Fall Is Laser Season — 5 Beauty Goals to Start on Now

Posted on: October 2nd, 2019 by sbatbold

This is the ideal time of year to seek laser treatment — whether to even out your complexion, smooth and rejuvenate skin, or get rid of unwanted fat. After treatment, skin will be highly photosensitive and the healing process may lead to several days to a few weeks of “downtime.” The short, cool days of Fall make it easier to stay indoors and covered up. By the time warm weather returns, your treatment results should be ready for the big reveal!

#1 – Refine skin texture and tone

Clear+Brilliant is a great laser for anyone with signs of sun damage and aging — or younger patients looking to prevent them! It’s particularly good at improving dull, rough skin, large pores and light acne scarring, as well as fine lines and elasticity. With the Permea handpiece, your provider can also use Clear+Brilliant to lighten dark spots and even out your complexion.

Clear+Brilliant works in your skin’s upper layers, creating millions of microscopic treatment zones to generate new cells and collagen. Even though it doesn’t remove the outer layers of skin directly as an ablative laser does, you should plan for a possible day or two of mild peeling and irritation after each session. Three to five short Clear+Brilliant sessions, spaced a couple months apart, are usually enough to achieve smoother skin that looks and feels fresher and creamier.

#2 – Remove deeper damage and wrinkles

Choose from a wide array of lasers to effectively treat mild to more severe damage from sun, acne and aging anywhere on your face or body — even your hands.

The Fraxel Dual laser has the unique benefit of two separate treatment modes that target different skin layers by using different laser frequencies. The 1550 frequency penetrates deep into the dermal layers of the skin, to target aging skin concerns, such as wrinkles or acne scarring, while the 1927 frequency targets the epidermal skin layers to improve skin tone, texture, and smoothness.

If it’s more extreme skin damage that you want to correct, CO2 laser resurfacing may be your best bet. Ablative laser treatment removes the top layers of the skin, which leads to dramatic improvement but a few weeks of downtime. One can expect crusting and oozing of the skin. Nonablative laser treatments heat up the deeper skin tissue without removing the surface. While this leads to significantly less downtime to heal, it will take more treatments to see improvement. CO2 lasers deliver treatment that is fully ablative, fractionally (partially) ablative or, with the Ultrapulse CO2 laser or the Fraxel Repair laser, ablative in short pulses. Consult an experienced, trained professional to ensure that you’re treated using the right device, settings and application method. Depending on the severity of your original skin condition, it may take from 3 to 10 days before you’re fully ready to go public.

#3 – Say buh-bye to unsightly veins

Are you one of the 50% of individuals aged 18 years or older with vascular (blood-vessel) lesions? Laser them away!

Modern lasers, like the Excel V and Vbeam, return skin to a healthy, uniform color by precisely targeting abnormal blood vessels and/or pigment and heating them away. They can lighten the appearance of anything from diffuse facial redness and rosacea, to spider veins and broken capillaries.

Entrust an experienced board-certified dermatologist to assess your exact skin condition and apply the best technology and treatment plan for the job. If laser will be most effective, you can expect one to three 2-15 minute sessions four weeks apart.  Normally veins and discoloration will look worse for up to 14 days, before beginning to fade away.

The sooner you start the process, the more likely you’ll be excited to show some skin by sunny season!

#4 – Freeze away fat

Most of us have a stubborn-fat zone, typically under the chin, on the thighs or upper arms, or in the belly or “love handle” area. Wherever yours may be, there’s a device for that!

CoolSculpting is a great option if you want to remove fat permanently without downtime, incisions or anesthesia. This technology destroys about 23% of your fat cells during each session of sustained freezing, while leaving your skin and nerves healthy and intact. You should be able to reach your goals with two 35 minute treatments, spaced 2-3 months apart. After each treatment, you may experience some mild swelling, numbness and bruising for a couple weeks. But in as few as three weeks, your CoolSculpting results will start to show and accumulate for two to four more months.

Alternatively, remove fat cells quickly and permanently with just one session of laser liposuction using Smartlipo TPX. Also called laser lipolysis or laser lipo, the procedure entails inserting a tiny laser under the skin to liquefy fat, then a tiny tube to suck the fat out.

Laser lipo requires only local anesthesia and takes roughly one hour per area. It may cause  bruising and swelling for a couple weeks. However, you should also see nearly immediate fat loss that continues to accrue over the next two to six months. Additionally, the laser spurs new collagen generation, so you may notice your skin becoming firmer.

#5- Remove hair

Planning to hit the beach or pool when sunny weather returns? Spend less time shaving, more time enjoying yourself!

Get rid of unwanted hair permanently with laser hair removal. The procedure uses a specialized device, like the Lumenis LightSheer or Candela GentleMax to prevent hairs from growing by damaging their germinative cells at the root. After just a couple short sessions, spaced three to eight weeks apart, you should start to notice less hair. After three to seven sessions, skin begins to feel as hairless as a baby’s bottom.

Just remember that it does take multiple treatments, so start now to toss out your depilatory wax and razor by resort season.

Get started with laser

Take advantage of fall’s “indoor weather” to pursue those long-standing beauty goals with laser treatments. You’ll make it easier on yourself to stay inside for some quality recovery time. Then, when sunny season returns, your beautiful results should be ready to flaunt.

Just bear in mind that lasers are powerful, advanced high-tech instruments. Trust your treatment only to a technically-trained expert. Also remember that, even if it doesn’t cause peeling, laser does make your skin more photosensitive. Avoid the sun, and always remember the sunscreen!