Fraxel Dual for 25 Year Old Sun Damaged Hands. Royal Tunbridge Wells, GB

1 month post treatment, I see another dermatologist in the hopes to seek a more aggressive treatment.

She started me off with 0.05% tretinoin and 4% hydroquinone for 4 weeks use.
This would serve as a pre-treatment for my skin tone prior to any aggressive lasers/other interventions.

My photo above is after 1 whole month of religious hydroquinone and tretinoin use. Skin tone has calmed down and is closer to my original. It is red from the topicals. I use physical sunscreens every day no matter how overcast it is in the UK.

Distressingly, the wrinkles and lines over the knuckles are the same prior to all of this. It is the fine lines and slightly crepey knuckle skin which reminds me of the sun damage. Some days, I think it isn't so bad but others I feel like it all could have been prevented with some sunscreen whilst out in the sun....

I hope to find a treatment which kind tighten and smooth out these lines. I see my hands all the time in my occupation.

Positive changes have finally shown on my hand.
It took two long weeks for the microscopic dots to slowly disappear. Literature says that hands take longer to heal than face.
I need to state that I have been strict with sunscreen and moisturising so it has been this after care that has avoided post inflammatory hyper pigmentation that is likely in my skin type 4.

Texture of the back of my hand is very smooth. It feels softer too.

Unfortunately the crepey thinned part of my skin that was sun burnt remains the same and it has done nothing for the wrinkles. However, I am aware that it takes multiple treatments to make any difference to those things and even then, they would not make any dramatic changes.

Would I do it again? Unsure. It is a marginal improvement in the overall texture but I am considering something else to really make a change to the wrinkles and thin skin.

I have skin type 4 skin and I am a 25 year old male. I foolishly went without sun lotion during intense midday sunbathing whilst on holiday near the equator.
I ended up with sunburn across my chest and over my hands.

After the peeling subsided, my skin on the back of my hands was always dry and gathered some fine lines and scaling.
After a while, I looked online to find out that my usually sun resistant skin had been sun burnt. Moisturisers prescribed by GPs never helped the appearance.
I went for a cosmetic dermatology consultation. Dr. Ann Farrell had a look carefully and said I had subtle changes such as thickening of the skin and fine lines.
She suggested bland moisturisers to start off with and said if I was bothered by the fine lines then Fraxel Dual could help. She told me that I had good skin anyway.

After using bland moisturisers, I decided to go for Fraxel Dual after researching from sites likes these. I just wanted anything to help improve the texture and possibly decrease the fine lines.

Procedure included watering the hands with warm water to bring the blood to the surface. Local anaesthetic was left on top for an hour to numb the area.
I paid for the consultant dermatologist to perform the procedure due to my skin type and risk of hyperpigmentation.
I had to rest my hands on a pillow and then the laser was used with 8 passes altogether. Pain with 0 being Lowest and 10 being Highest, I would would rate it 5/10.
Each laser pass stung noticeably more than I expected from how the laser adverts describe it.
The consultant dermatologist did adjust the density setting half way through to a lower one. The nurse assisted by blowing cool air over my hands the whole time.
We managed to discuss general topics and she answered my questions about the treatment during the actual procedure.
I adjusted to the "stinging nettle" sensation as the treatment went through and after 10 minutes, I was relieved it was done. Cool water was sprayed over my hands after the procedure and then Aveeno moisturiser cream was slathered on.
My hands just looked red as if I had dunked them in hot water.

I was given post care instructions such as no retinol or vitamin C products until after 2 weeks and to keep it sun protected for 3 months.
In the first day, my hands looks sand papery and there are red dots all over.
It is only my first day and I will update.
I really want to help others by posting this review because I researched Google intensely online before the procedure. I am hoping for better skin texture and for the minor pigmentation to clear away. As the consultant dermatologist said, I have "good skin" to begin with so she thinks one single treatment is enough and this treatment in her opinion was good for just "maintenance".

I guess I am hyper aware of my skin changes after the sun burn and I do believe there was textural differences although they are quite subtle. My aim was to improve my skin fairly quickly rather than wait months and months for tretinoin cream to slowly work. I will upload more photos and comments as the days pass. I paid £350 for my single session of Fraxel Dual.