Good luck. I'm thinking of getting Fraxel soon. I thought the down time was 3-4 days. How much did the procedure cost? I don't expect miracles as far as scars, but for hyperpigmentation and overall tone, I think it can do some good.

Good luck. I hope you can keep all of us updated in any progress you see in the coming months.

LOL...I didn't do repair but tattoo gun needling which you would think would not look that bad after but the PS IMO went crazy aggressive on my mild scars and I came out like a burn victim too!! I TOTALLY know how you feell!!! The extremely self conscious drive home, running in/out of the elevator, sneaking around the house so others can't see you, looking at the mirror every 15 minutes thinking maybe you'll look better now but then sulking afterwards. It's a smart thing you took a month off of work b/c I totally underestimated my recovery based on others on this forum who've all seem to recover within 1 week. It's soo hard to predict exactly how long it takes for YOU to heal, so overestimating will be helpful. Some words of advice: EAT!!! (Have a healthy variety- not too much of any one thing, get your protein, veggies/carbs, etc). SLEEPP!!! Sleep like you've never slept before in your life. Theres definitely a correlation to why burn victims are strapped to their beds and IVs for months- it's crucial for healing. LOL I think I gained 10 lbs b/c all I did for 4 days was eat and sleep then repeat. As time went by though, I think I got more and more anxious and impatient as to why I'm not healing as rapid as I had hoped so I started not being able to sleep as much- try not to do that (it'll be hard though)! Good luck to you!! Hope your results are much better than mine!! You already took the jump, now just try to relax and focus on healing!! Take care!!

quick update:

day3 - skin was dry as hell, face got puffy and I looked like a fish when I woke up. That wasn't pleasant. NOTE to anyone interested in this procedure:

BUY A BLENDER + A BIG JUG + A BIG STRAW. face was so tight that it was hard to eat. THank god I had a blender + Protein + bananas...etc.

day 4 here.

the dead skin on my face has mostly peeled (the nose is still completely encrusted with blood as that was where the repair laser went apeshit). I know its just skin swelling but my pores are very much minimise and skin tone does look baby smooth. I'm sure it it is just the swelling and it will adjust. It looks VERY RED. I'm hoping it all clears before I have to go back to work! Eating a lot of Vitamin C + drinking green tea with lemon juice.

additional, having that face crust was/is VERY uncomfortable. The skin that peeled off very forehead where the frownlines hurt while the face was tight and hard and these lines still hurt a bit.

Trying really hard not to pick my scabs!

sunday update. day 5?

all peeled - the nose + bridge area is VERY RED. EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT THIS. some local photo comparisions here have me noting the fooling:

pores seems reduced. very much so - could be swelling

I have 2 mole like pigment marks on my cheeck and they're gone - sort of kind of happy about this.

I don't think my PS read my notes on what I really wanted him to focus on - my nasal bridge had very little problems and that is the area he spent the most time with the laser on. :S I'll need to speak to him about this later.

and knowing this is fraxel Re Pair = Collagen rebuilding and repair for up to 6 months post op seems to make me feel kind of alright.

Hi Sydney,

You are very brave to have re:pair done.Several docs were reluctant to treat my Asian skin.Did ur doc treat u with bleaching cream before re:pair treatment?Any issues with hyperpigmentation?How much improvements in % as of now??Which doc did u goto?

Wish u get the results u want.

so how red is the face after getting this precedure..i ts like like a strawberry or much lighter?..

Well,

Just had a shower - here I am, about 2 weeks post op and the red regions of my face (especially nose to nasal bridge) is red still. Very concerned but still think it will resolve. The test I do to myself is to press a finger to the skin, and see if the redness will run away. It does. It will take a week or more to resolve I hope. The nasal area scabbing only came off after about 1 week. I look a bit stupid, if he had spread out the region a little, I don't think it'd look that bad, but its just starts in a rectangular shape from the T zone down to my nose - the cheeks are patchy pink but my forehead has normalised. I feel alright to leave the house + sunscreen + hat. Skin still peels like I've had a sunburn/post dermabrasion..etc

I had some acnesque breakouts on my skin - maybe from over moisturising but there's hardly any literature on what to do with the skin post fraxel. Oh well. No damage though, they've healed/gone. I just want the redness to resolve.

