox For Excessive Sweating

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Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation is another term for these red spots. Since I have fair/medium skin, they show up red on me, but you may also see them as brown or purple, depending on your skin color. Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful in speeding up the fading process of them. I tried Mederma on them, but that didn’t do anything. I wore a strong sunscreen every day, which is important, because the sun can make the spots worse. I also tried Hydroquinone, a lightening agent, but I honestly don’t think it’s meant to lighten red spots – just brown sunspots. I also used Differin, a prescription retinoid, every day, which I think probably helped, but not a lot.

Recently, I did have three IPL Photo Facials, which may have helped with the red spots, but the spots were pretty much gone by the time I had the treatments. I am quite curious to know if Photo Facials do help to speed up the visibility of the red spots, but I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of this. There are also acne clearing lasers that work on active acne, but whether or not they work on the red spots, I don’t know. The Palomar LuxV is what we used at my Medical Spa.

The only way I have personally been able to avoid these spots recently is to prevent breakouts completely. If you have any advice that works, let me know!!!!!!!!!!!

Related posts:

1. Photo Facial Facts
2. Herbal Green Peel – Not Worth It
3. Light Therapy Acne Treatment

When I got my first Photo Facial (using the Palomar brand), I was given dark goggles, and an ultrasound gel was spread on my face. I was told each pulse of the handpiece would feel like a rubberband snapping on my skin. Well maybe I have “sensitive” skin, but the pulses felt more like a match touching my skin – but only for a second. Of course I’ve never put a match to my skin, but I would imagine it would feel the same! Some clients don’t complain about the pain at all, but my eyes were tearing the entire treatment, and it was not a comfortable experience, but it was tolerable.

After the treatment, my skin didn’t look much different, but I noticed a lot of my “hidden” freckles – the ones that come out when I don’t apply enough sunscreen at the beach – were there. And there were a few really dark tiny spots – that’s what you want. Your sun damage/freckles/sun spots are supposed to turn dark after the treatment, and within a week or two, the dark patches will flake off (don’t pick them). A series of treatments (usually 3-5 Photo Facials 3-4 weeks apart) is needed to get a significant reduction of pigmentation. Sure enough, the dark tiny spots did flake away, but otherwise my skin didn’t look much different – except the new light color freckles that were brought out by the Photo Facial didn’t go away! I was extremely faithful with my Shiseido sunscreen (you want to use a really good sunscreen at all times, and stay out of the sun completely between treatments). I later had two more Photo Facials, and did see the two dark freckles I have fade a bit. And I got more “coffee grounds” – those dark spots that flake away, but otherwise I didn’t see much improvement in my skin. And the light freckles brought on by the treatment are still there! Ack.

So, I was trying to target the sun damage that is hiding under my skin, but I have yet to find a definitive answer about whether or not Photo Facials actually help with the damage you can’t yet see. And while Photo Facials are touted to improve pore size and stimulate collagen, I haven’t seen any improvement in that area (it’s been a few months), but I don’t know how “much” improvement I’m supposed to see. I also have some broken capillaries around my nose that are still there:( Given that Photo Facials cost up to $500 a treatment, I personally wouldn’t pay to get them again. However, I think they are great for people that do have a lot of visible sun damage (like the girl in the picture – and I know she has “freckles” but it’s still sun damage). You can treat not only your face, but the chest and hands are also popular areas to get done. If you just have one or sun spots that bothers you, ask a Medical Spa if they can just spot-treat that one area. My spa did that for a much cheaper price that a full-face treatment.

 Also, as I mentioned in An Insider’s Guide To Medical Spas, make sure you go to a reputable spa, and get a skilled esthetician! There’s a possibility that if the Photo Facial is done weakly, it could indeed bring up light freckles, which are then hard to get rid of. And if the Photo Facial is too strong, you could get burned! I have a dark pigmented scar on my leg that I thought would be fun to have “experimented” with. I had it zapped with the handpiece 3 times, and it ended up turning into a giant blistery burn. When the blister was gone, so was all the pigment, and now I have a bigger white scar instead. This was probably my fault, because I forgot I was on antibiotics at the time, as well an another photo-sensitive medication. Duh. Something I forgot to mention is that you don’t want to be on photo-sensitive medication when you are getting treatments! You also do not want to be tan whatsoever, or tan after treatments. And, unfortunately, if you have a darker skin type, you are not a candidate for a Photo Facial. At my spa, we even had to turn away light-skinned Asian people because there is a great risk for burning with this skin type.

Finally, if you are prone to freckles (again, I’m not “against” freckles), like the girl in the picture, or Lindsay Lohan, you need to be vigilant with your sunscreen and sun avoidance. Otherwise your freckles will come back. And while Photo Facials are used to treat Rosacea, you will probably need maintenance treatments since you can lessen the reddness, but you can’t “get rid of” Rosacea – at this point it’s not curable, only treatable. Otherwise, if you avoid the sun, after your series of treatments, you can probably wait a few years before needing any  more Photo Facials.

Related posts:

1. Red Acne Spots
2. What’s Wrong With Freckles?
3. How To Prevent Melasma