IPL vs. Microneedling vs. Chemical Peels: Which One Wins? [Mary Ann Faulhaber, Aesthetician, Portland]

Eva Sheie (00:00):
You're listening to Where Before Meets After. How do you help people decide if IPL is the right option versus something else like a chemical peel, microneedling, or laser?

Mary Ann (00:11):
Mostly, again, just listening to their concerns and what they're looking at when they're looking at the mirror. Textural concerns like pore size and fine lines. Definitely leaning towards something a little bit more invasive. That's getting that first fuelers of the skin, so microneedling, rf, microneedling, chemical peels are great for if you're needing to treat pigment and textural concerns where you want to maybe stay away from lasers like that melasma, is a really great, safer alternative. I just let them know that it's a little bit more of a downtime compared to I-P-L. I-P-L is pretty minimal downtime compared to that or to the microneedling and the chemical peels, which is probably a little bit of a slower process working at that pigment. Depending on your skin type and your skin reaction, you get a little more of erythema sometimes edema with it just depending on your skin type and what we're treating, and then that hyperpigmentation kind of comes up to the surface of the skin, maybe takes around three days to kind of look like coffee grounds and then falls off.

Eva Sheie (01:21):
It was also recently explained to me that I have so little left to treat that I recover faster now.

Mary Ann (01:28):
Your skin's like I know what to do,

Eva Sheie (01:33):
But that puffiness is definitely a thing.

Mary Ann (01:35):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (01:35):
But that's how you know it worked.

Mary Ann (01:38):
That's how you know it's working. Embrace the inflammation.

Eva Sheie (01:42):
Yep. Good. You should have stickers that say that. That's really cute. Embrace the inflammation.

Mary Ann (01:48):
Embrace it.

Eva Sheie (01:50):
That's a little better than beauty is pain. I think maybe slightly nicer. Yeah. How soon can I have my next IPL treatment?

Mary Ann (02:00):
You do want to do it around every month when you are kind of working at a certain type of goal within your skin, so that does kind of spread out. Maybe that downtime if you had a more intense downtime, you're not retreating for another three to four weeks.

Eva Sheie (02:17):
Aside from the short-term benefits of getting that pigment out and your skin just looking brighter and clearer, is there anything long-term that you could expect from continuing to do IPL and sticking to that maintenance routine?

Mary Ann (02:35):
Yeah, it's always better to be preventative once we get those results to keep up on your results. I say any results we get, that's yours to keep. The only thing is we're still naturally aging and so we want to keep combating that aging that's happening in those brands that could possibly come up in a month or two. I always do say anytime we're building inflammation into the, we are getting a little bit of collagen production to be triggered. Maybe it's not the best for fine lines and wrinkles or textural concerns, but I do have plenty of people that come back and are just raving about how glowy and healthier their skin is looking, and then we can kind of talk about other treatments for maybe their pore size next time. I get so many people that are like, I just want to look more well rested and more youthful, but still look like myself and I think IPL is a great way to do that. Just kind of remove the discoloration that we're kind of covering up with a bunch of foundation.

Eva Sheie (03:39):
Do you have any really wow patient stories you can share with us?

Mary Ann (03:44):
Yes. My favorite, I have this one client, she lives in London and she comes all the way to come see me and see our laser. Yeah, she lived in Portland and that's how I met her and she is probably like a fits four, and so you want to be super cautious with her skin, but she has these two even dark brown patches right here, and she's like, I've tried everything, chemical peels, microneedling. No one will hit them with laser. And I felt so confident in my laser and my treatment or in my knowledge of my settings, and so made sure we did it in the safest way possible and we got beautiful results and safe results and it looked so good that she comes every time she comes and visits family. Her family's in California, but she'll fly up just to do a treatment and then fly back to California before going to London and I love her. It's cool.

Eva Sheie (04:58):
That just speaks volumes about your skill level, Mary Ann. Yeah. People fly from all over the world.

Mary Ann (05:07):
It feels good.

Eva Sheie (05:08):
That's really good. What about more challenging situations? Can you treat things like port wine stains or stuff that may not be from environmental damage, but other categories?

Mary Ann (05:26):
Yeah. I always say we're working against genetics environment and lifestyle, and so maybe a process, but we can get you there. So just kind of setting those expectations and maybe complete removal isn't the goal, but even to lighten it up is the goal.

Eva Sheie (05:47):
What kind of laser is it that you have there specifically?

Mary Ann (05:50):
Yeah, it's the icon from Cynosure.

Eva Sheie (05:54):
And does it have a bunch of different modalities built into it? Like a platform?

Mary Ann (05:59):
Yes. Yeah. It's a tried and true. It's been around for a while, but that's why we know the settings so well of it. And within it we also treat laser hair reduction and laser resurfacing on ablative laser resurfacing.

Eva Sheie (06:14):
Do you ever combine those treatments all in one appointment?

Mary Ann (06:18):
Absolutely. All the time. Especially for those little whiskers on the chin. But it's really amazing when you kind of combine it with the 1540 non-ablative laser resurfacing that does get more textural concerns in skin tightening, so you can kind of hit the tone, pigment and texture to the skin.

Eva Sheie (06:43):
If we would like to schedule a consultation for an IPL with you, what should we do?

Mary Ann (06:48):
Call MD Beauty Lab in Portland. We're on northwest NATO Parkway. Talk to Tracy and schedule a fun consultation. We'll nerd out about lasers together.

Eva Sheie (07:01):
Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Eva Sheie. Follow the show and submit questions for our experts at wherebeforemeetsafter.com. Where Before Meets After is a production of The Axis.