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Hello everyone!
It's been over 20years since I got my scars. I had deep cystic acne that responded to nothing. Huge cysts that needed lancing in a hospital as despite steroid injections and no plastics available so the sac was never removed. Accutane finally cleared it up but caused pretty bad mental health side effects and I had a lot of scarring.
For years I wouldn't look anyone in the eyes and walked with my head down feeling that it was better for people not to see the ugly. Ugh.
Then, I guess I got over myself. I stopped covering my face with make up and started living my life.
But over the years I've had moments in life when I've become obsessed with 'fixing' my skin and this site has always kept me grounded in the limitations of scar revision.
Still, I've tried every topical under the sun (also spent years in the sun without sunscreen as back in the day sunscreen used to trigger the cystic acne again) to help with the texture and pigmentation. All to no avail. Even tret for 2 years did nothing. Due to the sacs not being removed I *still* get smelly pus on my face depending on where I squeeze. Also due to the sacs, I can squeeze in one part and stuff comes out of another part. If I wipe/rub my face with my hand the smell often appears and that makes me pretty damn miserable and embarrassed. I know I need a round of low dose accutane but frankly I'm too scared of the side effects.
I'm about to undergo a major life change which has once again spurred me into researching acne scar treatment as a 'treat' to myself. Once again I get swayed by pretty pictures and think Yes! I will have beautiful skin and then I come here and get a reality check.
Anyhow. I digress. I'm currently looking at one of the 3 Drs listed above. I've got rolling, boxcar and ice pick scars. I had a subscision and volite treatment on holiday a few years back and my skin looked great for a few months but then went back to meh.
The first two pics are of my skin today. I've picked up some hyperpigmentation in the last few months mainly on the left side.
Previous two pictures were taken in October of 2021.
I'm hoping to get subscision, TCA CROSS and maybe fillers? I had 6 rounds of microneedling back in 2018 and it did nothing for me.
Has anyone been to one the docs above? I've read some disturbing stuff about Dr. H on here but I also know that people with bad experiences are more likely to post than those with good experiences. I can't seem to find any info about Mr. Al-Ayoubi.
Micronedling is a waste of money. Tretinoin won't help more moderate or severe scarring it just helps coloration or superficial texture sometimes. I would be extremely wary about TCA cross and if you do try it do 1-2 spots only first not like 10 or 20 because if it makes it worse you don't want any part of it on every spot.
I totally understand your mental stress it's entirely understandable for sure. As for doctors I don't really know which are your best bet there are self-described 'experts' like Rullan in CA or Dr. Lim In Australia, but if I were making suggestions I would probably try seeing more of an expert because probably a few things might be needed. In the end you're going to get nowhere without a ablative procedure like a very aggressive dermabrasion or a very aggressive laser, even if there are risks.
Yep, despite all the reviews it was a complete waste of money. I wouldn't have minded so much if it had helped the pigmentation or overall texture and tone but it did nothing.
I was using the tret for pigmentation and texture/fine lines bit after two years of 0.1 there was no change.
I definitely wouldn't try TCA on myself! I had heard it was good for icepick scars though?
I'm in the UK and so the doctors you mentioned are not a possibility although of course I've heard great things about Dr.Lim.
I agree that I might need a variety of treatments but had been hoping to avoid lasers.
I'm about to undergo a major surgery and it's really triggering me to fix my skin. I feel like my insides are so ugly (as in they cause me so much pain that I need to have bits removed for good) that I want to make myself look nice on the outside if that makes sense? Maybe I'd be better off going back to accepting my scars and just getting Picosure for the pigmentation once the summer is over
4 hours ago, dreaming78 said:Yep, despite all the reviews it was a complete waste of money. I wouldn't have minded so much if it had helped the pigmentation or overall texture and tone but it did nothing.
I was using the tret for pigmentation and texture/fine lines bit after two years of 0.1 there was no change.
I definitely wouldn't try TCA on myself! I had heard it was good for icepick scars though?
I'm in the UK and so the doctors you mentioned are not a possibility although of course I've heard great things about Dr.Lim.
I agree that I might need a variety of treatments but had been hoping to avoid lasers.
I'm about to undergo a major surgery and it's really triggering me to fix my skin. I feel like my insides are so ugly (as in they cause me so much pain that I need to have bits removed for good) that I want to make myself look nice on the outside if that makes sense? Maybe I'd be better off going back to accepting my scars and just getting Picosure for the pigmentation once the summer is over
TCA is ambiguous some people say it's great others I've seen widens/deepens. And I've seen in person it widen/deepen a few scars so it's ambiguous, unpredictable, sort of unclear, that's my opinion. Others may have different perceptions of it. I tell people try 1-2 first to see how your scars/skin react don't do 10 or 15 to "save money" definitely not worth the risk.
As for accepting yourself, sure if you can but it's definitely harder because of society. I actually have no problem with my scars, it's other people or social stuff or a-holes I can't stand.
