Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/184689
Party Prep by Laurann Claridge COUNTDOWN TO THE BIG REVEAL The moment you agreed to chair this year's big gala or said, "Yes, I'll marry you," you were in a fog — a glorious haze of happiness. Later, shaken into reality, you suddenly realized it's time to pull yourself together. weeks, even months before that monumental event? We pig ourselves — to demystify these aesthetically pleasing protocols. Here's your beauty countdown to the big reveal. Photography Maxine Helfman MEDICAL Milestones Lauded dermatologist Dr. Melissa Bogle of The Laser & Cosmetic Surgery Center of Houston says people come to her office before a big event for multiple skin issues. Here are their biggest beauty dilemmas and some of the ways she tackles them. Brown Spots: For those suffering from what Bogle categorizes as "color issues" (freckles, sunspots, hyperpigmentation, melasma), lasers and chemical peels are good solutions. "Melasma is larger brown patches induced by hormonal fluctuations, while little sunspots tend to be freckles," she says. "Age spots are actually small benign growths. They look flat, but they're really like a barnacle stuck on the surface of your skin and often don't peel or bleach off. Instead, you need something more aggressive, like a laser or liquid nitrogen, to freeze them off." If your doctor determines that the best course of treatment is a laser, the choices vary widely, from IPL (Instant Pulsed Light) to Fraxel lasers of different varieties. "If you're tackling color issues with a laser, I always tell people you'll look good in two weeks," she says. "If it's in advance of an event, leave another week or two, just in case anything needs to be corrected." Elect the bleaching-cream route, and you're prescribed a hydroquinone cream; prepare to start six months prior. Admittedly a fan of the TCA (trichloroacetic acid) chemical peel, Bogle contends it's the most successful in removing "color" but also requires the longest downtime — up to two weeks. Like lasers, a chemical peel will turn the brown spots darker brown, and your skin will take on a kind of dirty appearance. "Three to four days later, your skin will peel starting around the mouth, moving all the way up to the hairline," Bogle cautions. "With a peel, you'll have that baby-smooth skin beneath, but when the skin peels off, it's not glowy at first, but rosy red. Give it a month for the redness to die down." Cost: $150 to $1,200, depending on the peel's aggressiveness. Melasma: "We thought lasers would be a good solution for melasma initially," Bogle notes, "but laser is never my first choice because it's a lot of money and it's not a permanent cure. Instead, I recommend an aggressive chemical peel to remove signs of melasma, followed by a bleaching agent you use at home for maintenance. But it takes a long time to wean yourself off bleaching creams. If you stop cold turkey, your skin will re-pigment." Her solution: Create a compound of bleaching cream mixed with vitamin A, the strength of which is adjusted in her office every six to eight weeks throughout the following year. Eventually you'll be on a straight regiment of vitamin A (Retin A) nightly, which constantly exfoliates your skin and keeps pigment at bay. Wrinkles: If wrinkles VEIN-ity It's one of those beauty myths we just can't shake: If you cross your legs, you'll get varicose veins. "No, no, no," insists Dr. Joseph Naoum of the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center Vein Clinic, the expert I sought out to remedy my own leg discomfort. A lot of people suffer from varicose and spider veins — 15 percent of American men, 25 percent of women. Most sufferers can thank the onset of pregnancy (and the flush of changing hormones), standing occupations, obesity and genetics for the condition that often causes aching pain. In my own case, a single varicose vein in my left calf and the makings of others instigated my visit. Over time, my hemlines had begun to creep from above my knee to below my ankle — and unfortunately, fashion was not dictating the choice. When my mother was my age, I'd watched her recover from surgery to remove varicose veins in both her legs — the same condition her father had endured years before. Thirty years ago, they didn't have the ability to apply a local anesthetic to your legs and, in a 40-minute procedure (often covered by insurance), remove them. Yet Dr. Naoum did exactly that for me. After he calmed the area with a mild oral sedative and local anesthetic, he not only removed the protruding vein but injected others that would likely get worse with a saline-like solution via the finest of needles in a process called sclerotherapy. Over the course of three visits, he injected an increasingly stronger solution into those veins, as well as any that surfaced as the original ones vanished. Cost for sclerotherapy: $300 per session (many insurance companies consider this procedure cosmetic and won't cover it). Admittedly, I have a high threshold for pain. But then again, I told myself, it's 45 minutes of discomfort — grin and bear it. More cumbersome to endure were the thighhigh support hose I had to wear for three to four weeks after the surgery. I quickly started calling them my healing hose, as the compression helped to heal the bruising following injections and laser treatments. As I wait four to six weeks between treatments, I feel like I have my college legs back and am inspired to wear the dresses and skirts again that were languishing in the back of my closet. Additional info at methodisthealth.com. ("photo aging," in med-speak) plague you, Bogle advises to tackle the signs a year before that important event — but even after three months, you'll see improvement. Fraxel Re:store is a non-ablative laser (non-wounding, which stimulates collagen growth) that she uses often. It will put you out of commission for three days or so, and you'll need a series of three to six for best results. But be warned: Because this isn't what they call ablative (a "wounding" skin procedure, as defined by the Mayo Clinic, which causes thermal damage by removing thin layers of skin), you're not going to see tightening results. This treatment is best spaced out over four to eight weeks for six to 12 months. Cost: $800 to $1,200 per treatment, with discounts for a series. Skin Tightening: If you need skin tightening, Bogle recommends Fraxel Re:pair, which works well on lighter skin tones. The downside: You're down for the count for 10 to 14 days. Upside: Most people only need one round to see results. Cost: $3,500 to $5,500. Wrinkle Fast Fix: For a fast fix and preventative measures, there is the injectable route. Beginning six to eight weeks prior to an event (to insure the swelling is gone), Botox can be injected to target your movement-related lines, such as horizontal lines on the forehead, two lines between the brow and crow's feet. Its effect can last four months but starts to wear off after three. (Xeomin and Dysport are two other options, the latter often preferred by people whose bodies metabolize Botox quickly.) Cost: $300 to $400 in specific spots, $600 to $900 in all the movement-related areas. Acne Scarring: For those faced with acne scarring, there's help. You'll get maximum results after 12 months of treatment to smooth this textural surface defect; Bogle has the most success combining different modalities. A specialist in this area, she notes most sufferers have a combination of scar types, so she might work with CO2 resurfacing and laser (continued on page 22)