And that’s me, about an hour after the procedure. As you can see…no burning red skin. Nothing crazy. A Jessner Peel, which is what I had done, is 14% salicylic acid, lactic acid, and resorcinol in an ethanol base. (Well, according to Wikipedia, anyway.) According to the spa where I had it done it’s, “A moderate chemical peel providing deep exfoliation. Excellent for acne scarring, hyperpigmentation and rough textured skin. Skin will undergo major detoxification, exfoliation and bactericidal cleansing through a peeling process.”
The procedure was painless. It tingled but never burned. I was at the spa for less than 45 minutes. They sent me home with sunscreen and after care procedures that included no picking, tugging or pulling at the skin, avoiding the sun, no scrubs for four days and no alpha-hydroxy acids and other harsh skin treatments for 14 days. I have heard that the darker your skin the harsher the process can be. I’m the color of a stick of chalk, so all in all, things progressed mildly for me. Around day three I started to see some flaking on my chin. Days four and five there was serious flaking on my cheeks and forehead. I never saw large amounts of peeling. My esthetician had warned me that everyone reacted differently to the peels and it didn’t mean it didn’t work if I didn’t have actual skin peeling. (To be honest, I took the flaking as a sign something was happening and I was glad I never had to deal with large areas of peeling skin.) Other than the flaking, which resembled a severe case of dry skin, I had no other symptoms except some mild itching and tightness.
