This is a bit random, but I thought I’d share my recent experience with laser vascular treatment. I’m really happy with the results and it was actually less painful and affordable than I thought so I thought I’d share in case it is helpful for someone. 🙂
I mentioned this on Instagram, but during my pregnancy I got a couple of broken blood vessels on my face and neck. A couple of them were practically in the middle of my forehead. While I’m so grateful that I got pregnant, those new little spots weren’t my favorite side effect that I stayed with after my son was born. So I decided to do some research and see what, if anything, I could do about it.
Here is a before and after photo from my experience. Do you see the little red dots on my forehead, between my eyebrows? Those were the places that annoyed me the most. I also had a few around the bridge of my nose and near my collarbone. These broken blood vessels showed up sometime towards the end of my first trimester. When looking for solutions, I found that vascular laser treatment was something I could try. For me this was available through a dermatologist’s practice and a registered nurse was able to perform the treatment. It does not require any anesthetics and only takes a few minutes. I will not lie, it hurts. It feels like a needle sticking into your skin (it’s not, it’s a laser). But it’s super quick and a lot less painful than any of my tattoos.
Vascular laser treatments can also work on cherry angiomas (cherry moles). I have many of these, and so some of the most prominent ones were removed from me on the same date.
Here is another before photo where you can see the largest cherry mole I had treated (on the side of my face between my eyebrow and my hairline).
This is probably obvious, but except for the first photo in this post, all of these photos are unedited and I have no makeup on. You can see that I also have melasma which has darkened during my pregnancy.
This is what my skin looked like right after the laser treatment. All red spots are areas I had treated for a broken blood vessel or cherry mole.
And so it looked the next day. The treated areas will initially darken and the cherry moles will turn almost black and then fall off within a week or two. I already wear sunscreen every day (I am very fair-skinned and burn easily), but the nurse warned me to be extra careful in the following weeks after the treatment, always wearing sunscreen and hats, as the sensitive skin will cause scarring / discoloration could be lighter from the sun while it was healing.
And this is what my skin looked like two weeks after the treatment. As you can see, the large cherry stain is still somewhat visible on the side of my face. After my first treatment, they had a follow-up visit scheduled just four weeks later to see if any of the spots would need a second treatment, and it looks like this is a spot that will likely do so. But pretty much everything else was fine after just one treatment – especially the broken vessels in the center of my forehead.
I went to Ozarks Dematology Specialists (in Springfield, Missouri) for this vascular laser treatment. It only took about 15 minutes and was $ 150. The price depends on how many seats / how much time you need. And it would probably vary depending on where you live. But I just wanted to share what it was for me for reference. This wasn’t something my insurance would cover as it was cosmetic in nature and didn’t go to skin cancer to get screened for skin cancer (which is also very important).
Thank you for letting me share this very random experience with all of you. I love skin care products. I am constantly trying new moisturizers, masks, facials, and other things. I also love trying new makeup. I see all of this as super fun and as self-care for me. xx. Emma
Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Bird portrait by Janae Hardy, more selfies by Emma.
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