Ashley’s CO2 Laser Skin Resurfacing Experience
Welcome, beautiful people!
In our last newsletter, we addressed a few general concerns that people commonly have about aesthetics. This time, we’re going to show you the recovery process of a CO2 facial treatment. This is one of our most effective laser skin resurfacing treatments.
An official introduction is due - My name is Ashley. I’m the Practice Manager and a co-founder here at Valar Aesthetics and I wanted to share my CO2 journey with you all! I decided to have CO2 done for my face because of my acne scarring along my cheeks and forehead, but it helped with a lot more! I recorded my journey on my cell phone, to show what it looks like every day or two of recovery.
BEFORE:
So - you can see my pitted acne scarring on both of my cheeks, large pores on my forehead, some fine lines, and overall general poor tone and texture of my skin. Prior to having this CO2 treatment done, I’d had 2 light microneedling treatments only on my cheeks. Those reduced my scaring by about 10% visually. This is our starting point.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER TREATMENT:
My face a few hours after getting my first CO2 skin resurfacing procedure
So this is a few hours after treatment. You can see the slight grid pattern on my forehead from the laser, but otherwise it looks essentially normal. I have a layer of Vaseline on my face, which acts as an occlusive barrier to protect my skin because we’ve just caused intentional heat damage to stimulate collagen production in my skin.
The treatment itself took 20-30 minutes, but I didn’t feel much besides a sort of scratching sensation of the laser beam moving across my skin . This is because at Valar, we want to ensure maximum comfort and we’ll apply a numbing agent to your skin for 45 minutes prior to the procedure.
DAY 1 (The next day)
This is the very next day, and you can see I’m a little swollen! I slept elevated at about a 45 degree angle that night to reduce the amount of swelling that I would have. The redness is more apparent and so is the grid pattern from the laser overlap. This day and the following day were the worst appearing days as far as swelling and redness go. It never hurt, but certainly got dry. This is why for the first several days after CO2 treatment, it is recommended to apply a layer of Vaseline or Aquaphor every hour or so. You also don’t wash your face for the first day or two. The skin is very sensitive and dry after CO2, so we are being very gentle and only using our healing ointment at this stage.
DAY 2
Day 2 my swelling went down but the grid pattern on my right cheek darkened. The grid pattern on my right cheek didn’t as much, and I think that’s because I slept on my right side and that side got much dryer than my left side, resulting in the darker and rougher feeling grid pattern there. No pain and I’m still applying Vaseline generously. I still haven’t washed my face.
DAY 3
On Day 3, I don’t really have any swelling. I’m applying just a thin layer of Vaseline every hour or two, and you can see some flaking of my skin, particularly the grid pattern is flaking off. It is also itching at this point quite a bit. I could have used a little bit of hydrocortisone cream, but instead I suffered through it. Keeping it moist helped with the itchiness.
DAY 4-6
On Day 4, most of the grid pattern had flaked off and mostly I’m just at the pink face stage. I’m using a gentle cleanser now and my regular moisturizer with sunscreen and only needing to use some Vaseline a few times per day, when I notice my skin feels particularly dry or starts to feel itchy.
DAY 7
By the week marker, I’m back to my normal skin routine and all the grid pattern has flaked off. My skin feels super smooth and I can tell the tone and texture has greatly improved. I’m starting to get a bunch of compliments on my skin.
DAY 10
By day 10, my redness had resolved and I was going about my daily business per usual, but with much better skin.
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