If you’re opting for laser treatment on your face – it’s good to know exactly what to expect.
Laser and Light treatments are commonly used to treat all kinds of blemishes on the face. This includes thread veins (also called spider veins), rosacea (the red flushing condition), sun spots or age spots, acne, and for a general rejuvenation to brighten and clear the skin.
The process involves sending light into the skin, which causes a heating effect. This means that your skin will look pink and flushed immediately after laser treatment. It does however depend on how much of your face you’ve had treated. If you’ve had most of your face treated then it could look much more red, and maybe a little swollen.
The type of treatment you have will determine what it looks like afterwards. The after effects for vein treatments are different to the after effects for laser on age spots or sun spots. There are also many different types of lasers or IPLs on the market which also will make a difference, but I’ll talk about the most common treatments here.
Red veins or Rosacea
Face veins can change colour during a laser treatment. They often look more silvery or blanched, although you can’t always tell. That’s because the heat generated will make you look more red in general. This redness can go down very quickly, within hours / or it make take a couple of days.
It will take up to 4 weeks for the spider veins to get broken down further by the body, but you won’t notice this happening. You’ll just notice that the redness (of the thread vein) will get less and less as if fading slowly. You may then need further treatments to make more of an improvement.
If you go to an experienced laser technician it’s unusual to get any other side effects – although there’s always a very small chance of a blister. (A bit like a sunburn blister) The chance of getting a blister is very small – unless you have a sun tan – in which case you shouldn’t be having the treatment done at all.
Sun Spots & Age spots
After this treatment your skin will look worse before it looks better! (See photo at the top) The spots will turn a darker colour within 1-24 hours after the treatments. They can turn almost black which is a good sign, as it means the treatment is working. The brown / black crusts will be visible for many days after the treatment, and may only totally flake off around a week later. However it can sometimes take less or more time than this for the skin to look normal again.
Once any crusts or scabs drop off, the skin can look a bit more pink – so a ‘new skin’ look. You won’t want to be going out for a special occasion within a week of having laser for brown spots, as it can be difficult to cover them.
It’s possible to use and IPL or a Laser for pigmentation marks. There’s a chance of getting a blister, which again is small. If you do get a blister, just don’t pop, pick or scratch it and it should heal without a trace.
Acne
This usually looks better very soon after the treatment. Within 24 hours the skin will look calmer and the redness from acne often look improved. Spots will dry up quickly and the skin appears less ‘angry’.
Skin Rejuvenation
This is where all the skin is lasered to pick up tiny blemishes or redness and even out your skin colour. You’ll look pink after this treatment, but similar to you’d look after any facial. Tiny blemishes which have absorbed the light will start to stand out more over the next 1-5 days – so you may look like you have tiny dark speckles all over your face. If you have a lot of marks on your face (either veins or pigment) then you can end up having puffy swollen cheeks for a couple of days after laser treatment, which is quite normal.
What you need to do after Laser or IPL
Immediately after the treatment, and for 4 weeks, you need to ensure you wear SPF 30+on the skin. This is to prevent you skin being damaged by the sun. After the 4 weeks has elapsed there’s no risk to your skin in sunlight. However it’s a good idea to apply SPF on a daily basis, as the sun can be a contributing factor to thread veins or pigmentation.
One important thing to note – to be able to have laser treatment, you must make sure your skin is not tanned in any way. This means no fake tan or real tan on the area of your thread veins. If you’ve been in the sun you need to wait 4 weeks before getting a laser or IPL treatment.
I hope this article has helped – if you have any more questions then feel free to get in touch with me- rach@radiantliving.co.uk
For more information on laser facials – then head over to this page.
Laser for veins – click here.
Treatments for pigmentation – click here.
