I've had a lot of success with chemical peels, even though I have only done superficial peels. I've done a lot of them.
But I am tired of doing peels. I'd like to do a peel that actually accomplished some of the miracles I've seen others have from going to a cosmetic surgeon and having a medium to deep peel. Well, I'm not doing a deep peel on myself. Too risky. Plus I don't have a prescription pad. I've seen amazing photos of rejuvenation from deep peels. The lesson to be learned is the skin can be rejuvenated and most people would be happier with rejuvenated skin. We've all seen elderly people with damaged and aged skin, sometimes very damaged. This can all be reversed. The skin regrows and turns out just like it was when one was a tater tot. It's not blotched anymore, the growths are gone, and the skin is tighter, giving the effect of a face lift. In fact, face lifts and other surgeries don't remove wrinkles. This can only be accomplished by regrowing the skin through peels, laser, or retin A. Anyone wanting to remain youthful or refresh the skin must learn how to care for it. I've been surprised at the attitude of friends and relatives when they are astonished at how fabulous my skin looks. How did this happen? I'm five years older than them, but I look 10 years younger. I will tell them about doing peels and retin A. No way!! They're not burning themselves or spending money on retin A. Oh that's all very righteous. There's some suggestion that they are simply not that vain or insecure plus that's cheating. Really? One of them said, "I KNOW HOW OLD YOU ARE!!" Actually they didn't. But so what? I should not look my best? Is this jealousy talking?
So what's my plan? I waited for the fall/winter because the sun is to be avoided as much as possible, and the UV level is lower. Also, I had done my quota of peels for a while. One of the wonderful things peels do is to stimulate collagen and elastin production. You can't get either of these benefits from any creams that claim to contain these ingredients because they can't get below the top layer of skin. A peel will accomplish this. Collagen and elastin are like a lot of things that involve growing though, they take time. It takes several months for the collagen and elastin to do their lovely work, and so the skin needs to rest for awhile.
When the fall came, it was time to restart my efforts. This time I wasn't playing games. For starters, I had gotten retin A, and prepared by using that for a few weeks. Really, I plan to use retin A from now on, but it's also a good thing to use it before a peel. Then I took a break for a week from retin A. In my reading of the sites of companies that sell chemicals for peels, and I will just say, I like Skin Obsession, and also Makeup Artists Choice (MUAC), there are all sorts of instructions. One of them, only for the professional or experienced user, was to first do a Jessners peels, and then put a 25% TCA peel on top of it. Yikes. I'm not a professional. Am I experienced. Well, how can you be experienced at this kind of peel without doing it? I only used 20% TCA this time to test the waters.
And so I decided to do it. I first washed my face, then used cotton pads to wipe it off with nail polish remover, or acetone. Why? Because it removes oil. Any remaining oil will give the chemicals something to spend themselves on instead of peeling the skin. Then I put on the Jessners peel, first on my forehead. I have not had much success with peeling my forehead due to the texture of the skin, and it was going to peel this time. I then made a mistake and washed off the Jessners before applying the TCA. No no! The TCA was to be put on top of the Jessners. Next time I guess. Then I put 20% TCA over my forehead and left it for about a minute. This time at least my skin frosted. I did a good job between my eyebrows especially. Then I rinsed that off, first neutralizing with baking soda and water applied with cotton pads, and then rinsing with water. That went OK. It wasn't especially painful either.
Then I put Jessners on my nose, which is the most sun damaged, having blotches everywhere. I never even realized I had a blotched nose until I began doing peels. I always wondered why I looked like I have a tan. Well, as it turns out, I have 10% Mediterranean heritage, which was a surprise, but revealed when my sister decided to have DNA testing. OK, that explains why I would be dark compared to most Northern Europeans, but after my first peel, I was surprised to see a bit of pink showing on my nose. In fact, the tan I was seeing was mostly sun damage. It wouldn't fade or wash off. It will peel off, but at this point, I have areas that are pinker and some areas, like the tip of my nose, that are sort of ruddy. I even saw that I had two brown streaks running up both sides of my nose all the way from the tear ducts to the tip underneath of my nose! I would say they are breaking up, but I had always thought they were features of my nose. Also, these nose dark places made the shape of my nose appear different, and I don't think in a good way. Anyway, I have tried to focus on my nose and I did a fairly thorough job. I removed the Jessners before I applied the TCA again, but it frosted and then I neutralized and rinsed with water. Now the sides of my face. For some reason the sides are like the forehead, and just don't want to peel. They got the same treatment, but this time there wasn't any frosting and I gave up and went to the cheeks, upper lip, and chin. These areas usually frost easily and once again they frosted.
After that I went to my neck and décolletage, which I have been officially told by a physician to leave alone. This advise I ignored. They told me that the neck skin is much different from the facial skin and could be damaged. Well, I had by that time already done my neck without any damage. He said the same thing about my eyelids because the skin is much thinner there. I had done my eyelids too without damage but I did leave out my lower eyelids this time. I did my upper eyelids all the way to the eyelashes, but being extremely cautious. Oh that's dangerous! Well, I didn't pour the bottle into my eye. I have neutralizer right there in case of a mishap. Once on a previous peel I did get a drop in my eye, and neutralized it. It ached some the next day. End of story.
