“So Far, So Good...”

I had my first Fraxel treatment yesterday, and I had to say that I'm pleased so far. Of course, it's far too early to be able to tell how much it has helped with the uneven skin tone/mild acne scaring I have, but the aftercare has not been horrific, as I thought it would be. Yesterday, straight after the treatment, I was very pink and a little bit swollen, but I applied cold compresses and used Kiehl's Centella cream for irritated skin, which helped take some of the redness down.

The procedure itself was uncomfortable. The first pass was fine, just a bit painful around the hairline/temples where the numbing cream hadn't been for so long. The next few passes were quite uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I was glad when it was finished and for a couple of hours after I had a mild burning sensation. I took some Neurofen an hour before.

Right now, less than 24 hours after my treatment, I look like I have sunburn. I'm fairly pink, like you might be if you were glowing after a day of too much sun. My skin feels a little bit tight. I was told that I probably wouldn't want to go out for a couple of days after the treatment, but I've just put some makeup on and I actually look pretty normal. I've even decided to go to the theatre this evening. I look a bit like I've been skiing, as the area around my eyes is still white.

I'm looking forward to the redness going down and seeing the results over the next 7-10 days. I don't think it's going to look great while it starts to flake, but it's nothing awful, as I was led to believe.

My practitioner told me that she hadn't used an aggressive treatment, but that she hadn't undertreated me, either. I tried Erbium-YAG laser four years ago for the acne scarring on my cheeks, and was really unsatisfied, both in terms of how long it took me to heal (part of why I'm having Fraxel is to try to even out the slight hyperpigmentation caused by the e-YAG) and the results I achieved.

So while it's still early days, I'm really pleased with my Fraxel experience so far.