Tria - Week 7 (weird stuff!)

MarenSeattle · ‎10-19-2013

Decided to have a Week 7 thread despite Favorite Son's Week 8 thread being up -- because I'm really interested to hear if anyone else is experiencing these oddities at this point in the game:

1. Above my left brow I have three vertical stripes that look like three different swatches of foundation. They're on the typical tri-point brow arch, but beginning a little farther away from my nose toward the outer eye. So it's skin, swatch, skin, swatch, skin, swatch, skin. They're each about 1/4" wide and that's about how much "regular" shade of skin is between them. They go about 3/4 of the way up to my hairline. I'm baffled. :-)

2. The top of my forehead -- about 1/2 inch or so right below the hairine, from side to side, is pink/clear, everything below looks VERY tanned (like I've lived in Palm Springs playing golf daily all my life). It's as though I applied foundation up to a certain line, then stopped. Haha! Kind of the reverse of woman who wear a foundation color that's different than their natural skintone and stop at the jaw, only reversed!

3. In front of my left ear (only my left!) there's about a 1-inch patch of lighter skin (not as light as my pink forehead!) that looks like vitiligo a bit. Again -- whoa! Where did that come from?

The past week or so I've noticed I'm looking tanned and don't know if it's all the sun damage working its way up (is it too soon for that?) or what. My skin feels somewhat leathery and has pretty much all along -- most noticeable when I rinse my Tatcha off and my skin doesn't feel like velvet, but a bit "tough".

I'm wondering if this ersatz "sunkissed" look will kind of peel off after I end treatment. I don't think this laser is strong enough to do that, but maybe....

Anybody else have any puzzling "symptoms" at this point?

I'm looking forward to ending the active phase, thankfully haven't gotten bored with the ritual (it's so fast and easy!) and am STILL hopeful in five weeks time I'll be very pleased I took the plunge and stuck it out.

For ladies on the same time schedule -- the end is near! This has been so much fun for me -- and thanks to all of you have kept me company along the way.:-)

pdxlalesley · ‎09-15-2010

Maren you are one plucky lady! I commend you for staying the path---wow. Do you think you can find out from other sites, what others have experienced at this stage? It's likely that what your skin is like right now is normal for your type of skin after this kind of tx. Have you considered calling the Tria CS? You don't sound worried, I'm glad for that.

gazelle77 · ‎03-01-2013

Think I would stop before I turned into a science experiment......

Wackers3 · ‎03-26-2010

I know discoloration is one of the negative side effects from professional laser surgery but can't imagine that a home use laser would so the same, long term anyway.

I had to use Alpha Hydrox cleanser and also hydroquinone for weeks before having my professional laser surgery as a prevention for any permanent discoloration. Fortunately, I had none.

I have to believe this is temporary and once you stop, your skin will slowly and surely return to normal with all the benefits visible then. I just can't fathom that you will have any long term damage from a home user laser that isn't all that strong as compared to professional lasers. Remember, my skin was literally vaporized off so not any comparison to the Tria.

SurvivedOne · ‎11-04-2013

If my skin looked like what you describe, I would certainly not just blow it off, that's for sure. Don't know what if anything else you have been doing or using while using the Tria. If I was seeing what you described, I would be very, very concerned. And would have stopped using. Your skin is not going to "peel" anything off. Hopefully your skin will be alright. There will be no miraculous results once you stop. Right now, I would be much more concerned with what you described and as someone else said, call someone in the know. You should be concerned with what you described. Hopefully you haven't hurt yourself.

gtx · ‎08-15-2010

Maren, I have used the Tria for 7 weeks. This is supposed to be week #8. I used the Tria 5 days and let my face rest for 2 days. I have decided to stop for a while. I have redness that doesn't go away and rough skin that I hope will peel away eventualy. I will see how my skin looks in a few weeks. If the negative effects go away, I will continue.