I have a large brown area on my neck, melasma, that looks like my neck is dirty, and I don't like at all. It must go. Then at the end I put 20% TCA on my lips.
And viola! My peel was done. I checked it out in the mirror and saw a lot of redness. Fine. Suddenly, about 10 minutes out, I saw a weird looking color at the nape of my neck! What happened?? Horrors! It looked like a yellow/purple bruise. I realized it was Jessners after it spends itself. It turns this color. I had not washed off the Jessners or the TCA in this spot. Oh my. It didn't hurt. Maybe it would be OK.
After this peel, over the next few days, my eyelids never appeared to peel at all, and neither did my forehead, the sides of my face or most of my neck. Hmmph. The whole thing didn't seem any more dramatic than my usual peels, except.... the area on my neck that I had missed rinsing off really turned out beautifully. I had managed to peel off the brown area and had my original skin tone. So, now I know.
I read some online articles about surgeons doing Jessners/TCA peels. They first put on Jessners, then without washing it off, applied 35% (!) TCA. They left it on four minutes. OK. I've never done 35% TCA, and really, I probably never will. But next time I do this, I will leave the Jessners on and put the TCA over it, I will use 25% TCA and I will leave it on probably four minutes, but not longer. That's my new plan.
Otherwise, it made a few minor improvements, peeling off a number of little brown spots. I don't like those little brown spots. I also have a number of little bumps on my forehead that are still there but smaller. And my complexion is less blotched with each peel. I didn't go as strong as I wanted because I'm tired of inching along like this. But all in all, it was another nice superficial peel. These superficial peels will eventually give one the same amazing results as a medium peel, but it takes a lot more of them, and if you only do them once a month, and then take six months off, it limits the number you can do, so I wanted to do a stronger peel. Well, next time. If my skin was in as good a shape to start with as it is after my peels efforts so far, I wouldn't bother to do anything to it, but knowing what can be accomplished has made me more determined to do the job right.
But the big question remains. Why is there a stigma against people, especially women, trying to rejuvenate one way and another? It's not even about age, because I had all these sun damaged areas by the time I was 20. Why not correct things? Besides that, peels could have saved me years of problems with acne as a teenager, and for less money than the medications at the corner drug store. Not only that, I have friends who had disfiguring acne, and have never had their skin peeled. Why? Why should one limp through life with skin damage? And face some stigma if they decide to try to correct it? I don't know. Hopefully I'll never find out. I know it's wrong.
But I am tired of doing peels. I'd like to do a peel that actually accomplished some of the miracles I've seen others have from going to a cosmetic surgeon and having a medium to deep peel. Well, I'm not doing a deep peel on myself. Too risky. Plus I don't have a prescription pad. I've seen amazing photos of rejuvenation from deep peels. The lesson to be learned is the skin can be rejuvenated and most people would be happier with rejuvenated skin. We've all seen elderly people with damaged and aged skin, sometimes very damaged. This can all be reversed. The skin regrows and turns out just like it was when one was a tater tot. It's not blotched anymore, the growths are gone, and the skin is tighter, giving the effect of a face lift. In fact, face lifts and other surgeries don't remove wrinkles. This can only be accomplished by regrowing the skin through peels, laser, or retin A. Anyone wanting to remain youthful or refresh the skin must learn how to care for it. I've been surprised at the attitude of friends and relatives when they are astonished at how fabulous my skin looks. How did this happen? I'm five years older than them, but I look 10 years younger. I will tell them about doing peels and retin A. No way!! They're not burning themselves or spending money on retin A. Oh that's all very righteous. There's some suggestion that they are simply not that vain or insecure plus that's cheating. Really? One of them said, "I KNOW HOW OLD YOU ARE!!" Actually they didn't. But so what? I should not look my best? Is this jealousy talking?
So what's my plan? I waited for the fall/winter because the sun is to be avoided as much as possible, and the UV level is lower. Also, I had done my quota of peels for a while. One of the wonderful things peels do is to stimulate collagen and elastin production. You can't get either of these benefits from any creams that claim to contain these ingredients because they can't get below the top layer of skin. A peel will accomplish this. Collagen and elastin are like a lot of things that involve growing though, they take time. It takes several months for the collagen and elastin to do their lovely work, and so the skin needs to rest for awhile.
When the fall came, it was time to restart my efforts. This time I wasn't playing games. For starters, I had gotten retin A, and prepared by using that for a few weeks. Really, I plan to use retin A from now on, but it's also a good thing to use it before a peel. Then I took a break for a week from retin A. In my reading of the sites of companies that sell chemicals for peels, and I will just say, I like Skin Obsession, and also Makeup Artists Choice (MUAC), there are all sorts of instructions. One of them, only for the professional or experienced user, was to first do a Jessners peels, and then put a 25% TCA peel on top of it. Yikes. I'm not a professional. Am I experienced. Well, how can you be experienced at this kind of peel without doing it? I only used 20% TCA this time to test the waters.
