I had a TCA peel about 2 years ago. While I will agree that it did even out my skin tone, I was not remotely prepared for what it would do to my face.
I was swollen, my face turned to puss (not infected, just chemically burned skin that turned to mush on my face) that hurt terribly. I looked like a nightmare for about 4 days.
I was not warned that I could not go to work for several days after the procedure, so I had to scramble to get things handled at the office since I did not want to scare anyone! I was clear that I was looking for help with my fine lines (I was 41 at the time), and again was not told that they could not go up under my eyes which was my primary area of concern (though he did do the outside corners).
It took about 3-4 weeks to fully recover, and in the meantime, my skin would just start flaking off with no warning. I was out on a nice date (with a new, promising guy, no less!), looked good when he picked me up, and about 2 hours later when I went to the ladies room in the restaurant, I looked in horror in the mirror at a face that looked like a reptile shedding its skin! I had to stand there and scratch off the flaking skin and then when I returned to the table, had to sheepishly acknowledge that my face looked horrible! Luckily, the restaurant was dimly lit and he (kindly) said he couldn't tell, but o my gosh! And this was at 3 weeks out.
When I finally finished flaking, my skin was smoother and discolorations were gone (TCA peels are great for discolorations, but not fine lines) - problem was, I did not have much discoloration, so the effect was not really of any consequence. If you do a TCA peel, know that it takes about a month to fully recover, about 4-5 days before you can even try to put on makeup or even look remotely presentable, and it's not really going to help with fine lines.
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