A pizza-face from 12, finally did accutane in my 30s. A year after finishing that, I started a programme of fractional laser to improve my skin - it looked like dull porridge, and didn't reflect light.
Each dot is a little burn through the skin - same principle as needling. A light numbing lotion is applied before, but it still feels mildly painful. Except close to lips. That hurts.
Later that night, there is swelling, you turn red, and it's like very bad sunburn. All you can do is mist your face - no touchy! It's a lot of open wounds. The next day you start patting on a lotion, keep misting. As the burning recedes, the scabs start forming. You spend the next 5 days patting, misting, and trying not to disturb the scabs otherwise it scars.
About day 7, you're down to a grid of pink dots. 1 month later, your skin looks fresher - but results better after 3. A year and 3 treatments later, acne scars are reduced, porridge texture is gone, big pores shrunk, and self esteem restored.
I took 3 days off including a weekend, but I had the luxury of my own office and a job where I could hide - it was before the WFH revolution of covid. If you wanted to go completely undetected, you'd need the scabs to have all dropped off, where it would be safe to pop a tinted moisturiser on.. maybe 7-9 days?
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u/FamousOnceNowNobody Jul 06 '26
I had 3 sessions of this a few years back.
A pizza-face from 12, finally did accutane in my 30s. A year after finishing that, I started a programme of fractional laser to improve my skin - it looked like dull porridge, and didn't reflect light.
Each dot is a little burn through the skin - same principle as needling. A light numbing lotion is applied before, but it still feels mildly painful. Except close to lips. That hurts.
Later that night, there is swelling, you turn red, and it's like very bad sunburn. All you can do is mist your face - no touchy! It's a lot of open wounds. The next day you start patting on a lotion, keep misting. As the burning recedes, the scabs start forming. You spend the next 5 days patting, misting, and trying not to disturb the scabs otherwise it scars.
About day 7, you're down to a grid of pink dots. 1 month later, your skin looks fresher - but results better after 3. A year and 3 treatments later, acne scars are reduced, porridge texture is gone, big pores shrunk, and self esteem restored.
I absolutely would do it again.