First person: Sun Damage, Part 1

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Whether you want to call them sunspots, age spots, photodamage, hyperpigmentation or just ugly brown patches, I've got them. (Chalk it up to growing up in California during the disco era back when tanning contests were all the rage and you slathered on coconut-scented oil before going outside in order to help you bake faster instead of sunscreen!)

Anyway, the brown spots I hate the most are on my face, just because they're more noticeable. I've tried various topical treatments to try to get rid of them. Products with hydroquinone worked fairly well, but I stopped using them when I read about hydroquinone causing cancer in rats. (Who knows if the same is true for humans or not, but I didn't feel like taking any chances.) And I've been making some visible progress with the hydroquinone-free ChromaWhite system by Dermalogica that we sell at work, but I'm just not a very patient person. I want those spots gone now!

So today I had my first of six treatments that are part of our Sun Damage Package, which is made up of three IPL and three Fraxel treatments. Today was the IPL, short for Intense Pulsed Light. If you've ever heard of Photo Rejuvenation or FotoFacial Light Therapy, this is the same thing. We generally call it a laser treatment, but IPL is not really a laser. The machine generates short bursts of very bright light which are absorbed by the darker pigment in brown patches of skin. The body then gets rid of these damaged cells as part of the natural healing process, leaving even-toned skin behind. IPL machines are also used to treat rosacea, telangiectasia, vascular lesions, and other pigmented lesions.

OK, so much for the technical stuff. What's it really like? Well, I showed up for my appointment and Jennifer, one of our laser technicians, first wanted to get some of the infamous before pictures so I removed my makeup so she could get good look at the brown spots. (Hint: Next time, I'll save some time and come without make-up.) The camera for this is attached to a contraption that keeps your head, the camera and the lights in some pre-defined positions so that when I go back for the after photos, they'll be easier to compare.

Next I was given a little jar of numbing cream and directions how to put it on using a mirror in our medical spa's waiting room. I was told to put it on nice and thick. I remember she said it was lidocaine mixed with some sort of petroleum jelly. It made my face look really shiny, and started to turn my skin splotchy. Then came a half hour wait. There are plenty of magazines and even some snacks and drinks in the waiting room, but I was anxious to get started. The numbing cream did as advertised and my face started feeling alien to my body, complete with tingly lips, in no time.

Finally Jennifer led me to one of the treatment rooms. She told me about the IPL machine and showed me the icy tip of the device that keeps your skin comfortable during the treatment. I was also given a little wand that blows cold air and told how to direct it during the treatment. After taking off the numbing gel and applying some cooling gel, she then put on these very small high-tech-looking black-out goggles. They're fairly tight and I couldn't see anything through them. (Hint: Next time, I'll make sure to take off my eye make-up. It was really a mess after the treatment.)

OK, so I'm laying down all nice and comfy on the treatment table and Jennifer puts the cold IPL handpiece on my skin, which I could barely feel on my numbed face. Then she warns me that there will be a bright light. ("Yeah, right," I'm thinking. "I can't see a thing with these goggles on.") Then: Pop! There was a little zap feeling to my skin which was noticeable but not painful with this weirdly bright light that I could see even through the opaque goggles. I was so surprised I must have flinched halfway across the table. Jennifer, very patiently asked if I was OK, and reassured me that the light pulse was perfectly safe because of the goggles and wasn't going to blind me even though I was still seeing a red blur of afterimage from the pulse.

Long story, short: The freaky light pulses were what I noticed most about the treatment. There was no pain. I could feel a little zap to my skin — which I've heard described as a rubber band snap — but that's all. I didn't even really need the cold air wand thingy. Jennifer continued to zap little sections of skin all around my face. She scraped off gel as she went, and went back over a few areas on a different setting after the first pass.

The session itself took maybe 15 minutes. When she was done, Jennifer took the goggles off. And after my eyes adjusted, thankfully, I could see again! Then I got what we joked was a little mini-facial: Jennifer cleaned the remnants of the numbing gel off my face and applied some Dermalogica Soothing Protection Spray and some Z-Silc Plus sunscreen. I took a look in the mirror afterwards and wished I had brought my makeup with me. My face was a bit blotchy from the numbing gel and the treatment still. In fact, it took my face a few more hours to get rid of the numb feeling completely. But I was able to go back to work with no problems, no downtime. As feeling returned to my face it was a little warm and a little tight, sort of like a slight sunburn.

By the end of the day, my face looked and felt normal except that the freckles on my face were much darker, a sure sign that they'll soon be gone. I can't wait!

Written by Jackie Johnston, the marketing coordinator for the Center for Excellence in Dermatology.