Laser quest

Laser treatments are no longer the scary prospect they once were. In fact, they may well be the route to your best skin yet. Beam us up!

YOU'D BE FORGIVEN for being daunted by the idea of having a searing beam pointed at your face, but if you’re yet to partake in the laser love-in, you’re seriously missing out.

‘Lasers can be life-changing for anyone with acne scarring, deep lines, pigmentation, or visible veins,’ says laser specialist Debbie Thomas. And, even if you don’t have any of these issues, they’re still a smart move for keeping skin plump and youthful (without a needle in sight). ‘Lasers create a controlled injury that kick-starts collagen formation and cell-regeneration. By doing so, they strengthen your skin, so it visibly ages

more slowly.’ But not all lasers are created equal. Different lasers have different wavelengths and target different problems – some hone in on the brown pigment of dark spots, for example, while others zero in on the red colour of blood vessels.

The other factor worth thinking about is the downtime it takes to recover from each procedure. The aggressive treatments of old used to require weeks in hiding, but with the new breed of ‘lunchtime lasers’, there’s now something for everyone. Want in? Here’s our guide to the full spectrum…

IF YOU’RE A LASER VIRGIN…

Nervous about laser? Skin Laundry’s new Laser & Light Carbon Peel, £110 (available exclusively at Liberty London), will ease you in gently and is brilliant for giving dull, clogged skin a spring clean. First, your face is painted with a carbon lotion, which binds to the epidermis and penetrates into your pores. Then, a low-level YAG laser is passed over the top, which vaporises the carbon particles and blasts them off, taking with it any dead skin cells, dirt and debris as it does so (check out the Youtube videos – they’re mesmerising). Because the laser is used at a low energy, there’s no downtime – you’ll walk out glowing, with your pores thoroughly purged.

FOR AN ALL- OVER BOOST…

When it comes to improving skin tone and texture, ‘fractional’ lasers have changed the game. Instead of a single solid beam, they bombard the skin with a polka-dot pattern of light, made up of thousands of microscopic laser columns. Because these laser dots leave some skin untreated in between them, the tissue is less damaged so recovery time is shorter.

For the least downtime, choose a non-ablative (non-wounding) fractional laser such as Fraxel Dual, from £600, or Lumenis M22 Resurfx, from £300. Both stimulate collagen and elastin to improve skin tone and texture, and while sessions certainly aren’t pampering, they’re totally bearable. For a DIY version, try the TRIA Age-defying Laser, £450 – such as Fraxel Dual and Resurfx. It’s a fractional non-ablative laser, but one you can combine with a Netflix session on your sofa.

IF YOU’RE SEEING RED…

To treat redness and zap visible veins, you need a vascular laser. These selectively target unwanted blood vessels without damaging the surrounding skin because they emit a specific wavelength of light that is absorbed by haemoglobin, the red pigment in your blood. You’ll feel a series of short, sharp stings, like the twang of a rubber band, as the blood vessels absorb the energy from the laser.

There are a few different types of vascular laser – a pulsed dye laser (such as the Vbeam) is best for thin, red veins close to the skin’s surface, whereas deeper blue or purple veins need a laser with a longer wavelength (such as the YAG) to reach them. Bear in mind that you might need a few sessions to nix the blighters.

IF YOU WANT TO GET EVEN…

If you’ve tried all manner of lotions and potions to shift pigmentation but with no joy, laser is the way to go. The best lasers for dark spots fall into two camps: pigment-specific lasers and fractional resurfacing lasers.

The first kind, such as Ruby, YAG and Alexandrite, work by selectively targeting pigment particles to break them down. A word to the wise: don’t book in when you’ve got a big event coming up as you can be left with tiny scabs for up to a week. The other kind, fractional resurfacing lasers, don’t specifically target pigment, but they build collagen and exfoliate the surface, which evens out your skin tone and brightens your complexion. An expert therapist can combine the two, using a pigment-specific laser to hone in on sun spots, followed by a fractional resurfacing laser to reveal fresher, more even skin.

FOR DEEP WRINKLES AND ACNE SCARRING…

This is where you need to bring out the big guns – ablative lasers, which superficially wound the skin and require at least a week as a hermit. If you’ve still got breakouts though, steer clear.

‘I wouldn’t recommend any laser treatment for someone with active acne, as lasers are likely to exacerbate it,’ says A-list face-fixer Dr Frances Prenna Jones. ‘I get the acne under control first with topical treatments, and only then tackle