What Must I Do After Getting A Chemical Peel?
Thanks to increased innovation in the cosmetic industry, there are numerous ways to improve or enhance your appearance. If your skin is troubling you, whether it’s breakouts, dark spots, hyperpigmentation, or other skin imperfections, chemical peels are highly-effective skin treatments to get your skin into shape.
What is a Chemical Peel?
A chemical peel involves applying a peeling agent to your skin to remove dead skin cells and impurities. The treatment stimulates new skin growth, giving your skin a more even texture.
However, since the treatment involves applying a foreign substance to your skin, you may experience some side effects such as dryness, redness, burning, tingling, or itching after a chemical peel. Therefore, proper aftercare is essential to minimize any sensitivity or side effects of the treatment. After a chemical peel treatment, let’s look at a few aftercare tips to care for your skin.
Chemical Peel Aftercare Tips
Below are great aftercare tips to promote faster recovery after your treatment.
- Allow the skin to shed off naturally.
Since a chemical peel helps shed dead and damaged skin cells, you should expect loose skin. Avoid peeling, picking, touching, or scratching the loose skin with your fingers, which can lead to further sensitivity, scarring, and even cause bleeding. Touching the skin with dirty hands is likely to aggregate the new skin and cause more breakouts and sensitivity. Allowing the skin to shed off naturally will reduce discomfort and promote faster healing.
- Moisturize just enough
After the treatment, you’re likely to experience some sensitivity and dryness. Your care provider will likely give a specific post-care skin moisturizer. If they don’t, you can ask them for recommendations. When using the moisturizer, gently apply it to the skin a few times throughout the day. Altogether avoid rubbing or scrubbing it in. Once the peeling process is complete and the sensitivity has gone, you can return to your regular skin routine.
- Protect your skin from direct sunshine
Since you’re going through the process of rejuvenating your skin, the last thing you’d dream of is damaging your new and vulnerable skin. When outdoors, protect your skin with a layer of sunscreen to prevent exposure to direct sunlight. Ask your aesthetician for recommendations of the best sunscreen protection to use.
- Don’t break a sweat.
Keep your skin cool until the skin heals and the sensitivity is gone. Avoid activities that can cause your skin to sweat, such as cardio, weight lifting, sauna, or sunbathing. Sweating contains ingredients that can irritate the skin and even cause more breakouts.
- Allow your skin to rest.
The best way to promote quick healing is to allow your skin to repair itself naturally. Until you heal, avoid new skincare treatments for 1-2 weeks. Consult your practitioner on how long you should wait before using a new skincare treatment.
Recovery After a Chemical Peel: How Long Does it Take?
There are several types of chemical peels. The major ones are superficial, medium, and deep peels. Each of these peels uses different chemicals and affects the skin differently. Depending on the type of peel used on your skin, your skin should heal in anywhere from a few days to months.
Superficial peels target the outer layer of the skin – the epidermis. The chemical stays in the skin for a few minutes. Most people claim to experience a burning sensation and redness. The skin usually heals in a few days.
Medium peels use similar chemicals to superficial peels. However, the treatment is kept in the skin for 30 minutes or more, depending on the individual condition and needs. Expect more discomfort or sensitivity since the treatment targets both the epidermis and top dermis layers. Typical, the skin takes about 1-2 weeks to heal.
Deep peels aim for the deepest layer of the dermis. For this reason, it’s more aggressive and causes severe discomfort. On the positive side, it offers the most dramatic and long-lasting results. The skin takes about three weeks to two months to heal.
Schedule an Appointment Today
Are you looking for the best facial spa near you, or do you need more face care tips for chemical peels treatments? Contact Contours Laserspa, your dedicated med spa in Fairfax.