TCA CROSS for Acne Scars (And Lupus Discoid Scars), at Home

MY 1st TCA CROSS: I've been suffering for acne for most of my life, but it was light acne, resulting in an imperfect skin that I could manage with some make-up. However, this all changed, I am now 43, and it feels like in the last 3-4 years, every time I had a small pimple it left a scar, or a hole. I now have a mix of scars, and basically a bad overall texture, and now the wrinkles have started to make themselves at home ;-) And I still have some active acne once in a while (which I will avoid of course in my crossing). On top of that, I've been suffering from a skin condition for the past 10 years, Lupus Discoid (a lupus that only affects the skin) and it left another load of scars, especially on my nose. I've also had a cortisone injection made by my dermatologist on one of my cheeks for the lupus and it left one of my biggest scar (with some kind of loss fat underneath so it is sunken). I'll be careful in treating those lupus scars and go slowly. Sooooooooo, inspired by other members here and a thorough research online including videos of dermatologists doing the treatment, I did my 1st TCA CROSS yesterday. I've used a 50% TCA solution (bought on Amazon), applied it very carefully in the center of my scars with the tip of a toothpick-wearing vinyl gloves-, saw it frosted, as it is supposed to, did not neutralize it, and put nothing on it, just washed my face delicately the next morning. The application barely stung so it was basically painless for me, afterwards too, not really even a burning sensation. Today, I have some redness and it feels like the pores/holes look bigger but I'm not worried as it seems somewhat normal to have a few days-weeks where your skin looks worst from what I read. I'm now hoping for some scabbing at day 4 or 5. I have of course no progress to show as it can take up to 30 days to see some results, but I'll upload right away some before pictures and some of today-the day after. I plan to do it once a month if my skin reacts well to it. I like the idea of doing treatments at home as I can have a good control on it and go at my pace. I'm scared of lasers right now too, and some doctors ;-) So anyway, for the TCA CROSS, I've seen that some people had amazing results so hopefully I can see some improvements on my side too. I just hope my journey can be helpful to you, and let me know if you also experimented with it, would love to hear about it all!

2nd day after the TCA CROSS: So today, I have little red dots everywhere I crossed, it seems it is now starting to form some tiny scabs, so it is more dark and apparent than yesterday (see pics), where it felt like I had more giants pores than before, and some redness where I crossed. At the beginning, I wanted to do a test patch on one scar and wait to see the result (THE thing to do), but once I was all set up I did my whole face, big pores included, just thought what the hell, but kind of regret it now. Reading more reviews last night, made me panicked a bit as I was reading experiences of people for whom Crossing made things worse. I think I was very careful though in my application but I did do every place I wanted treated all at once. So I do feel stupid not being able wait and just do a test patch, we never know. (...you know how it is, you have those scars and at one point you just want them erased ASAP...) So I'll try to follow up tomorrow ;-)

3rd day post TCA CROSS: This morning it looks pretty much the same as yesterday, except that when I started to move my face, I saw that my forming scabs are starting to slowly dry up, and it started peeling at some place. I've added some moisturizer for the first time, as since the beginning I put nothing on my face, just washing it gently in the morning with some mild foamy soap and tapping to dry, I kind of let it be the rest of the time. I took my real camera out as the iphone pictures just didn't showed well enough the details. So I'll upload a few now. On my screen, in a full screen format it will be very helpful for me to see the changes, should have done that since the beginning but I guess I was a bit lazy (we see my nose better here, I just did 2 or 3 crossings there as I want to go slowly and see how it turns out, the red spots are somewhat active lupus that I don't touch; I also read that nose scars seems harder to treat, oh well). I have to go out today for some errands, but just so you know applying make-up isn't really helpful at this stage, it will make for a weirder face. I'm thinking in the next 2 days it will be hard not to pick on the dry skin detaching itself slowly but I won't do it. Having no engagement really help, I just have to take the dog out, hoping not to meet any neighbors ;-) The scabs looks really tiny, I think I managed successfully to be very precise with my application during the crossing (can't have a shaky hand!) and after I finished I thought I made as good as a job as a doctor. The scars on the sides of the face were hard to do for me, it was harder to see them and pinpoint them correctly with the toothpick. So at this stage, I still don't know if this treatment will be good for me, but I've read that some people saw an immediate improvement on some of the scars closing up right after the scabs fell off so I'm hoping for that. I will follow-up, fingers crossed!