As our skin ages, it naturally loses its firmness and elasticity. To restore that youthful look, there are all kinds of creams and lotions designed to tighten and smooth our skin. While these solutions are easy, they only penetrate the outermost layer of skin, and while they can help, they ultimately don’t provide the effect most of us are looking for. You could go for a more invasive option, like injections, but if you want to maintain your natural beauty, injections can change the face’s natural structure.
I’m not about that. We all have natural beauty in our skin, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or anything else. It’s just a matter of bringing it out, which is why I offer laser skin tightening treatments. It penetrates a deeper layer of the dermis to activate your skin’s natural ability to regenerate, creating a healthy glow while diminishing fine lines and wrinkles. Sadly, there’s a lot of misinformation about skin tightening and laser treatments in general. Today I’m going to set the record straight and answer some of the most common questions and concerns my clients have.
1. What is Laser Skin Tightening?
First and foremost, I want to emphasize how important I think it is for clients to understand treatments before having them. While my treatments are non-invasive and entirely safe, you should still be completely aware of what’s going on with your skin.
Laser treatments in general have a few things in common. The laser itself is a targeted energy directed at one of three layers in the skin:
- Pigment, which is the shallowest layer and the primary target for laser hair removal
- Hemoglobin, AKA blood, is targeted to remove spider veins
- Water, the deepest of the three, is where skin tightening comes into play
For facial skin tightening, the laser carefully heats the water deep within your dermis to create small thermal injuries. As the skin heals itself, it naturally creates more collagen, thereby tightening and refreshing your skin. Essentially, this treatment is a collagen-building facial.
2. What Are The Benefits of Skin Tightening?
The main benefit is, of course, tightening up the skin of the face and neck, but more than that, the results preserve your natural beauty, unlike the effects of other invasive methods such as injections. This treatment is an FDA approved method of safely smoothing fine lines and wrinkles, rejuvenating skin elascity, and tightening sagging skin. Unlike face lifts or injections, there’s no downtime. It is all around the best option on the market for getting that youthful skin back.
3. Do Laser Treatments Hurt?
Don’t be fooled by the mention of lasers and thermal injuries. Skin tightening is actually less painful than laser hair removal. At worst, it’ll feel slightly tender, like a mild sunburn.
4. Are There Side Effects?
Laser skin tightening is something we call a lunchtime treatment, meaning that you can get it done on a 30-minute lunch break without any downtime. There might be a little redness afterwards and it may feel slightly tender, but that’s it. In fact, the only noticeable after-effect is the glow your skin will have, plus tightened and refined pores.
5. How Long Does Laser Skin Tightening Last?
This treatment is cumulative, meaning that it builds up more collagen each time you undergo a treatment. Most people will need 6 treatments spaced about 6 weeks apart, as it takes a few weeks for the body to fully produce collagen. Once the collagen has completely formed, you can come in as needed to freshen your skin, but the collagen itself doesn’t fade.
Coming in multiple times over several weeks may not seem ideal, but it’s necessary to naturally build your skin’s elasticity. I cannot stress enough how important it is to go with your body’s natural ability to heal, and allow it to take the time it needs.
6. Is Laser Skin Tightening Safe for Dark Skin?
Sadly, this type of laser treatment works best on lighter skin tones, and is usually recommended for no darker than a medium tone. Laser skin tightening can potentially cause damage on darker skin tones, so if you’re unsure or have questions about how effective the treatment will be for your skin, please schedule a consultation with me and I’ll help you determine the best option for your needs.
7. Can I Get Multiple Treatments At Once?
While I wouldn’t recommend laser hair removal at the same time as facial skin tightening, you can receive laser treatments after a mild skin peel or facial to fully revitalize your skin. It always depends on what your skin needs, and it is always my first goal with my clients to determine just that.