WHy did you quick so early? I was told it could take up to 5 visits at $500 a pop. I never did it but still contemplating. I am asian too but have darker skin so I am cautious.

updated///

Update//

Its been about 4 weeks.
My face looks...
I guess they call this the orange peel look?

But I looked like this with my previous two laser sessions, except obviously its much more obvious this time around, because my laser was intense.
My face is slowly lightening up...and my eyes are much darker...so i kinda look like a raccoon, but its also getting lighter so Im not too bothered.

The good
My scars all seemed to have improved a lil bit
(or it could be that my face is still a bit swollen.....)

The bad
One problem is that my skin is thickening on one of the scars..
So i rub oil (which the derm office gave to me) in that area to smooth it out.

I also ordered an EGF serum to help.
I've been using an egf serum..but I felt it was time I tried something of more high quality than those 30 dollar ones..
Hopefully it'll arrive this week?

Was it fraxel repair?

Glycolic peels have been the best thing I have found to help the "orange peel texture".

5 hours ago, QuanHenry said:

Was it fraxel repair?

Glycolic peels have been the best thing I have found to help the "orange peel texture".

Yes it is.
But the first two of my laser treatments were not.

I'm going to wait at least 3 months before I consider peels at the moment.

So it has been a full year and I was looking at my skin and reflecting...
and remembered the post I made here.

Before laser
Always hid my face with my hair.
When I felt really conscious of my skin, I was antisocial,
didn'tspeak to anyone
and didn't want to go outside.

The first few months after laser
It was pretty bad the first 4 months. My face was dry and leathery and I completely regretted doing the laser treatment.
No joke...it was really leather skin..any type of makeup covering just sat on top of my skin.
I constantly hid my face and rarely went out. I didn't like to look at people and pretty much became
even MOREantisocial which I didn't think was possible.
Pimples...need I say more?

NOW
I'm social and have taken initiative to go up to people. Do I still have scarring?
Yes. Very much so.
Do I still avoid looking at my skin in harsh bathroom lighting wherever I go?
Yes. Very much so.
I have good days where Ithink my skin looks pretty nice
I also havebad days where I don't like my skin..and I have come to accept that as normal.
I tie my hair back all the time, even on my bad days.
I am still verycritical of my skin.
My acne has lessened a lot.

Improvements?
My skin has improved. The scars are still there but my skin texture has gotten better and I'm glad I went through with thelaser. I don't believe I would have got the improvement with a less aggressive laser procedure.
But who knows whether my skin skin texture will go back to it's prelaser face another year from now.
I really don't know if the improvements I see is fully permanent or just temporary

Would I do the same procedure?
No. The amount of downtime I had was not expected at all...my doctor told me to expect a downtime of 3 weeks...
I have come to accept my skin is just one of those types that doesn't react well...so I definitely need to be careful.

Regret
One thing I really regret is not understanding my skin very well especially during the post laser.
My skin lacked complete moisture and I only learned later how to better add moisture back into the skin

One advice I would give to people who have gone through what I did and end up with orange peel, or
who just have thick skin that is dry
1.Apply a product that has hyaluronic acid.
2.Then Apply a moisturizing type serum and essence
2. Use a thin texturefacelotion.
3.Apply an occlusive cream
4. Apply aquaphor/vaseline.
While vaseline and aquaphor can prevent moisture from escaping skin, it doesn't give any moisture to the skin.
What I mean by thinface lotion is lotion that can absorb well into the skin. My skin was thick and leathery, so my skin didn't absorb my skincare products (cetaphil,aquaphor, and facial oil) at all, it just sat on top of my skin. My skincare needed an extra boost of moisture, but I assumed my expensive facial oil was all i needed..dead wrong.
I applied entire goops of cetaphil lotion and facial oil on my face and my skin would still be dry. The texture of cetaphil was too thick to absorb into my skin. And facial oil played more as an occlusive cream.

My skin isn't leathery anymore, but it has always been thick.
I still do the steps above, but I use aquaphor only once in a while when my skin is really dry. And I also use face mask sheets once in a while when I need it. But only MOISTURIZING MASK SHEETS.
Having a good skincare routine boosts my confidence because my skin texture looks better and acne scars are less noticeable to me.

maybe I'll update this again another year from now...

Update 1 year and 8months after Laser.

I would say I tried my best to take care of my skin as much as possible post op.
But I was looking at my skin today...
and I can confirm that my skin still has orange peel texture in the front bulbous cheek area.
My skin hasredness around thecheek, my skin is blotchy and minor pimples give me redness.
Walking fast makes my cheeks flush badly.
I Have big pores all overmy face (particularly nose and cheeks) that my foundation cant cover up

The area right below my eye (the eye bag area) is textured/bumpy and wrinkled. (The laser was too strong in that area and did not heal well.)
BTW I'm in my 20s.

Now for the good
The scars don't bother me as much, but maybe its because I'm now focused on the orange peel and rough skin? I don't know it def does not feel Like a win/win...

Laser worked best for me when it was not too strong. Reminder that laser does not work the same for everyone.

I am definitely considering going for another laser treatment next year with the doctor I had for the first two laser treatments.

Flushing and redness are taken care of with vascular laser which only works on the reds, aka v-beam, IPL, Excel V, 1064nm

For them to truly get rid of orange peel they must get under the texture. This is done with erbium also called profractional laser in non fractional mode. CO2 if deep enough - this is not my favorite, a deep sedated peel works very well (TCA / Phenol) and has less side effects than laser. I believe some of the Fraxel 1550 laser are for texture as well Clear and Brillant is the weakest, and take a few treatments.

At your age you don't want to do to many harsh lasers as they have side effects as you state above. If you wish you could do medium strength tca peels - instructions first post in scar solutions sub or a Med spa can do this. You need several of them spread out when you have time, this works really well for skin texture.