I’ve gone through skin issues my entire life. As soon as I hit puberty, my skin was pretty much f*cked. Luckily, I’ve gone down a path that has worked for my skin and it continues to improve. If this is your first time reading any of my skincare posts, I definitely recommend reading previous posts. Here you can read about my experience on accutane about 4 years ago. Then I also share a post about my normal skincare routine and the lasers and treatments I do regularly, including a quick breakdown about my first profractional experience.
The first time I did the Sciton profractional laser, I only did it on part of my face and I didn’t share a ton of my experience in that post. About a year later, I decided it was time to go through the process again, but this time on my entire face. And today I wanted to tell you about the full process, why it sucks, but also why I can’t wait to do it again. I strongly believe in this laser treatment and after doing it only 2 times, I’ve already seen a huge difference in my skin. But before I get into that, let’s break it all down!
What The F*ck Is Profractional?!
A profractional laser treatment is laser that resurfaces the skin to help minimize wrinkles and pigmentation and helps improve the skins tone and texture. It’s great for treating scars, wrinkles, fine lines and sun damage such as skin discoloration. The profractional laser penetrates deep into the skin, removing the top layer. This triggers the body’s natural response to heal wounds, which in turn stimulates new collagen and elastin production leaving you with smoother, softer, more even skin. And even after the skin has healed in a week or so, it continues to produce new collagen and just gets better with time, up to 6 months after the treatment!
What Is The Treatment and Recovery Like?
The day of the treatment, your esthetician will give you a topical numbing cream about an hour before. I’ve heard from others that they don’t think the profractional treatment is painful, but I DO NOT feel that way. The first time I did profractional, I was quite surprised how painful it was and it took me about a year to get the balls to go back and do it again. That being said, I contacted a friend who is a nurse and she was able to give me a nerve block in my face to help with the pain the second time around. So not only did I have numbing cream, but I also had a nerve block where I could barely feel around my mouth and cheeks which definitely helped. Let me tell you, I looked realllll cute slobbering my way through the treatment.
Depending on the areas your esthetician treats and treatment settings, it can take 15 to 30 minutes. I think my treatment took about 20 minutes for my entire face. And yes, it was painful even with the numbing and nerve block. There’s just no getting around it if your esthetician is going deep with the treatment settings.
After the treatment, the healing process is pretty rapid compared to other treatments such as chemical peels. With chemical peels, it just gets worse with time before it gets better, but with profractional, it gets better each day. Throughout the first day of treatment, the skin is swollen, red, and may bleed. This is by far the worst day because it’s uncomfortable and feels like you just have a huge open wound. You won’t want to leave the house and I recommend sleeping with a towel on your pillow because your face will be oozing a bit. Right away, my esthetician applied Venus Biocel which has a similar feel to petroleum jelly but has anti-inflammatory ingredients to help the healing process. For about 5 days, I used this Venus Biocel every few hours, as soon as my skin became dry. The whole point is to keep it moisturized so it can heal faster. By day 5, I was using Venus Post Treatment Recovery Kit which includes Renewal Cleanser, Stem Cell Therapy Serum, Stem Cell Recovery Complex, and Stem Cell Therapy Accelerator and I used that for about a week. These products are incredibly helpful when it comes to the healing process and speeding it up. I didn’t use these products the first time I did profractional and I definitely noticed a difference with the healing!
After the first day where you’re a bit uncomfortable, the next morning is a little easier after you wash your face and remove the excess blood. I was DEFINITELY still swollen on the second day but the skin doesn’t feel like an open wound by then. Below is a day by day photo collage of the healing process. Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, then Day 6 with light makeup on. By Day 3, I was able to put on makeup and go out in public even though I was still brownish-red. Luckily, I don’t give AF so I don’t mind being in public, but if you get embarrassed easily, you may want to stay in until Day 4 when makeup can really cover up some of the lines from the laser and the redness.
What Have You Noticed The Most From Profractional?
When you get to about day 3, you feel like your skin may never heal…even though it’s only been 3 days. I definitely recommend doing day by day photos because this was a great reminder that my skin was healing much faster than I thought. After the first week, I instantly noticed the fine lines around my mouth and some of the icepick scars on my cheeks had reduced or almost disappeared. And many of the dark spots on my forehead that pop up as soon as I hit the sunlight had completely disappeared. After your treatment, your skin looks and feels like you’ve slept on sandpaper. And even after your skin has healed and looks normal again, you can still see some of the sandpaper look if you see the skin close up. It’s been a couple months since I did my last treatment and the skin still looks a bit texturized which means it’s still producing new collagen and rebuilding. Like I said above, the skin continue to heal and rebuild new collagen for up to 6 months so it’s continually improving!
I’m doing profractional treatments for 3 reasons:
- To keep my skin looking younger and smoother with time (because genetics aren’t doing it for me)
- To improve my acne scarring from the cystic acne I went through before accutane
- To improve fine lines and wrinkles
And even though I think this treatment is painful and it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to have your life at a standstill for a couple days, I THINK IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. I plan on doing it every 6 months which means I’ll be doing it again in the spring and I’m so excited to see what my third experience looks like! These photos below are about 4 or 5 years apart. The first one is before I started accutane and the second one was taken just a few weeks ago and I couldn’t be happier with the difference. My skin is smoother, softer and the scars are continually getting better with time!
How Much Does Profractional Cost?
Depending on the size of the treatment area, profractional can cost anywhere $500-$1800 and I’m sure it can be more expensive depending on the area you are in.
