Damage from one IPL

I thought I'd post an update now that I'm almost one year out from the single damaging IPL I had. The hyperpigmentation improved some but I'm sad to say that the texture did not. Most frustrating is right when I think I'm "over" it, I see new thin white lines (some straight, some zigzagged) appear on my cheeks. I don't know if they're showing up more because the hyperpigmentation is better or what. But I'm grateful that I didn't suffer fat loss as many have and that my texture doesn't seem any worse. The one silver lining to this is that I baby the heck out of my skin now. We're all our own worst critics, right? We hyper-examine our skin whereas others don't; they see the "whole picture." I was reminded of this when out of the blue one of my sons remarked that I look younger than my age. Made my day! Hang in there and please continue to share your stories so that others can make informed decisions.

I had one IPL administered by my long-time, reputable dermatologist. She has always treated my 50-year-old skin very conservatively and has never pushed any procedures or products. I asked her if fraxel, microneedling, etc. might help freshen my skin and she suggested that IPL would be a good choice to take care of some age spots with the benefit of stimulating collagen. I went for it and after the first treatment my skin reacted as “advertised” - slight sunburn look and feeling, mild swelling. The next day all of that had subsided and I had a few coffee ground spots. There were a couple of slightly darker spots on the side of my face, but I wasn’t worried about them. I babied my skin, staying out of the sun, wearing sunscreen, and two weeks later my skin looked pretty good. Then, seemingly overnight, big areas of hyperpigmentation appeared (along with some spots of hypopigmentation) and fine wrinkles on the sides of my cheeks. At a month I went for my follow-up and what was to be another IPL, which I definitely was not going to do. The doctor apologized profusely and said that rarely IPL will bring up background melasma. She prescribed a hydroquinone bleaching cream and said to come back in a couple of months. After reading about this kind of cream, I just decided that I didn’t want to open up my already damaged skin to more possible damage. I’ve been using a non-hydroquinone skin lightening serum and tretinoin, and my pigmentation has started to slightly improve. I also stopped looking at my skin with a magnifying mirror everyday - it was making me crazy and too stressed. I was starting to see “damage,” that after looking at photos pre-IPL ,had already been there. Nearly two months out now, however, I’m still left with fine wrinkles and now some weird, thin white lines on parts of my face on top of the pigment changes. I hope the damage has stopped and that now it’s all about recovery. I know some have had great results from IPL but I will NEVER again have another cosmetic device used on my face.