POSTED UNDER TCA Peel Reviews
TCA CROSS Method for Acne Scars, at Home
UPDATED FROM LaGirl89
6 months post
4/20/16 active fx
WORTH IT$40
I had what will likely be my last laser for quite some time the day before yesterday. My plastic surgeon commended me on how well my skin looks currently. The laser I had done was active fx which is not as strong as deep fx unfortunately. It was only done on my cheeks, but really the middle third of my face excluding my nose, chin and forehead. Right now I look like a chipmunk who has had an unfortunate accident with a meat grinder. I had him go under my left eye which had a few fine lines so my eye is swollen and hurts a little. This is another thing I wanted to mention- for some reason when I first started using retin a I noticed that I was starting to develop fine lines rapidly under my eye. I tested the theory out that retin a was accelerating the lines under my eye by applying it under the left eye only and sure enough- I developed fine lines under my left eye but not my right. So I did a little research and saw that a dermatologist had told someone with a similar concern that it would likely go away with time. Well it's been a couple years now and I can say that it definitely did not reverse or improve. I don't know if this is an issue only for certain skin types but personally I would advise to be careful with retin a use under the eye area. For the rest of the skin it's great. As far as my skin- right now I'm red, puffy and scaly. I wouldn't want to go out in public looking this way for sure. I can't see my scars at all right now but I know from previous experience that once the swelling subsides they will reappear. I don't know how much improvement I will see with this lighter treatment but I'm sure I will benefit somewhat from it. It's crazy to think about how resilient these tiny scars are. I've done everything, laser, derma rolling, tca cross, excision.... I'm very happy with the results I have gotten though. I honestly feel like tca cross has been a huge turning point for me. To anyone reading this who has been struggling with the same issue- keep your head up. It can be done, it just takes patience and a little work :)
Replies (5)
April 23, 2016
Plzz just tell me..when to neutralize a 100%peel..right away when the frosting comes or i should wait for 2-3minutes
April 23, 2016
The method I use is to use 50% tca and then not neutralize it at all. So I can't really say for sure. If you are planning to do a peel then don't do it with 100% tca it will definitely be worse. If you are planning to do cross then you can neutralize after 3 minutes :)
May 6, 2016
Dear Dani, excellent post and amazing results! I read all your posts and most of the replies to get informed. At the beginning, you said, you posted the studies you found but I can't find those links. Can you please post the studies links you read before you started the procedure? You are very brave and it paid off. You are very inspiring and with a great approach for what you did. God bless and all the best to you.
May 6, 2016
Hi Dani! Real self will not allow me to post a link unfortunately but if you type "tca cross study" or "tca cross journal" into a search engine the studies are easy to find within the first few links. Ncbi and jpad are good sites to read journals and studies from.
May 10, 2016
U are silent in these days....y?
May 10, 2016
I'm at a training for my job out of state, working overtime and barely have time to eat and sleep, I plan to update my review in the next couple of weeks :)
May 10, 2016
I just tried tca 80 in my scars. it's weird cause only a couple frost then the rest look the same, no frosting. I left it on and all I saw was a little pink patch so I did it again but still no frosting. Do you think it will still work or should I try it again ? I don't know why some frost and some don't. Can tca go bad?? I really wanted it in the spots it didn't frost. So you have to wait for scabs to form but without the frosting do you think it will still work. So nerve wracking
May 11, 2016
Yes I think tca can go bad dependent on the brand it is because I also had some tca 80 percent and the second time I tried using it, I didn't get much frosting so I just went back to the 50 percent which was a different brand. I have a feeling that the 80 percent tca was perhaps not really tca at all but something else because I don't think real tca loses its potency at all, my 50 percent is 6 months old now or so and still works perfectly the same. Usually mine always scab other than the time with the tca that wasn't the greatest- with one exception. If my skin is too oily the tca will not penetrate into the scar. I have to wash my face then go behind that and wipe with an alcohol pad to be sure all the oil is lifted. Hope that helps. Keep your chin up I've had it go one time 5 days before it finally scanned.
