Do The Tighten Up

No girl, this isn't yet another post on working out your mantrap. I'm talking about tightening your skin today with Fraxel laser resurfacing.

I went to see Valdosta's premier skin goddess today, Christy Howell, over at Azalea Center for Plastic Surgery. As you know we've been working on my skin for a few months now and I have to say my skin is now amazing. I have had to wear heavy foundation since my teens to cover acne discoloration and scarring, then melasma/sun damage, and to try to plaster my moon crater pores. Thanks to her and Obagi Nu-Derm products I'm down to a little mineral powder and concealer under the eyes. Plus loads of sunscreen. I have become positively vampiric about sunlight these days, I've gotten where I am covered head to toe in 45+. I guess I will be gardening this summer in the early evening because I am not going to undo all the good work she's done.

Anyway, she mentioned doing a series of Fraxel laser treatments last December and you know it doesn't take much to get me to try a product. Actually, she could just book the appointment if she wanted and give me a card with the time and date to arrive. I had been researching Fraxel for months and was curious about it. The research I did had not convinced me that Fraxel was a great procedure, actually most of the results posted were extremely negative. I saw tons of posts about fat loss afterward that aged the face even more, sagging, skin tone irregularity, scarring, ect. It seems some of the first non-ablative lasers were quite harsh, many people posted how painful the procedure was.

I had started seeing more positive feedback recently, so when Christy mentioned it I decided to try it for myself. Though my face is not as full as it was in my twenties, it still is fairly rounded so I was not as worried about ending up with a drawn look like some of the women complained about.

She cleaned my face first while we chatted about vaginal rejuvenation and crazy things our teens were up too. Then she applied a cooling gel to my face and hit me with the first blast of energy from the hand piece.

OOOOUUUCCHH! This is not comfortable at all, though you probably can get through it without sedatives. She gave me a lidocaine based numbing cream afterward, and some for my next session in a month. I took a benadryl as soon as I got home to take down the redness and swelling. It's been about two hours now since the procedure and my face looks almost back to normal now. It's slightly red and a little fuller looking than normal, but I don't look freaky.

Let me explain in more detail exactly what fractional non-ablative skin resurfacing is. Light pulses are delivered in little micro-columns of the skin. It feels like hot little needles jabbing at you. What this does is penetrate to the lowest levels of your dermis to cause the underlying collagen to coagulate or tighten up. It also encourages it to form new links, sort of like tearing down muscle tissue when you lift weights to build muscle size. As it's non-ablative, you have no heavy peeling or epidermal weeping like you do with CO2 lasers or more aggressive dermabrasion techniques. You need to do a series of 4 to 6 of them to get the best results, but don't expect to see immediate improvement. It does take months for the full benefit of the treatment to become apparent as the collagen layer heals and begins to rejuvenate.

Fractional skin resurfacing is fantastic for those years when you aren't quite at face or brow lift age, but are starting to sag slightly. I'm a firm believer in doing lots of little things to maintain yourself, as opposed to trying to repair a total wreck. You can use this laser on other areas besides your face and neck as well. I found several sites showing how to use the Palomar StarLux system to tighten skin on the abdomen, thighs, and buttocks. I would love to do this on my lower abdomen! I have great abs due to a high volume of sit-ups, but I have this pouch of loose skin and stretch marks just below my belly button. It doesn't show in a bikini but of course I hone right in on it anyway. Sometimes I pinch it just so I can watch it not bounce into place, the pinch just slowly sinks back into the wrinkled little pit it came from....ugh.

My skin is still a little warm to the touch, I did decide not to go to the gym today just because I know I'll be bright red after working out. I'll be scheduling this again next month, I may just even post up a picture or two!

P.S. This month's sale at Azalea Center for Plastic Surgery is on injectables. You know, the Holy Trinity: Botox, Juvederm, Restylane. It's 20% off, so get in there. After all February only has 28 days and we don't need the poor staff there to be run off their feet all month just because you waited 'til the last minute to book an appointment! Their website address with all their info is
http://www.azaleacenter.com/


Love and Kisses,

Cult Diva