As for things that will help it's really either find an expert to do like 2-4 procedures since it's a more complicated case (ie various scars rather than a lot of the same), or gamble on a very heavy ablation on at least certain areas basically. I don't know if it's worth it presumably because at a certain age we are sorta resigned to it as you sort of suggest. But of course we all want to try whatever we can if there's a way too.
I mean I'm not a super expert but maybe even punch excision might be an option, then some ablative thing afterwards. Some of those little nicks look a bit deeper so maybe punch excision might be your best bet. Then you might want to pursue a heavy ablation to blend it all. Like I said, probably you need to send a lot of pics to an expert if you really want to see what can be done. I don't know of any "experts" in UK I only know of Lim and Rullan from these boards.
My heart goes out to all of you. Truth is most of you are way more beautiful on the inside than 80% of the a-holes I see in my life with so-called perfect skin.
From what I have seen of Dr H online (and of course full disclosure what I'm saying is based entirely on his social media feed, etc) he seems pretty keen to always use the fully ablative laser in cases where the patient may instead benefit from TCA cross. His statements are that he prefers 'getting maximal improvement in the shortest period of time'. This attitude I feel compromises results of patients who may benefit from this procedure.
I acknowledge TCA cross is a controversial topic in regards to widening of scars, etc as discussed above and I can't comment on this front nor am I a scar expert who can say exactly when TCA is appropriate but wanted to throw this observation out there.
9 hours ago, dirigo39 said:Dr h in Beverly hills?
Nope Dr. H consults in London. There's a post about him receiving a warning for not providing proper care to a patient.
9 hours ago, harmlessboy1441 said:TCA is ambiguous some people say it's great others I've seen widens/deepens. And I've seen in person it widen/deepen a few scars so it's ambiguous, unpredictable, sort of unclear, that's my opinion. Others may have different perceptions of it. I tell people try 1-2 first to see how your scars/skin react don't do 10 or 15 to "save money" definitely not worth the risk.
As for accepting yourself, sure if you can but it's definitely harder because of society. I actually have no problem with my scars, it's other people or social stuff or a-holes I can't stand.
As for things that will help it's really either find an expert to do like 2-4 procedures since it's a more complicated case (ie various scars rather than a lot of the same), or gamble on a very heavy ablation on at least certain areas basically. I don't know if it's worth it presumably because at a certain age we are sorta resigned to it as you sort of suggest. But of course we all want to try whatever we can if there's a way too.
I mean I'm not a super expert but maybe even punch excision might be an option, then some ablative thing afterwards. Some of those little nicks look a bit deeper so maybe punch excision might be your best bet. Then you might want to pursue a heavy ablation to blend it all. Like I said, probably you need to send a lot of pics to an expert if you really want to see what can be done. I don't know of any "experts" in UK I only know of Lim and Rullan from these boards.
My heart goes out to all of you. Truth is most of you are way more beautiful on the inside than 80% of the a-holes I see in my life with so-called perfect skin.
Thank you so much for your kind words harmlessboy. The reason I've never had anything done before is that I'm just too scared to make it worse and the cost of treatment here in UK is crazy. I've also heard mixed things about TCA CROSS and seen on this site how it can make things worse before they get better so I'll definitely be cautious about it. I really don't want to to down the ablative laser road. Dr. Anil was a student of Dr. Chu here in the UK and he seems to do basic treatment (TCA, subscision etc) but let's see.
I guess I'm just freaking out a bit about this major surgery that I'm going to have and it's really triggering me to do something about my skin. Reading these boards at length again made me realise that id need a lot of work done and tbh the cost is not something I can really afford. I think I need to reconsider going back on a low dose of accutane and then maybe Picosure for the pigmentation. I'd probably be better off spending the money I'd use for treatment on just doing nice things for myself.
It's so awful to be a woman and an older one at that. Society places so much value on perfect skin and less value on being a good human 
5 hours ago, SweetLemon said:From what I have seen of Dr H online (and of course full disclosure what I'm saying is based entirely on his social media feed, etc) he seems pretty keen to always use the fully ablative laser in cases where the patient may instead benefit from TCA cross. His statements are that he prefers 'getting maximal improvement in the shortest period of time'. This attitude I feel compromises results of patients who may benefit from this procedure.
I acknowledge TCA cross is a controversial topic in regards to widening of scars, etc as discussed above and I can't comment on this front nor am I a scar expert who can say exactly when TCA is appropriate but wanted to throw this observation out there.
Hi SweetLemon. The more I see and hear of Dr H the more I realise he is not for me. I definitely don't want harsh lasers on my skin and I'm not keen on that being the first option for treatment as my scars are so deep. Punch excision might be a better option but I've not found anyone here that can do that. I appreciate you replying though and am definitely taking heed of the TCA advice everyone is giving me