TCA 25% Chemical Peel on My Hands

About ten days ago I finally got brave enough to try a TCA 25 % chemical peel on my hands.   I watched Youtube videos about it, especially "KuwLeo", who really has done a great series about his own work with peels, TCA 25% in particular.  

It was a simple matter of pouring TCA 25% in a little dish and preparing my hands.  I washed my hands with gel type soap, which is preferable because regular bar soap contains fats, and the chemical can spend all its time working on fats left over from the soap on the skin, and not do as good a job on the skin.  Then I wiped off my hands with acetone, or nail polish remover.  Why? To remove any remaining oils on the skin.  Did I use gloves?  No, but it's recommended.  I forgot.  I used a fan brush to apply the chemical.  I am satisfied that it did a good job, but next time I'll use gauze, just because it's easier to handle for me.  I painted the chemical on the back of my hands and my fingers.  This time there was a sting, but nothing big.  Apparently I have a high pain threshold.  I put on two coats of chemical, and almost immediately saw frosting, which means a white fizz that forms when the chemical reacts to the skin.  Using Jessner's peel didn't always cause frosting for me, so I was glad to see this level of reaction.  But still, I didn't see a lot of frosting with two coats.  Since I haven't done TCA 25% before, I immediately began to wash the peel off my hands.  If I want to do more, I can do more later.  

I washed my hands for two minutes in regular water, and that was the end of the "procedure."  The next day I didn't see much difference in my hands, but on the second day I began to see brown, shriveled skin, more than I've seen with past peels, but not enough to cause any alarm.   I also saw little darker brown spots sprinkled all over my hands, where there was much more sun damage than I had realized.  I used Vasoline and another moisturizer called Dermasil, just depending on which one was closest.  Dermalsil was really comforting to my dry, dry hands.  

I had also gotten cortisone cream and Neosporin with pain relief medication in it.  I never had pain to speak of, but my goodness, that night my hands itched.  This was a surprise because I hadn't heard much about the itching.  It was itchy enough that I woke up several times because of it.  I tried the cortisone cream, which was supposed to help itching, but it was next to useless.  I used the Neosporin, and the pain relief pretty much eliminated the itching, until I eventually rubbed it off and had to put on some more.  On my left hand I put on Neosporin and/or moisturizer, and a glove to make them stay put.  But on my right hand I didn't wear a glove much because it got in the way of using my fingers.  I guess I should have cut the tips off the fingers and worn a glove on that hand too.  My left hand did a little better, with no cracking.  They said on the videos to avoid cracking.  On my right hand many tiny little bumps appeared that may have been blisters.  Or else I don't know what.  

So after about five days my hands began to peel.  Wow.  I'm so pleased with the results.  I've been doing various things to my hands for several years now....hydroquinone cream, derma rolling, a home laser that I got from QVC.  None of those had had much of an effect.  But this!  I wish I had started with this peel.  The brown spots were drastically diminished or gone.  Wrinkles were reduced a lot.  

So at this point my hands aren't 100% healed.  The hands healed more gradually than the face.  They're still peeling some, and feel dry.  I am extremely happy with the improvement.  

My plan is to do at least one more peel on my hands.  I may work on a few areas on my forearms also.  

This has worked out well.  My mother said, "When I saw what you were doing to your face with the peels, I thought, 'She has such beautiful skin.  Why does she do this to herself?' But then I realized that your skin is so beautiful now that you did these peels."  I know my skin was OK, but it's so improved it's hard to believe.  I'm very vain...

Stay tuned.