I'm not hyperpigmenting. He did say 1 in 5 but I'm not getting brown pigment/splotches.

Pores comment

- cheeks - it really didn't do much but the setting were low. Oh well. Wasn't my major concern - I might need to lose some weight (not that I've overweight/fat but my cheeks are puffy and they seem to make these pores worse - when I pull the skin back a bit, the pores do minimise a lot)

- nose - seems better but the skin here is still weird/healing. But yes, much better than the cheeks

Again, the procedure removed a bunch of brown mole/pigment marks from my skin so I expect to look much "cleaner" when the redness goes.

overall score 2 weeks in: 7/10

here's a during pic.

garish!

Holy crap, did that hurt? I was wonderin if you have any before pics that shoe the size of you pores. How large were they?

thanks for the pic it gives us a better understanding of the precedure, pepole that are gonna get full face are gonn have their whole face like that , if they want to improve scars.

the redness on my nose isn't abating! I'm quite concerned. A lot of the things I've read on it suggest that this could take up to a month ---> 6 months! I need to go back to work in 3 weeks! Panicking and wondering if I should get vbeam to "fix it".

:S

the redness on my nose isn't abating! I'm quite concerned. A lot of the things I've read on it suggest that this could take up to a month ---> 6 months! I need to go back to work in 3 weeks! Panicking and wondering if I should get vbeam to "fix it".

 

:S

DAMN your nose looked like a red bloody mess! Did the scab finaly dry up and flake off?

I have heard reports of redness lasting a few months with Repair but most of it seems to resolve in 4-6 weeks. I would HATE to see your nose if your doctor was MORE aggresive! Good luck and be patient TIME does heal all wounds

u got a deep fractional laser peel

i would look up dermabrasion and co2 laser to see how long it takes for those to heal couse i think u will have a similar time frame..

they have special makeup for redness, look it up.

hi,

is the fraxel re:pair the same as total fx? i spoke w/ a doctor in nc and he said i'm a good candidate for total fx. but i'm asian and i thought there was risk of hypopigmentation.

So how is your skin looking? with out a doubt there may still be some swelling but can you notice any results? In my opinion do not worry about the redness so much, there is always light concealer. I think you did the right thing you went hard from the get go, which will achieve the best results, better then having 6 treatments at lower levels only to waste more money and have miniscule results.

to be honest, right now, the way my skin looks - uneven red/patchy and not seemingly healing right is quite distressing. It is quite patchy with this patterned look to the hatching. Like it got scrapped in places. I don't think its hyperpigmentation. I thought my cheeks were fine and now they're patchy. and my nasal bridge is still kind of red. Quite red imo. I have 2 more weeks of non-work time off but I am so concerned that its not going to balance out. The crazy thing is that around day 15 my skin looks better than it does now (day 17 or 18).

2 more weeks. I'm kind of upset right not. I'm on emu oil + bio oil for the redness and I'm sick of this!! I'll be fine if I think this will all resolve in 2 weeks but with this sort of thing, you can never tell.

Oh, no..I hope your skin'll get better asap!!!

Good luck with your healing! Looking at the picture you posted, it really gives people who are considering the procedure a nice wake up call in terms of what they'll need to put up with. I'm wondering, you said you did the procedure mainly for the "bad pores"- do you mean blackheads, or just stretched pores on your nose?

So what are your results on the acne scars?

DAY 21.

I don't really have much acne scars - a couple of indents on my face from acne ages ago and these were on my cheeks - setting were low - but I don't see them anymore. I think it fixed these. there were really minor and didn't bother me. I had one recessed type acne scar on my right cheek - gone. Its like a slight pothole (maybe 1-1.5mm indented in the shape of an old acne mark). gone. The right side had surface irregularities and they seem to be gone as well.

