The No Peel “Peel”
I tried out a new peel the other day, that I might add to our menu. Why not I thought, I need a pick me up. I have strong, conditioned skin from using all the home-care consistently. And I don’t have time for an hour or two long treatment…this will take half an hour.
It is now 4 days later, and I am peeling. Which…is what I wanted. But is the juice worth the squeeze? My skin is dry, flakey, tight, uncomfortable. I can’t wear makeup because it flakes off. But in a few days it should look great right?!
People love to peel. We have this idea that or skin is like a floor…and if we sand down far enough we will land at fresh, clean new skin. Which is true…sort of. Rather than a floor, think of your skin like a tree. The epidermis (outermost layer) is the bark…the dermis is the wood. Though the bark is “dead” it is vital to the health of the tree…stripping it off prematurely endangers it.
When we strip our epidermis however, it feels pretty satisfying. There is a tingle, everything feels tight and bright and clean. The skin gets a bit pink and puffy…look, I am getting younger! But in reality this is inflammation at work…all of the skins resources get pushed to the surface, and stripping the epidermis is technically wounding it. After the “wound” is repaired the skin takes a little nap…the dermis is depleted. It needs to recover. But does it have the resources to recover? If not then we are “robbing Peter to pay Paul”…our dermis will eventually thin (not good) and the skin might take forever to heal. Acne marks and such, that we think we can scrape away last ages…because the wound within the dermis causing them is robbed of vital nutrition. So what do we do in response?
We try harder, again and again…until we damage or skin beyond repair. what went wrong? And when we do a big peel…we get that crazy scaley face, because the dermis is not ready to shed…it can’t! It needs at least some protection. We use two lines in the office currently…Osmosis and DMK. Though they bear significant differences they also have significant similarities. Amongst these similarities I would cite the “No Peel Peel”. Or in a sense…the effects of a peel without the downtime, or the stripping of the epidermis and thinning of the dermis.
First, Osmosis. They offer a retinaldhyde infusion, which speeds cell turnover. So, for unconditioned skin, if I put a full syringe on your face…it would speed turnover so much you would look sunburnt and shed. And yet the infusion has no acid! So how does this work?
When your epidermis is ready to shed it does so naturally…so when the retinal speeds turnover it will do so ahead of schedule. The difference is it’s not inflaming the dermis by ripping the epidermis off…it’s shedding because it WANTS to! So leaving a happy, healthy, humming dermis. And in the process this is healing damage within the dermis (old acne and pigmentation)…rather than robbing those wounds of the opportunity. And best yet? Done properly the shedding is undetectable. No downtime, no burnt scaley face.
DMK does something a bit different. Rather than speed cell turnover with retinal, an enzyme treatment does in fact utilize acids to exfoliate. However the difference is in that magic mask… the enzyme mask stays on for 45 minutes, and creates a back-flush of the capillaries. Fresh oxygen and blood flush the dermis, and cellular debris and toxins are swept out via lymph to the lymph nodes. This flushing is true oxygen therapy, and is so healing that it resolves any damage or stripping done by the prior acids. The difference is the peel is just prerequisite to that recovery phase, not an end in itself. The result is fresh, bright, clean, glowing skin. It is the effect of a peel, without the week of downtime I am experiencing now.
So, though the peel I just did only took 30 min…it’s taking a week to heal. That 45 minutes of mask does the work of a week’s healing!
Am I glad I did this peel? Yes, sure…I am all for shaking things up a bit, and challenging the skin. But next time get that enzyme on my face please…there is nothing quite like it.