Medical peels for acne
A peel for acne is not a clean-up. The acid does two things at once: it clears the opening of the pore and it slows what builds up inside it. Which acid goes on your skin depends on which of those two is the problem for you.
Why this here does about it
Acne starts with a blockage: the wall of the pore renews too quickly, the loose cells stick together and the oil can no longer get out. What follows in bacteria and inflammation sits behind that blockage.
Salicylic acid dissolves in oil and so gets into the pore itself; it loosens the plug where it sits. Glycolic acid works on the top layer and makes loose cells let go sooner. With oily skin and many blackheads the first is the obvious one, with dull skin with blockages the second.
So with acne it is less a question of stronger or weaker and more of which acid acts where. That is what is established at the intake.
What is goes differently than usual
Building up, not full strength at once
The first time at a lower strength and a shorter working time. How your skin responds decides the next one.
Expect a dip
In the first weeks the skin can become more unsettled as blockages come to the surface. That is not a worsening; it is what was already underneath.
A series of four to six
With two to four weeks in between, and then maintenance as long as the skin asks for it.
What it gives you
Fewer blockages and fewer new spots, usually noticeable from the third session. What a peel does not do is remove existing scars; those call for something else and that comes only once the acne is calm.
- How often
- Usually a series of four to six, with two to four weeks in between.
- Recovery time
- Two to five days dry and flaky, depending on the strength.
- From
- € 140
When you would choose something else
- With severe, inflamed acne with lumps a doctor should take a look; a peel is not the first step then.
- While using isotretinoin no peel is done, and after stopping a waiting period applies.
- On freshly tanned skin a peel does not go ahead.
What people asked about this.
That can happen, in the first weeks. What comes up then was already there; it simply becomes visible sooner. It is part of the course and it passes.
Usually four to six times with two to four weeks in between. Then we look at whether maintenance is needed and how often.
What we Medical peels use it for
Whether this suits you,
your skin will show.
Everything above applies to this concern in general. What is going on with you and whether this is the right route is established by the therapist at the skin consultation. If the answer is no, you hear that too.