Vi Peel: Stories

I had the VI peel 4 months ago in June of 2011. If I had written this review a month after I had had the peel, it would have been a glowing review. The peel itself was fine - 5-6 days of feeling like you have sunburnt skin, and skin started peel after about 3 days to reveal the most amazing, glorious skin I had ever seen. I followed the instructions and precautions TO THE LETTER.

The skin tone was even, pore size diminished and it felt so smooth and looked like I'd taken 5 years off it. Then in August, so 2 months after the peel, I caught a glimpse of myself in a window outside and noticed my skin has this strange texture all over my face.

It's hard to describe but it looked like I had thousands of little bumps all over my skin, but you couldn't see them in all lights. Since then, I've been watching my skin carefully, and have been living a daily nightmare. I used to have medium-sized open pores on the apples of my cheeks and small pores on my forehead and no pores on the sides of my face.

Since August, every day I look in the mirror and every single pore has become absolutely enormous, as though someone had dotted my face with a needle or something.

On top of this many pores have joined together to make long lines of pores that look like pronounced wrinkles. I can actually feel them when I run my fingers over my face. I also have 2 light brown stains on my cheeks that were not there before the peel. It looks like the skin on my cheeks is dead as it doesn't seem to soak up the serums I'm trying to nourish it with and just looks totally lifeless.

I had one single accent laser treatment on my face 18 months ago to "tighten up the jowl area" as the doctor said, which led to fat loss and parts of my face looking deflated when I smiled (I will write about this in a post on the Accent page). I have done no treatments to my face since that disaster but after visiting the doctor (one of the most well known and respected in my city), I was encouraged to the VI peel which he said would help with some of the textural problems that were caused by the Accent treatment.

At no point did the doctor ever mention that there was a risk of me ending up with orange peel skin, raised bumps, pores joining together to form lines, dark stains and lines going all across my face and cheeks when I smile. It looks like the collagen has been completely destroyed under my epidermis!

I feel like I'm living a nightmare. I would feel better if the (famous, well respected) doctor had said that this sort of thing can happen in a minority of patients, but nothing like this and I asked 50 questions!

These doctors are truly evil. I believe that they know the risks full well and are willing to feed people lies as long as it funds their lavish lifestyles.

I have no idea what to do now. People always used to say how young I looked for my age and I feel like I've aged 10 years in the space of a few months. I don't want to go near another laser or peel but I wonder if microdermabrasion can help? I've been using expensive products that are supposed to repair the skin - serums, Vit C creams, essential oils etc but I feel like every day I'm comfronted with bigger pores/track marks/lines as well as the ongoing fat loss from the Accent.

I'm going to try dermarolling - has anyone had any success with that before. I'll post updates - I'm desperate to try to repair the collagen. I'm 32 so hope that maybe I'm young enough for my skin to have some chance of recovery.

To anyone thinking of having laser or peels, I would think long and hard. I believe that there are thousands of "respected", "well known" doctors out there who are keeping up a veil of secrecy about the reality of these treatments and I would not take any doctor's word for it if he/she has a vested interest in you having treatment.

I would also encourage people to think long and hard about whether the problem you want treatment for is really worth the risks that come with these "treatments".

I've lost confidence, I check my skin often, am afraid of going out and am jut generally devastated. There is no way that this is a coincidence - I've never, ever had such issues before - I know my skin so well, every mark and pore and this is not MY skin.

Please all be aware that often the skin looks amazing a month after treatment but you may be dealing with devastating effects several months down the line like me.

If anyone has any advice at all that could help me - I would appreciate it so much. I feel like this is only the beginning and I'm scared as it seems to be getting worse every day. Please someone give me some hope.