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At the end of the day, you have to find an esthetician you trust and who knows what they are doing. I’ve gone to Shawn Haviland (Cherry Hills Facial Aesthetics 720-459-7960) for a few years now and I could not be more thankful to have found her. If you are not in the Denver area and you are trying to find an esthetician near you, she recommends finding a technician that has state required laser training in addition to training from Sciton along with at least 3 years experience. I found my esthetician by simply asking a friend who had beautiful skin who she went to. Word of mouth can be the most helpful sometimes. But if you are in the Denver area, CALL SHAWN and prepare to have your skin and life changed! She even offers 50% off your first profractional laser if you mention that I sent you!!
Because of this laser, my skin has become more even, smoother and many of the pigmentation issues I deal with have completely gone away! I remember years ago when I was dealing with cystic acne just wishing and praying that I could walk outside without makeup on and feel confident and I am finally to that point! But it took hard f*cking work. I couldn’t just go the hippy, paleo, organic way. Yes, I had to work on my diet and I had to drink more water than I knew possible, but I also had to turn to modern medicine and treatments to truly see a difference. And I’m so glad I went that route.
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below!! I really hope this post helps you with your own skin care journey in some way!
Thanks for sharing, I’m on day three of my second procedure and found this helpful. Do you know how deep they went with yours? They did 750 on mine and I feel like you healed so much faster than I am. I’ve been doing day by day pics and I didn’t realize how much it is healing until I compared them.
i honestly have no clue at this point, i know she went a different depths throughout my face, so I honestly don’t remember!
Hi there! Your guidance on this process is exactly what happens. I had my my 2nd laser treatment yesterday. I was very red like you on the day of treatment with little swelling but overnight my face swelled up like a balloon despite sleeping elevated and icing throughout the night. So today is day 2 and my entire face is as swollen and tight as I think it can get. I am documenting each day like you did knowing each day will different as the healing occurs. I know the results outweigh the short time period it takes to heal. Thank you for posting your journey. It definitely will help others who are trying to decide whether to have Profractional done. I say “Go for it” ! You won’t regret it!
awesome!! glad i could help in some small way!
How long after were you able to shower? What about washing your face as normal and with your normal products…how long did you wait for to do those things?
i think i showered after 3 days. and i washed my face with the wash my esthetician gave me and didn’t go back to normal products until probably 2 weeks after the treatment!
What a great post, and what a fabulous before and after photo! I’m so happy for you. I also did accutane, and I’ll be doing profractional this week for light acne scarring and anti-aging. I’m so glad the acne is gone forever!
thanks Kristen! hope your appointment goes well!
You are funny. I had a slight chuckle about the pain and the nerve block making you cute and slobbery 🙂 Kind of like visiting the dentist, right?
The only concern I’d have about a treatment like this is that a doctor should be on board with it. The Profractional laser is a name brand version of an Er:yag (Ebium Yag). While it is fractional, which is better than ablative, it can still be quite intense. Your face turned out BEAUTIFUL (reminds of Kate Middleton!). But in some types of skin, going too strong would cause hyperpigmentation and other issues. So if that happens, you’d want a doctor to have led the treatment, even if a laser technician is the one who does the lasering. Just my two cents. And yes, my husband is a doctor and we run a laser clinic (thought I should disclose that).
I’m glad your aesthetician was knowledgeable and is recommending high standards of training, regardless!
If people are looking for a less-intense treatment, know that Er:Yag can be done as a ‘laser peel’ (like a mild exfoliant, similar to microdermabrasion). They can also opt for hot microneedling. Comparative to the treatment you had would be Fraxel (another brand name, but uses a different type of laser), and CO2 skin resurfacing (stronger than Er:Yag, which you had).
Hope this helps!
Such a good post. I get this every 2 years (NYC is super expensive $2500-$5000 depending on the laser), and it’s great. The downtime stinks (but it’s only about 5 days) and the treatment is painful for sure. One of the three times, the doctor put me under it was so MUCH better. But I would recommend it 100%. It absolutely takes years off.
Hi – I have been taking spironolactone for 4 years and have had absolutely no side effects! The only thing I can think of is dryer skin. I have had acne my entire life, starting in 1st grade. My mom had terrible acne and has large scars all over her face from it. In my 50’s I even got cystic acne too. My dermatologist put me on spironlactone and seriously I barely get a pimple. Complete game changer. So inexpensive and no side effects for me. I will continue to use for as long as I can. Covered by my insurance as well.
i was on spironolactone for 3-4 years, as well. i finally decided that i wanted to figure out the root cause of my acne instead of being an a prescription medication the rest of my life. we often use medication as a bandaid instead of treating the source. i’ve finally gotten to the bottom of why i have acne and no longer have to be on a daily medication! it’s really freeing, especially knowing i’m not on anything!
Is day 1 the day of the laser or the first day after the laser? Is the pain bad enough to keep one from working or it’s just the cosmetic appearance? How does the pain compare to microneedling?
day 1 is the day of the laser. if your work is at home, you should be fine. i just wouldn’t go into an office or anywhere in public since it’s an open wound that could easily get infected. and the pain (in my opinion) is FAR worse than microneedling. i find microneedling annoying, but profractional is just straight painful
Can you tell me about the nerve block that you received for your treatment? I only received a topical for mine, and I was in so much pain that I repeatedly jumped and ended up with the laser in my hairline. I kept thinking “how do people go back multiple times for this?” It felt like my face was being burned off with a hot iron. It was unbearable. They never offered a nerve block or any other pain remedy, only a topical. I’m guessing this isn’t normal?
it is not a normal offering. i have a friend who is a nurse so she did it to me. and i can tell you, it definitely didn’t help as much as i would like. that shit is so insanely painful, in my opinion! it’s pretty brutal. but it only gets better with time!
Hi
What kind of laser they used? It’s a co2 laser? Or erbium
Thank you
i have no idea! it’s a sciton laser so you can check their site out to see!