Hi all.
I'm a 25 year old female and my skin has been the bane of my existence. I struggled with constant breakouts throughout my teens. Since going on birth control the breakouts are now pretty much under control, but I have a fair few icepick and boxcar scars remaining. It really takes a toll on my self esteem so I decided to go to a derm and seek treatment options. Tca cross was suggested for my particular scars and I was given tretinoin 0.5% and hydroquinone cream to prepare my skin for the procedure and prevent any potential hperpigmentation due to my skin type. I have never used tretinoin before so I started slow, i only applied it for 5 mins and washed it off... the next day my skin was extremely dry, red and irritated... flaking off. My skin texture changed and makeup didnt go on smoothly anymore. I also broke out a little, not sure if this was due to the tretinoin or not but I did have a few clogged pores before using it that may have been brought to the surface. Not a major breakout or anything but now I am terrified of using the tretinoin again... I do not want my skin to react badly and start breaking out again. The thing is the derm said if I had active breakouts he wouldnt be able to do the procedure anyway so I'm thinking I might go back to my old skincare regime until my skin settles down. I've been mostly clear for the past few years so I'm terrified of triggering new breakouts even if they're minor since I'm already sooo down on myself and am so afraif of more scarring. Anyway I'll keep you up to date, I'm excited about tca cross but am very scared of tretinoin now. I was also given doxycycline to prevent breakouts but not sure I want to take them in case they interfere with my bcp. The struggle continues 
Skip it. Retin A caused me some very deep nodular acne which resulted in scarring on my lower cheek, a place where I would hardly break out. Though It has improved quite a lot, I have ruled out any form of topical Vitamin A for life. Fuck that.
Still get TCA cross done though. Any pics to share?
There is typically a purging period when starting a retinoid, if you can ride it out its well-advised to do so as tretinoin also increases production of collagen, which is exactly what you want when trying to fill scars up. You don't have to use it but you will likely have better results faster if you do.
And yes, CROSS is awesome, when done properly and consistently it will refill those nasty pits up quite nicely.
Yes I have heard about the dreaded purging period haha... just really terrified of it to be honest... I'm not sure how bad the purge will be or how long it will take to clear up again... and I'm really anxious about getting my scars treated so I would hate to have to wait weeks or months longer to treat the scars... and have to deal with inital breakouts which may cause additional scarring. Also the texture of my skin appeared sooo much worse after using the tretinoin and I'm not sure if it improves with consistent use but I just really dont want to risk making it worse. The hydroquinone seems to be fine however I will continue with that up until my cross treatment and that will hopefully be enough to prevent any further hyperpigmentation. I'm getting it done by a specialist with a lot of experience with acne scarring and tca cross, so I feel I will be in good hands. Wish me luck haha
It gets worse before it gets better, people have been using tretinoin for well over 40 years and the general consensus is that the purging is worth it for the results that are eventually seen. And you should be moisturizing properly if you're using a retinoid, otherwise you'll end up redder and dryer than before, which will just make any acne even worse.
Well the tretinoin ended up giving me a pretty big breakout... now I'm left with a clusterfuck of red marks and possibly more scars... my skin is much worse off now. Sigh. Why would they prescribe something that causes an initial breakout right before you plan to do a scar treatment? I'm pretty upset about this to be honest. I'll let you know how I go with the derm in terms of getting tca cross done now. Also has anyone experienced breakouts from hydroquinone cream ? I'm trying to figure out what caused this crazy breakout. I figure its the tretinoin since that really seemed to irritate my skin a fair amount.
On 8/16/2015 at 11:13 PM, Monody said:Well the tretinoin ended up giving me a pretty big breakout... now I'm left with a clusterfuck of red marks and possibly more scars... my skin is much worse off now. Sigh. Why would they prescribe something that causes an initial breakout right before you plan to do a scar treatment? I'm pretty upset about this to be honest. I'll let you know how I go with the derm in terms of getting tca cross done now. Also has anyone experienced breakouts from hydroquinone cream ? I'm trying to figure out what caused this crazy breakout. I figure its the tretinoin since that really seemed to irritate my skin a fair amount.
Hi! Any update on your TCA cross?
