I wrote recently about derma rolling to beautify the skin. One video on youtube mentioned that in addition to frequent derma rolling, they used peels. Peels? This was new.
I began to watch youtube about chemical peels. It was difficult to sort out, because people didn't mention very much about various types of peels, just that this was the peel they were doing. So let me just say there are different types of peels that fall into three categories - mild (or superficial), medium (not as superficial), and deep. These names refer to the depth the chemical burns into the skin. Peels one could do at home don't go beyond the top layer, which is the epidermis. A deep peel goes into the dermis, beneath the epidermis. This can do wonders for people, but it's too extreme to do yourself. For one thing, they require cardiac monitoring during the peel, and after the peel one needs medical supervision.
The mild and medium chemical peels do burn the skin, but by burn I mean the level of burn you might receive from the sun. I bought a 30% glycolic peel from an internet site. In the meantime I watched youtube videos about the experiences of people who did chemical peels at home, and read reviews and blogs about it. I would say in retrospect that a 30% glycolic peel is a good peel for a first peel.
My results from a 30% glycolic peel were disappointing. I prepared carefully for the peel, washing my face, drying, wiping with rubbing alcohol, super cleaning the sink and filling it with lukewarm water, and also making a mixture of one cup baking soda and one cup of water to neutralize the peel with. The 30% glycolic acid felt like water on my face. No burning or tingling. After ten minutes I rinsed my face and then put the baking soda/water all over the area. There was a little sizzle when the glycolic acid mixed with baking soda. After the peel I couldn't see any difference either. No peeling. Humph!
I revisited what others had posted about glycolic peels and saw that there are different levels of glycolic peels, starting at about 10%, and going up to maybe 70%. The 30% glycolic peel is mild. It's considered to be a good peel to try the first time because one needs to gauge the reaction of their own skin to chemical peels.
Meantime I searched for a peel that would deliver better results. One of the first ones I saw was the Jessner peel and I decided to try it. It was very hard to determine from what others said what this would do. They said something about "frosting." The skin begins to fizz from the reaction to the chemical.
It was frightening to try this peel on myself without any guidance from anyone. I prepared carefully again, and again had a mixture of baking soda and water to stop the chemical action. It actually took me about an hour to prepare for the peel. One thing I did differently was to put Vasoline around my lips and eyes. I had heard that one should have a fan or a blow dryer with a cool setting to use for the burning pain.
Then I applied the chemical. The company I bought it from sold a kit with gauze to apply the peel with. I don't think gauze did very well for application. It soaked up a lot of chemical and it was very drippy. And I dropped it into the sink full of water and had to find another piece of gauze. They recommended starting on the forehead, but I started on my neck, and then went to the forehead. This was a problem because the gauze was dripping and I was afraid of getting it into my eyes. I think a cotton ball would work better in the future. Soon I was burning some and I went to the mirror to see what was happening. Oh, some redness. I decided to try to video this and in all the craziness I made a video of the ceiling fan.
I waited about four minutes and saw nothing happening so I decided to do another layer on both my face and neck. Well, okay, face neck and chest. There seemed to be some frosting at this point so I waited about five minutes for the chemical to work. As far as pain, there was a little bit. It reminds me of eating a hot pepper. It wasn't as difficult to tolerate as snorting hydrogen peroxide. I didn't need a fan or the blow dryer, but some might. After five minutes I saw no frosting on my nose, which I was determined to treat because of some hyper pigmentation. So I put on another layer of the chemicals and waited three minutes. At this point I became concerned about how much I might have burned my face and decided to stop the peel. I was not at all clear on how long this peel was supposed to last or what to do when one saw frosting. One "tutorial" from an aesthetician said that you shouldn't neutralize the peel at all, or wash your face that day. Just leave it on and it would burn out eventually. Maybe it would. I wasn't brave enough to find out. I went straight to the baking soda and water mixture and applied it all over my face, neck and chest. It actually hurt a little bit when I did that.
And my Jessner peel was over. I turned a bright red and wondered how I was going to explain that, but the redness went away pretty much after an hour or so, before any witnesses showed up. Most of the redness. The next day things went smoothly except that whatever you do, don't pull skin! I accidentally rubbed my nose too hard and was shocked to see that a patch of skin about the size of my fingernail came off, like skin from a blister. I didn't notice that I was having much effect at all from the peel, so this startled me. The next day, yesterday, was about the same. There was some peeling around my mouth, and some places were turning a dark brown.
Then there was today. When I woke up my skin on my face was wrinkled and brown, and felt pinched, as if a thousand tiny fairies were pinching me whenever I laughed. I put on some Neosporin cream. I've heard day four and day five are the worst days as far as how your skin looks.
Would I go anywhere like this? It's not so bad that makeup wouldn't hide it well enough. I accidentally burned my facial skin much worse once with benzoyl peroxide that I was using under a doctor's orders for acne. The skin peeled off and the wrinkling went away, and actually, that really did wonders for the acne too.
My neck and chest haven't changed much at all except the skin looks a little darker. I hope that will go away.
So that's my first Jessner peel. I've read that one can do this about once a month, up to six times a year. Some recommend doing a series of six of them about every three weeks. Well, maybe. I don't know yet how it will turn out the first time because it hasn't started to peel off yet. I just have brown, wrinkled, slightly burned skin.
Stay tuned.