Redness seems a bit better since I went on DELNA's treatment. Could be time but could also be me deciding not to touch my skin anymore if I can help it. I'm also on a AEC vitamin cream skin deluge + emu oil + bio oil thing at the moment. Skin is constantly oily looking. The moisturiser/sunblock with 30spf also makes it all sticky shiney looking. But the redness is getting better.

Now about the pores - cheeks (I think the improvement here has been really nominal but the settings were low - now that I constantly looking at my face, I wonder if these upset me. They didn't before, they're not much improved but does it upset me? I don't know. I think not. Maybe I'll getting these treated more aggressively with repair next time (and yes, despite what/how I feel now, I will do it again - I think there has been improvements, especially in my problem area).

nose pores - I have no pore minimiser on now, just some vitamin C (23%) cream on, and its much much better. I used to look at my mirror and get really upset but its better for sure. And this is obviously the area that is red now. Aggressively treated and the redness I've read is the bodys response - the tiny capillaries isn't a major concern to our bodies as the scab/repair (Major) is over. From 2 days ago and my level of upsetness (mostly at having to go back to work looking worse) but now I feel okay. I think with a concealer, it will definitely help.

not ready to post pics yet. when all the photos are constantly oily lookign from all the biooil - I don't think it'd be a reflective way to look back on my treatment - I think the 2-3 month mark might be a better time.

well, later.

as mentioned, the treatment did remove a lot of my old facial mole/pigment red marks so in that instances my skin looks a lot cleaner. Which is nice. SMILEY FACE

up to day 30+ now and my skin is red red red. Well, better but still, between the blotchiness and patchiness, its been very difficult. Had people I know stare at me with the what the f*** happened there look. A close friend sat and stared at my face but wouldn't say anything but I could almost hear her think.. "wtf happened there?" Its definitely apparent and being already so self conscious, this isn't helping my self esteem at all. Thought I had a panick attack today from the stress!

I should have had my neck zapped so it blends better. Right now, the redness/blotchiness is still there and not abating. Pretty sure the nasal bridge area is red due to tiny vascular blood vessels - my cheeks are just really sensitive right now. For some reason, today, my skin is ITCHY. I T C H Y. The post op, skin care regime ... I honestly don't know if its making it redder or not. The blotchy quality to the skin is the most difficult thing. Especially when it REALLY contrasts with the smooth normal skin on my neck.

bleh! I eat well, sleep well and am in good health! Why is the healing so slow...

Could you use a little make-up to make you feel better?? I wouldn't be able to make it without the stuff.

up to day 30+ now and my skin is red red red. Well, better but still, between the blotchiness and patchiness, its been very difficult. Had people I know stare at me with the what the f*** happened there look. A close friend sat and stared at my face but wouldn't say anything but I could almost hear her think.. "wtf happened there?" Its definitely apparent and being already so self conscious, this isn't helping my self esteem at all. Thought I had a panick attack today from the stress!

 

I should have had my neck zapped so it blends better. Right now, the redness/blotchiness is still there and not abating. Pretty sure the nasal bridge area is red due to tiny vascular blood vessels - my cheeks are just really sensitive right now. For some reason, today, my skin is ITCHY. I T C H Y. The post op, skin care regime ... I honestly don't know if its making it redder or not. The blotchy quality to the skin is the most difficult thing. Especially when it REALLY contrasts with the smooth normal skin on my neck.

 

bleh! I eat well, sleep well and am in good health! Why is the healing so slow...

Other then the Hyper pigmentation that seems to be taking a long time to resolve in your case how would you Rate REPAIR? Would you give it a thumbs up or Down ? on the REAL SELF web site REPAIR has now passed every other Esthetic treatment and is at a stellar 86% Thumbs up rating! There are only 14 votes so far I would wait till there are about 50 before it really means anything but so far it looks like a Breakthrough! Please let us know if you would consider doing REPAIR again now that you are a vet