The Price of Beauty

Alyeska Center for Facial Plastic Surgery and ENT.  Dr. Jack Sedwick seems like a cool guy and all, but it sounds scary as hell.  Not ready to set foot in that door, but Exquisite Skin Esthetics, their in-house healthy skin specialists, is completely my speed.

Bella Coley, Kelly Whitworth & Dorene Lorenz

Mostly because I have met Kelly Whitworth.  Kelly can hang.  She is beautiful, smart, clever, and a straight-up girl friend who graduated from East a year or two after I graduated from Chugiak.

So when Kelly looks at me across the oak library table at Cafe del Mundo and says, "Now Dorene, don't get offended.  These broken capillaries on your face - I can make them go away," she has my complete and undivided attention.

I spent time laying on a beach towel smelling like coconut butter and even more time wondering if my eyelashes were going to freeze shut.  And, frankly, the last five years have been exceptionally stressful and have noticeably aged me.

I wake up in the morning and the person I see in the mirror looks significantly more tired, and old, than the person on the inside.  Skin has a lot to do with that.  The only tan in my face are the age spots, and Miss Never Wears Make up is now slapping foundation on like I'm Marcel Marceau to even out all the redness.

Dorene Lorenz all dolled up.

Dave Harbor waking up one morning and deciding that he wanted to take my picture really was the tipping point for my becoming self conscious about my skin.

Dave is a great guy.  Dave is a great photographer.  Dave doesn't use Photoshop.

Dave took this shot of me completely dipped in make up.  Guess what the make up doesn't cover.  Wrinkles.  Thank Anchorage and it's desert dry climate.  Ridiculous.

The red on my nose and lower cheeks make me look like I've just come in from winter.  Those ever present brown patches on my cheeks aren't doing me any favors either.

Kelly does what she calls Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Photo Skin Rejuvenation.  She promises that it is gentle.  Gentle is a good word for me, 'cause I am a total weenie.  Won't ever see me getting a tattoo, why?  In a word, pain.

IPL is not a laser.  It uses flashlight technology to minimize redness from capillary damage or rosacea by shooting it with broad spectrum light.  I'm leaning forward in my chair.  Then she tells me that it takes several one hour sessions to make it all go away.  I'm leaning back in my chair.  Bella pipes up that she has used it before to remove a raccoon mask from her face, and it is the bomb.  Deep breath, exhale.

With IPL the darkly pigmented/red blood cells of the skin absorb the energy of the light, and the heat is transferred to the wall of the cell or blood vessel wall which causes its destruction.  So brown spots, spider veins, and broken capillaries go away.

Little energy is dissipated to the surrounding tissue, so it is uninjured, and the skin surface remains unharmed.  The heat that is deposited into the dermal layers of the skin stimulates collagen production, which give skin improved elasticity and a luminous, more youthful appearance.  Bye, bye fine lines and wrinkles.

Dorene Lorenz completely naked.

Since I am a pasty white person, although technically translucent is more appropriate description, Kelly tells me I am a good candidate for Photofacials.  Medium complexions do fine, darker complexions not so much.  Finally, an advantage to being a Snow Queen!

IPL is like a photo facial?  You don't have to hide out for a week afterwards because your skin looks like hamburger?  Just a minor sunburn and swelling for a couple hours immediately afterwards?  And then, just like after a sunburn, skin gets dry, sloughs off, and you have to stay out of the sun for a week?  Okay, I'm in.  Not like I am going to see much sun anytime soon.

Did you take a close look at this photo of me without any make up on whatsoever?  Dave Harbor will spring snap you in the parking lot - be forewarned.  Clearly the fine lines are not quite so fine, and the redness is also well defined.  Nothing pretty about that, and it is only going to get worse.

Although Kelly assures me that I can expect to see immediate results, treatment gets broken up over six months to optimize the healing process.  It isn't cheap, the $1750 cost will eat up a dividend check.  I pause to reconsider.

The most expensive medical procedure I have had to-date was getting laser surgery to correct my vision, and that has easily been the biggest miracle of a gift I ever gave myself.  Every single day I am blessed with being able to see clearly.  Now that I can actually see myself in the mirror, it only makes sense to invest in making what is staring back at me look healthy.

So this woosey little 'fraidy cat is going to go for it.  Pray for me.