6 Months Later, Still Getting Complements on my Skin, GLOWING. Beverly Hills, CA

I broke my own rules on aesthetic treatments: never do a treatment on a whim and never do a treatment that's offered for free. I'm laying on the treatment bed surrounded by 10 doctors in panic mode thinking this is it, I've crossed the line, this is where it's going to bite me you know where.
I'm in the medical aesthetics industry, I've done a lot of it, not all of it, and a friend says a friend needs a model for this laser resurfacing treatment. Now, having done microneedling, peels and a few others, I said hey, why not? I'm 29, I have some left over acne scars, discoloration, larger pores than I'd like and I want smoother more radiant skin. My girlfriend Erika literally has glowing skin so I think of her and say yes, I want her skin. I show up to presentation lunch-in with about 30 physicians and apply numbing cream immediately. I'm a baby with a level 1 pain tolerance. My friend calls me up to the stage and I lie down on the table. The cream is wiped off and the doctor gets started. Thankfully I already knew the doctor, Dr. Kian Karimi, who’s well known and has a very good reputation so I was put at ease. At first I was concerned I would be the dummy and each doc gets a shot at zapping my face, thankfully, that was not the case. First he traced over my face with the hand piece without the laser on, I think they called it mapping and its purpose is to calculate the surface area and set parameters to ensure the skin is evenly covered and there’s no chance you can burn the patient. Another concern put to rest. As he starts lasering there’s a nurse who is holding a suction tube just above my skin so that the burning skin smell doesn’t stay in the room, it’s sucked up by a tube with a fan. Kind of gross but I appreciated it because, yes, burning flesh smells gross. My friend who represents the laser company is narrating the procedure, he explains to the 10 or so doctors surrounding me (others were seated watching from afar) that I shouldn’t be feeling much more than little zaps (true) but in a few minutes each quadrant the doctor completes will start to heat up like a bad sunburn. As soon as he finished this sentence the heat kicked in. At first it was nice and kind of tingly warm, then it got bad, fast. The treatment lasted 15 -20 minutes and though I wanted to stay and schmooze with colleagues and the doctors after, I needed to get out of there immediately because my face was on fire.
I stole a hand towel from the fancy hotel restroom, power walked back into the presentation room, scooped up some ice and booked it to the valet. I’m sure I’m not the craziest looking aesthetics victim Beverly Hills has seen but the 4 minutes it took the valet to bring around my car felt like an eternity on the sun and I got some looks from passerby. While in the car I point all vents at my face, crank the AC and switch the ice pack from section to section. I proceed to do this for 4 hours while on the couch at home in front of my fan with a Rumchata drink and my bottle of aspirin. I was snapchatting the whole episode so my girlfriends could get a kick out of it too.
The next morning my face hurts, again, like a bad sunburn but the actual burning has stopped. Thank god! Since I got the treatment for free I figured I’d get the aftercare products for it. Though pricey, I’m glad I did because my arsenal of skin care products really weren’t suitable for the condition my skin was in. I got the whole shebang of Alastin Skin Care products which is specifically for post ablative lasered skin. Gentle Cleanser, Skin Nectar (like a weird gel/serum emulsion), Ointment, Lotion and sunscreen. Thankfully I got step by step instructions for day 1-3 and thereafter because I truly didn’t quite know what I could and couldn’t put on my face. The products are really luxurious formulas and made my skin feel so much better. My face day 1 and 2 was red with itty bitty little white spots/ bumps all over. It took every bit of self control not to pop, squeeze and pick these little bumps . After a few days I started peeling and coincidently my Halloween costume was a plastic surgery addict so I was able to go heavy on the makeup and gauze. This was 1 week out and skin was starting to peel off. By the end of the second week my skin was starting to look very good. Week 3 and I was in LOVE. My skin looked so good and, my girlfriend Erika (Ms. Perfect Skin) complemented me that my skin looked amazing! Yes!
I would absolutely do it again and I plan to this year. The doctor that did my treatment charges $2,500 at his practice in West LA so I’ll be going to another doctor I know who said he’ll treat me for under $1,000. I would also recommend you get the skincare products for post treatment because they’re vital to your healing process. If you use the wrong skincare products you’ll cause damage or worse, infection. If you use no skincare products you hinder your skin from being able to heal at its utmost ability. Get the products, then give them to a friend next (what I did).
TL DR: I'm 29, have almost no sun damage (thx mom) and saw a reduction in pore size, reduction in appearance of acne scars, smoother skin, and dramatic increase in radiance. It's worth it, your skin will glow, get pain killers (seriously, biggest mistake), 10 days to start seeing new skin, 6 months in and skin still looks good. I continue to get complements, 1 more treatment to perfection.