UPDATED FROM LaGirl89
6 months post
Excision :/
Well I got 2 little spots excised on the side of my face. One looks better one doesn't. I don't think I will take the chance of excision again. The doctor that did the excision had done it before but I don't think he does it regularly. The one that looks not so great looks a bit less wide but somehow looks deeper. So in a way it's smaller but in another way it's worse. It's still not too bad though. The scars are pretty much gone on one side of my face but still there just a bit on the other side, though the majority are gone from that side as well. I have a little spot on my nose where I spilled a little tca and it isn't healing as fast as I would like but I'm not super concerned about it. Just Sharing that with you guys as a reminder to be very careful when dealing with this stuff as it's very strong. Make sure to tap any excess off before application. Even with this very minor setback my skin still looks so much better than it did even 6 months ago. In other news I will be having laser done again in a couple weeks. My laser doctor is very conservative and careful so I'm not apprehensive at all about it. I've already had him laser previously and I trust him a great deal. When I went to see the excision doctor he kind of threw me off a little, he said why don't I just cover it up with makeup. Would you tell someone with small boobs wanting breast plants to just wear a padded bra? No, of course not. :) I don't blame him for the excision not working out perfectly though because I know that everyone's skin responds differently to different treatments and excision is a 50/50 chance. Im not advising against excision either, if there is a good doctor in your area that is known to have success with it, it might be successful for you. It's a good idea to do a test spot though because I'm really glad I just did 2 spots and not more since it wasn't for me. :)
Replies (4)
April 9, 2016
I've heard that resurfacing (laser, dermabrasion, etc.) performed within a critical window of 1-3 months after excisions can really help blend and disguise the new scars. Good call on that. Also, continuing to dermastamp the scars after healing from the resurfacing. Best wishes! Do you think subcision and/or filler underneath the depressed excision would help at all? Thanks for the updates. :)
April 10, 2016
Hi there, thanks for the well wishes! I tried subcision on mine and it did not help, however I think it's worth a try for others because your skin could respond very well to it. Especially if you have rolling scars, which I hear subcision works very well for. As for fillers, I do think they can help for some but the results are temporary unfortunately. I'm afraid to try fillers to be honest, I would personally rather try to eliminate the problem than to mask it. Fillers cost so much I'd rather the money go toward laser or something along those lines. Not to knock others who prefer fillers, I'm all for it if it makes you happy and it works for your body. I have thought about fat transfer which acts the same way filler does but it's your own genetic material and the results are a bit more permanent. I only have one scar that this would be good for though, you can see it if you look closely at my pics. :)
April 11, 2016
Dani, how long after the next laser can you resume dermarolling?
April 12, 2016
I would wait a minimum of 30 days, but somewhere in the time span of 30 days to 6 weeks. Otherwise you could damage your newly forming collagen which is still fragile and not as elastic as the rest of your skin. :)
May 4, 2016
How are your excision spots looking?? I had excision about a month ago and I still feel like the scars I got excision done on look the same, only deeper than they were before. The doctor who did mine said this was from the stitches and could still heal but I think I really should have gone with another procedure besides excision :(
May 4, 2016
Excision did not work out for me. One of the scars was close to my ears and that one is gone completely but when the stitches came out of my cheek the wound opened up again to a perfect circle that was deeper than it was previously though the area was slightly smaller. I had laser done not long after the excision like 3 weeks after and it looked better after but still not good so I plan to do tca cross again 30 days after my laser which will be on May 20. ;)
UPDATED FROM LaGirl89
5 months post
wow!
My skin looks great compared to what it used to. It's not perfect, I'll never have perfect skin but my acne scars are mostly gone now. I still have a few but most are gone. I have been trying to get rid of acne scars for years now, they are so resilient to treatment. Tca seems to have been what I was looking for.
Replies (4)
March 5, 2016
your skin looks great. how far in between do you do the cross and what do you put on after. I did it but nothing seems to happen for me. what brand and strength do you use? I don't get scabs even tho I leave it on. maybe it's the brand I use. you look great. I wish mine would do something good like yours does. what do you put on after? I might have asked you before I don't remember since I talk to so many but you seem to have had the best improvement did you say you got subcision?
March 6, 2016
I did have subscision but it did not help my skin out unfortunately. Luckily I didn't have to pay for the subscision though because my doctor just did it quickly while my skin was numbed the last time I had laser done. But what has shown me the most improvement for the least amount of money and the shortest time has been tca cross. I wish I had known about it prior to laser because the laser was quite expensive and I still had really noticeable scars after laser. The tca cross I only did on one side 4 times and on the other side 3 times and 85-90% of my scars completely gone now. I did my crosses 30 days apart with the exception of this last time, which was done 2 months apart. I will message you the name of the brand I use, I don't want people to think I am pushing any particular product I'm more so endorsing this method of treatment. If your skin is very oily like mine is in some areas make sure you wash it really well prior to crossing. I wash mine with dawn dish soap then go over it with alcohol cotton pads to make sure all the oil is off of my face especially in the nose area. Afterward I don't wash my face I put retin A on it everywhere except around my eyes. :)
March 8, 2016
Can you please let me know the brand you and were to buy it I being reading your reviews and I'm impressed I want to try this out. Please help! Thanks in advance
June 15, 2020
Could you please email me and let me know all of the products I should get. I have tried so many things with no results.
I'm happy about your results.u helped us a lot. .....thanks again for your kindness. .....