Fraxel Laser: Stories

I'm 43 years old and am starting to see wrinkles and crepey looking skin on my chest. After having really good results with laser hair removal with little discomfort, and being enticed with a discount for this second procedure, I decided to go for it.

I had my first fraxel treatment yesterday evening. I could not believe the pain even after having used the numbing cream!! Every pass of the wand on my skin felt like a white-hot cheese grater was being forcefully being dragged across my chest. Tears were streaming down my face. It was the longest 10 minutes of my life.

Immediately after the treatment I was shaking. I think it was partly due to tensing my entire body for 10 minutes against the pain, but I also think my body was in mild shock. For about 45 minutes after the treatment, I felt a lot of heat and experienced mild throbbing, similar to a fairly severe sunburn. When that faded, I was left with sensitivity, light itching, and a lot redness, and some tightness of theskin.

This morning the redness has gone down considerably and the sensitivity has diminished as well. There's still some tightness.

It's far too early to know whether this one treatment will improve the skin (or make it worse, as I fear is a small possibility given some of the other experiences posted on this site). Even if I see some improvement from just this one treatment (I'm supposed to undergo 5 total), I just don't think it's worth the pain. The experience has been invaluable though. It has taught me that I don't want beauty at any cost. I'm all for doing what you can to age gracefully, but not when it causes so much pain.

I know if I back out of my other 4 treatments that I won't get a refund. I'll likely have to accept some other service or product of similar value. At this point that seems just fine.