Rachel.C

Laser Failure - United Kingdom

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE think about it before you venture down the road of having laser treatment. I have NEVER heard from anyone who has a success story following laser treatment. Heat really makes melasma worse, if I were you I would get a second opinion from a reputable dermatologist even if this means you have to pay. It is your face after all. Please look at the pictures I have posted, it really isn't worth it.

I know you are desperate and at the end of your tether, but please really think long and hard before having any laser treatment. I know several people who have had laser, and it hasn't worked. My dermatologist said to use laser on melasma is a complete waste of time as it doesn't work, and the companies who use laser treatment on melasma should be made to pay the money back that they take from us. I had several laser treatments 2 years ago and the damage it did is just about starting to fade. I urge you to really think this through, but I do hope I am wrong and the treatment really works for you.

Hi Megan, thank you for your reply. The picture doesn't really show the patches very well. They do bother me as I had lovely clear skin until I was 40, then the patches started to appear. I do sometimes feel a bit down because of them, but then I have to think of others who are suffering from illnesses and disability, and it makes my problem seem a bit trivial. That being said, I have been out and people have come up to me and tried to to rub the areas on my forehead thinking that I hadn't blended my foundation in properly !!! Looking in the mirror every day can sometimes make me feel "why me".

18 months on and I still have the brown patches, they have faded very slightly but they do in the winter months, the heat seems to make them darker, so come the summer months the always appear alot darker. It is just a case on keeping up with the sunscreen and generally putting up with them. I have tried lots of makeup to cover them up, however, the patches tend to "bleed" through the makeup, so I just have to put up with them.

All the redness has gone away, however, I have now been left with brown patches in all the areas that you can see on the photograph. This was taken a couple of days after the 3rd treatment, which was far more aggressive than the other treatments that I had been given. I have been advised by a dermatologist that the melasma and surrounding skin areas was traumatised by the invasive laser treatment, and this is why I have been left with additional brown markings on my face.