How To Fix Uneven Skin Texture And Tones

uneven skin toneEveryone wants radiant, youthful skin – if we’re being honest, we’re all dreaming of airbrushed perfection (especially as we age). While some of us surrender and resign ourselves to fate, while others secretly hide our uneven skin texture and tones with primers and makeup – but we don’t have to do either.

Wait, what? Uneven skin texture? I thought I only had to worry about skin tone!

Take a moment to close your eyes and run your hands over your face (makeup free and clean, of course). Do some areas feel rougher than others? Bumpier? Between dead skin cells and sun exposure, your pores can expand, and your skin can look duller. Where you live and how you live, not just how you wash your face, can impact the way your skin looks and feels.

For example, colder climates (like Edmonton’s) are tougher on your skin: cold temperatures, especially in combination with cold winds, strip moisture from your skin and can leave it rough, tight, cracked, and red (read: terribly uneven). But where you live isn’t as easy to change as how you live.

Bad habits like poor eating, poor sleeping, and poor skin care regimes can all impact the look and feel of your skin. And smoking is even worse: if you smoke, you’re more prone to dark circles and bags under your eyes, you’re at higher risk for psoriasis, and you’ll age quicker and look grayer.

But we can’t go back in time and wear more sunscreen, stop smoking, or start washing our faces regularly. So, whether your cursed with a dry, flaky forehead and an oily chin, you’ve been fighting against acne scars your whole life, or you’re suddenly swimming in melasma and wrinkles, soft, supple, luxurious skin is still within reach with one or more of the following treatments:

1. Microdermabrasion

Arguably the number one treatment for improving skin texture and tone, microdermabrasion boosts collagen production and cell regeneration by removing the top layer of dead, damaged skin to reveal the smoother, new skin beneath. Microdermabrasion also minimizes pore size and improves scarring – making your skin smoother and brighter overall. Over and over again, microdermabrasion is praised for its effectiveness, but while it’s quick and noninvasive, the results aren’t instantaneous – depending on your skin and the issues you’re trying to correct, you may need several treatments to achieve your desired results.

2. Laser Treatments

Laser treatments are often dubbed “skin resurfacing” which means that laser treatments remove the top, damaged layer of skin. Like microdermabrasion, laser treatments encourage healthy skin growth and promote collagen production. Ultimately, laser treatments retexture your skin, removing lines, wrinkles, and minor scars as well as correcting sun damage, discolouration, and tightening up limp or sagging skin.

3. Chemical Peels

At Rao Dermatology, we customize our chemical peels using medical-grade products to your specific skin type and its tone and texture issues. Both your skin type and your goals will determine the depth of your treatment. Again, the basic result of the treatment is the same as microdermabrasion and laser – a peel removes the top layer of dead skin using a solution, but the dead skin will peel away gradually after the procedure to reveal a smoother, more even complexion. Chemical peels tighten, brighten, and smooth the skin.

4. Daily Advanced Skin Care

While our treatments can offer quicker results, a daily advanced skin care regime is also an effective treatment – but you must be diligent and consistent about it and you must use high quality products. On its own or in combination with one of our treatments, taking good care of your skin is essential to fighting the impact of a lifetime of UV rays and aging. We’ve chosen SkinCeuticals as our skin care brand because they’re committed to the highest, medical-grade formulation standards (they’re products win awards repeatedly). At your consultation, we can work with you to determine the best SkinCeuticals products to help you fix your skin’s texture and tone.

Our Top 5 Cosmetic Treatments for Men

Looking in the mirror and seeing yourself age sucks for everyone, not just women. In today’s workforce, there is growing competition between older and younger men not necessarily to look flawless and immaculate, but to look energetic and enterprising versus old and obsolete. While men have traditionally shied away from cosmetic treatments because vanity and masculinity are traditionally incompatible, technological advancements in dermatology now allow them to restore their youthfulness subtly without going under a knife – and more and more men are seeking out these treatments.

Cosmetic Dermatology Treatments for MenBut men’s goals differ from women’s: they want to maintain ruggedness, keep some lines, but eliminate eye hollows, facial folds, redness, and sagging. Plus, men and women’s skin are markedly different (and not just because men can grow beards). The primary difference is hormonal: testosterone makes a man’s skin about 25% thicker, makes it oilier, rougher, and sweatier than a woman’s.

Men also have a higher collagen density, though they lose collagen at a similar rate as women. But even though men’s skin is different, it responds to the same types of treatments as women’s, and our dermatologists are familiar and confident working on both men and women.

As always, skin care is essential to maintaining healthy, youthful skin, and to preventing the impacts of the sun and elements on your skin, but even the most dedicated regime has only a minimal impact on aging. For men wanting to look younger without surgery, here are our top 5 recommended cosmetic dermatology treatments for men:

1. Neuromodulators (also known as Brotox)
This neuromodulator (botulinum toxin type A) is injected beneath the surface of your skin and it works by temporarily paralyzing the facial muscles responsible for forehead and smile lines. Men typically only do neuromodulator injections on their foreheads and they’re not looking for total smoothness, just a softening of the deeper, more obvious creases. The procedure is quick and only mildly uncomfortable (the needle pinches) and you’ll see results within about a week that last up to six months.

2. Microdermabrasion
A non-invasive medical facial treatment, microdermabrasion polishes the skin and removes dead skin cells which leaves your skin soft and supple and stimulates your skin’s regeneration, making your new skin cells thicker and firmer. A low risk procedure, microdermabrasion deeply exfoliates, minimizing scars, discolouration, fine lines, sun damage, blemishes, and enlarged pores while also giving the skin a youthful glow. Each treatment is about 30 minutes long, but you need multiple treatments to see results.

3. Dermal Fillers
Dermal fillers (hyperlink to dermal fillers page) are your best bet for volume loss, which is responsible for making you look deflated, listless, worn, tired, and old. They restore fulness at the temples and beneath the eyes while also reducing facial folds and minimizing wrinkles. Dermal fillers are incredibly subtle and natural looking, plus they provide instant results.

4. Chemical Peels
Used to reduce acne scarring, sun damage, and uneven colouring, chemical peels offer men improved skin texture, a more even skin tone, reduced lines, and less age spots. A SkinCeutical customized medical facial is great for exfoliation, collagen stimulation, and overall rejeuvenation, leaving the skin smoother and fuller.

5. Intense Pulse Light (IPL)
A non-invasive, photorejuvenation approach to correcting skin problems, this treatment uses infrared light to stimulated collagen production. Improving skin tone and surface imperfections due to aging, photo damage, vascular conditions, and acne scarring, IPL is particularly effective for redness and brown spots as well as for hair removal. For men, IPL is ideal for broken capillaries and rosacea.

Schedule your free consultation today to discuss the best dermatological treatments for your skin goals today.