I am a 63 year-old woman with average wrinkles, but I don't like Botox or fillers and don't use them. In December 2018, I had a significant amount of skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma) removed from my left cheek. Given the amount of skin my surgeon had to remove, and the fact that it was mostly smack in the apple of my cheek where there are not a lot of contours to hide the scar, it was horribly ugly when he first closed me. I was honestly horrified and thought I'd never show my face in public again. I will post a picture of how awful I looked but prepare to be grossed out. He kept reassuring me it was looking good, but I was very discouraged at first, then sure enough, it started to heal so well over the next month that it almost shocked me. By the time 2 months had passed and we were in early February 2019, I began to realize my Mohs surgeon is a magician. Nevertheless, I can see the light scar on my cheek, so I asked him if I could do something cosmetically to improve that. He said Halo has been shown to really improve scars, so I bought one from Graper Cosmetic Surgery in Charlotte when they had a holiday special and I got my neck for free. They insisted that I be on an Obagi Rx regimen at least 4 weeks before the treatment, preferably 6 weeks. Be prepared to pay dearly for that stuff. After about 5 weeks on the Obagi regimen, I had the Halo from Melissa. She was fantastic, she told me exactly what to expect and she just keep talking the whole time, telling me where we were in the process and reassuring me how well I was tolerating it. However, even though I have a high pain tolerance, Halo is VERY uncomfortable and I highly recommend taking an over the counter pain killer before hand. She put cold, wet towels on me immediately after, and just left it on my neck while she did my face. Felt like my face was on fire for the first couple of hours and then it subsided just as Melissa said it would. I had some swelling and puffiness on Day 1 but not much. On Day 2 now, the "sandpaper" skin stage. There really is no pain in the days following Halo, it's just the procedure itself and the heat in your face that dissipates after a while. I'll post a few photos as I finish the process and let you see how I did. One photo is immediately post-surgery for the cancer removal (nothing to do with the Halo), the next is 2 months post-surgery, right before the Halo, then Day 2 post-Halo, and I'll take 2 or 3 more as I progress.