And so I decided to do it. I first washed my face, then used cotton pads to wipe it off with nail polish remover, or acetone. Why? Because it removes oil. Any remaining oil will give the chemicals something to spend themselves on instead of peeling the skin. Then I put on the Jessners peel, first on my forehead. I have not had much success with peeling my forehead due to the texture of the skin, and it was going to peel this time. I then made a mistake and washed off the Jessners before applying the TCA. No no! The TCA was to be put on top of the Jessners. Next time I guess. Then I put 20% TCA over my forehead and left it for about a minute. This time at least my skin frosted. I did a good job between my eyebrows especially. Then I rinsed that off, first neutralizing with baking soda and water applied with cotton pads, and then rinsing with water. That went OK. It wasn't especially painful either.
Then I put Jessners on my nose, which is the most sun damaged, having blotches everywhere. I never even realized I had a blotched nose until I began doing peels. I always wondered why I looked like I have a tan. Well, as it turns out, I have 10% Mediterranean heritage, which was a surprise, but revealed when my sister decided to have DNA testing. OK, that explains why I would be dark compared to most Northern Europeans, but after my first peel, I was surprised to see a bit of pink showing on my nose. In fact, the tan I was seeing was mostly sun damage. It wouldn't fade or wash off. It will peel off, but at this point, I have areas that are pinker and some areas, like the tip of my nose, that are sort of ruddy. I even saw that I had two brown streaks running up both sides of my nose all the way from the tear ducts to the tip underneath of my nose! I would say they are breaking up, but I had always thought they were features of my nose. Also, these nose dark places made the shape of my nose appear different, and I don't think in a good way. Anyway, I have tried to focus on my nose and I did a fairly thorough job. I removed the Jessners before I applied the TCA again, but it frosted and then I neutralized and rinsed with water. Now the sides of my face. For some reason the sides are like the forehead, and just don't want to peel. They got the same treatment, but this time there wasn't any frosting and I gave up and went to the cheeks, upper lip, and chin. These areas usually frost easily and once again they frosted.
After that I went to my neck and décolletage, which I have been officially told by a physician to leave alone. This advise I ignored. They told me that the neck skin is much different from the facial skin and could be damaged. Well, I had by that time already done my neck without any damage. He said the same thing about my eyelids because the skin is much thinner there. I had done my eyelids too without damage but I did leave out my lower eyelids this time. I did my upper eyelids all the way to the eyelashes, but being extremely cautious. Oh that's dangerous! Well, I didn't pour the bottle into my eye. I have neutralizer right there in case of a mishap. Once on a previous peel I did get a drop in my eye, and neutralized it. It ached some the next day. End of story.
I have a large brown area on my neck, melasma, that looks like my neck is dirty, and I don't like at all. It must go. Then at the end I put 20% TCA on my lips.
And viola! My peel was done. I checked it out in the mirror and saw a lot of redness. Fine. Suddenly, about 10 minutes out, I saw a weird looking color at the nape of my neck! What happened?? Horrors! It looked like a yellow/purple bruise. I realized it was Jessners after it spends itself. It turns this color. I had not washed off the Jessners or the TCA in this spot. Oh my. It didn't hurt. Maybe it would be OK.
After this peel, over the next few days, my eyelids never appeared to peel at all, and neither did my forehead, the sides of my face or most of my neck. Hmmph. The whole thing didn't seem any more dramatic than my usual peels, except.... the area on my neck that I had missed rinsing off really turned out beautifully. I had managed to peel off the brown area and had my original skin tone. So, now I know.
I read some online articles about surgeons doing Jessners/TCA peels. They first put on Jessners, then without washing it off, applied 35% (!) TCA. They left it on four minutes. OK. I've never done 35% TCA, and really, I probably never will. But next time I do this, I will leave the Jessners on and put the TCA over it, I will use 25% TCA and I will leave it on probably four minutes, but not longer. That's my new plan.
Otherwise, it made a few minor improvements, peeling off a number of little brown spots. I don't like those little brown spots. I also have a number of little bumps on my forehead that are still there but smaller. And my complexion is less blotched with each peel. I didn't go as strong as I wanted because I'm tired of inching along like this. But all in all, it was another nice superficial peel. These superficial peels will eventually give one the same amazing results as a medium peel, but it takes a lot more of them, and if you only do them once a month, and then take six months off, it limits the number you can do, so I wanted to do a stronger peel. Well, next time. If my skin was in as good a shape to start with as it is after my peels efforts so far, I wouldn't bother to do anything to it, but knowing what can be accomplished has made me more determined to do the job right.
But the big question remains. Why is there a stigma against people, especially women, trying to rejuvenate one way and another? It's not even about age, because I had all these sun damaged areas by the time I was 20. Why not correct things? Besides that, peels could have saved me years of problems with acne as a teenager, and for less money than the medications at the corner drug store. Not only that, I have friends who had disfiguring acne, and have never had their skin peeled. Why? Why should one limp through life with skin damage? And face some stigma if they decide to try to correct it? I don't know. Hopefully I'll never find out. I know it's wrong.
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