Let us know how you proceed and keep us posted on your improvement.

MarenSeattle · ‎10-19-2013

On 5/20/2014 pdxlalesley said:
Maren you are one plucky lady! I commend you for staying the path---wow. Do you think you can find out from other sites, what others have experienced at this stage? It's likely that what your skin is like right now is normal for your type of skin after this kind of tx. Have you considered calling the Tria CS? You don't sound worried, I'm glad for that.

Haha! Pluck -- that's nice. My mother had another word for it. :-)

I immersed myself in another message board (Essential Day Spa) that had pages and pages of posts with people reporting their progress and reactions/results. I don't recall seeing a report quite like mine, but maybe there was just one oddball like me and it didn't register. Or maybe I'm a first!

No, I'm not worried -- just more curious than ever of what will transpire at the end of my active session. Our skin is always regenerating and renewing, so I don't think I'll be "stuck" like this forever. And even if it is permanent, there's always foundation. At my age (61) I realize that not everyone is looking at and judging me as I was convinced they were when I was in my twenties. Nobody else really cares -- or notices.

I might give Tria a call, but this might be so bizarro they'd tell me to cease and desist (although I probably wouldn't), but I'd be interested to find out if they've received similar reports.

We'll see what happens!

MarenSeattle · ‎10-19-2013

On 5/20/2014 gtx said:
Maren, I have used the Tria for 7 weeks. This is supposed to be week #8. I used the Tria 5 days and let my face rest for 2 days. I have decided to stop for a while. I have redness that doesn't go away and rough skin that I hope will peel away eventualy. I will see how my skin looks in a few weeks. If the negative effects go away, I will continue.

Let us know how you proceed and keep us posted on your improvement.

My skin still feels leathery and I have residual redness, too. I think it kind of makes sense -- we are continually assaulting it so it will react for as long as we do. But that's just my take on it. I've read reports of people who do suffer from the redness and rough skin throughout, and others who have acclimated so well they do it in the morning and dance out the door with no problem. I think a lot depends on OUR skin.

I sure hope that your skin "clears up" soon -- not "eventually! Let us know!

MarenSeattle · ‎10-19-2013

On 5/20/2014 wackers said:
I know discoloration is one of the negative side effects from professional laser surgery but can't imagine that a home use laser would so the same, long term anyway.

I had to use Alpha Hydrox cleanser and also hydroquinone for weeks before having my professional laser surgery as a prevention for any permanent discoloration. Fortunately, I had none.

I have to believe this is temporary and once you stop, your skin will slowly and surely return to normal with all the benefits visible then. I just can't fathom that you will have any long term damage from a home user laser that isn't all that strong as compared to professional lasers. Remember, my skin was literally vaporized off so not any comparison to the Tria.

Yeah, I'm of the same mind, wackers -- doubt a laser of this strength could do any worse than a professional level laser. I think that those of you who've had the Big Guns and who DIDN'T know what to expect might be terrified by how their face looked afterward. Even for those who are prepared, I'd imagine plenty wonder if they actually harmed their skin. Everyone I know who has had cosmetic surgery says initially they really regretted it, felt they'd made a mistake, were convinced they were going to look worse than they looked before. And you know how it ends... now most would go through it again in a heartbeat.

As I mentioned to pdxlalesley, it's not THAT big a deal to me. I went out today with no foundation on and nobody's eyes drifted up to my pink hairline or my stripes or my cheek. Unless you're looking closely (as I've been doing several times daily!) it's barely noticeable.

Other than the color oddities, my skin itself looks good. Very clear, LOOKS smooth, healthy (ironically since I'm hurting it!). I'm still planning on going for injections at some point for the expression lines, but even if there isn't any improvement after I stop the treatment, I'm okay with how it's looking now. Still HOPING for improvement, but what I have now isn't BAD, by any means.:-)

It's only my face -- not my health, nothing that really matters to the world. I'm good. :-)