Fun with Fraxel at Skin Vitality followed by a Fab Facial at Jeanet Spa!

Not familiar with Fraxel? I wasn't either before visiting Skin Vitality for my very first Fraxel treatment on my hands last week. 

What Fraxel does is target aging and sun-damaged skin with microscopic laser columns that penetrate deep into your skin to expedite your body’s remodeling of collagen. And since the laser treats only a fraction of tissue at a time, it leaves the surrounding tissue intact, which promotes very rapid healing. Fraxel resurfaces your skin by stimulating the growth of new, healthy skin cells from the inside out.

Here's how it works: a numbing cream is applied to the area that's to be treated, in my case the backs of my hands and then you wait 45 minutes to an hour for it to take effect. After that they take the laser and run it over your hands in two directions, repeating a couple of times - it's quite quick, it only took about 15 minutes to do both hands and thank heavens for that, because dammit, it hurts! For lack of a better description, it's what I imagine rolling a sea urchin over the backs of my hands would feel like - it's a poking, pricking kind of sensation, definitely not pleasant!

The lovely Sheryl performed my treatment, she doesn't look like a sadist but believe me, they aren't kidding when they say beauty is pain - if that's the case I'd better be damned gorgeous after Fraxel! I'm happy to say that the pain has pretty much already faded from my mind - I imagine in the same way that the pain of childbirth does - just like women wouldn't have more than one baby, they also wouldn't have more than one Fraxel treatment, if they remembered how it felt!

Afterwards my skin was extremely red and felt hot, just like a sunburn. The redness continued but the heat went away after the first day. My hands are now tanned looking, rough feeling and starting to flake - the sloughing off of the dead skin can take some time on the hands so be sure to admire my lizard hands if you see me in the next couple of weeks. For full effects 3 - 5 treatments are needed, spaced a few weeks apart and it's generally used on the face, decollatage and hands.

You can give it a try at Skin Vitality - 11 Yorkville Avenue - 416-969-9669.

After that, something more relaxing was in order and what could be better than a facial! So off I went to Jeanet Spa & Salon to enjoy a Enviro-Recovery Vitamin Infused Facial - a 45 minute facial that involves a unique massage exfoliating technique that detoxifies and extracts environmental toxins from the skin to experience maximum glow in minimal time.

If you're looking for a relaxing facial, that won't take a lot of time, doesn't involve extractions and won't leave you feeling greasy then you'll love this one.

My esthetician was Veronika and she was lovely - she put cold compresses on my burning hands and finding out that I was recovering from a cold, she did some sort of lymphatic drainage massage thing that had my nose unstuffed for the first time in weeks.

I highly recommend you try this one for yourself at Jeanet Spa & Salon - 140 Yorkville Avenue, 2nd Floor - 416-921-2996.  Happy spa-ing!

- Lisamarie -