Fall is the Best Time for Laser Treatments

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We rarely see patients who have not done some type of internet research about their skin concerns or their cosmetic options. The challenge, however, is that the information you see online is not always complete or accurate. As a reliable resource, we’re happy to fill in the gaps for you.

Around this time of year, we often have clients asking about laser skin treatments, saying, “I’ve heard that if you’re going to get laser treatments, it’s best to have them in the fall. Is that true?”

Whether you’re considering laser hair removal, laser skin resurfacing, Botox, or another of SkinSpeMED's many available options, yes, fall is an ideal time to get started, and here’s why:

Sun Exposure

Laser skin treatments may be done for a cosmetic purpose, but they’re still true medical procedures that need to be handled with care. While side effects from laser procedures are typically mild and temporary, sun exposure increases them many times over. If you’re exposed to the sun before or after your laser treatment, it increases the likelihood that your skin will develop unwanted dark spots (hyperpigmentation) or light spots (hypopigmentation), and these pigment problems can be very long-lasting. For laser procedures that repair surface damage by exfoliating damage skin cells (like traditional or fractionated laser skin resurfacing), your skin will also be very sensitive to sun damage after your procedure, so you run other risks as well.

To help your laser treatment produce the best possible results with minimal risk of side effects, we recommend that clients protect their skin from the sun for 4-6 weeks before and after any laser skin treatment.

This means avoiding spending a lot of time outside in the sun, wearing sunscreen daily and reapplying it as instructed, and wearing sun-protective clothing as well as sunscreen when you go outside. As you can imagine, this can be difficult and inconvenient during the spring and summer when you want to spend your weekends lounging around a pool, enjoying the park, going to barbecues, and otherwise taking advantage of the warm weather. For this reason, the cooler months of fall and winter make it much easier for patients to minimize their risk of side effects from laser procedures.