10 Tips to Speed Up Peeling After a Chemical Peel
Chemical peeling is a process that requires patience. The effects of a chemical peel take days to weeks and sometimes months to become apparent.
Now the peeling process itself can make your skin look extremely sickly and unsightly. This is why you would want to speed it up and get the peeling stage over as fast as possible.
That’s why in this article we are going to share with you 10 tips on How to Speed Up the Peeling of your Skin after a Chemical Peel to quickly make your skin look amazing.
How Long Does Peeling Last for After a Chemical Peel
There are different types of chemical peels and the rate at which skin peeling occurs and progresses will vary. Generally, chemical peels can be grouped into three broad categories:
Type of Peel | Light Peels | Medium-Depth Peel | Deep Peels |
How Long Peeling Lasts for after Chemical Peels | Peeling begins within 24-48 hours and lasts about 3-7 days. | Starts to Peel around the 7th day & peeling goes to the 14th day. | Peeling will start around day 3-5 and will continue beyond day 14. |
Light or Superficial Peels
These peels result in a sunburn-like reaction where the skin becomes red. Scaling and peeling from a light peel should begin within 24-48 hours and should last about 3-7 days. Citation.
The most common superficial peels in a clinical setting are 30-50% glycolic acid, 30% salicylic acid, pyruvic acid, lactic acid, and mandelic acid. Citation.
Related Article – What to Expect After a Chemical Peel & When Do You Recover
Medium-Depth Peels
In the first 48 hours, there is expected to be some swelling, redness, stinging, and flaking of the skin. Blisters may develop and break open.
However, by day 7, the skin will crust over and start to peel. Skin peeling from a medium-depth peel will last from day 7 to around day 14. Citation.
The most common chemical agents currently used for medium-depth peeling are 70% glycolic acid and 35 to 50% TCA, with or without the addition of Jessner’s solution or solid carbon dioxide. Citation.
Deep Peels
Deep peels are no longer commonly performed as there is more risk for complications and it takes a long time to heal.
However, after you would have had your deep peel performed in a surgical setting, the area will be bandaged. Under the bandage, deep, dark, dusky redness and swelling will occur.
Eventually, this will become full-thickness skin-cell death with some oozing, crusting, and fever within 24 to 48 hours. Peeling will start around day 3-5 and will continue beyond day 14.
During this time, your doctor will provide and instruct you on how to care for your skin to prevent infection or complications. Skin will take about 6 months to fully heal. Citation.
The most commonly used deep chemical peels are high concentration TCA (≥50%), and the phenol peel. Citation.
10 Tips to Speed up Peeling after a Chemical Peel
There are many things that you can do to speed up the chemical peeling process:
1- Ensure that your Skin is Well-Prepped
Speak to your doctor about the right way to prepare your skin for your chemical peel and follow all of the pre-peel instructions.
The type of preparation your skin needs will depend on your skin type and the kind of chemical peel that you are getting.
Related Article – Chemical Peel AfterCare Tips To Heal Fast & Common FAQ
2- Follow your Post-peel Instructions
Your doctor is expected to give you a list of dos and don’ts to make sure that your skin can fully benefit from your chemical peel. Following that list will boost your peeling experience.
3- Do NOT Manually Exfoliate Your Skin
Even though we might be tempted to “assist” by manually exfoliating our skin to get off the dead skin cell, we should NOT.
Manually exfoliating the skin after a chemical peel with scrubs, gloves, or loofahs could further irritate and damage the skin by causing micro-tears.
This will only prolong the healing process and provide an opportunity for scars to develop.
4- Keep your Skin Clean
This does not mean that you need to go crazy with the cleansers and scrubs and toners. However, it is important to wash your face at least twice daily – this can be with simple, gentle soap and water.
5- Do Not touch your Skin excessively & Do Not Pick at your Skin
Your hands and nails have all kinds of bacteria on them and this can lead to infections. Picking at your skin can also cause damage which can result in scarring and prolong the peeling process and healing.
6- Avoid Hot showers for the first 3 days or As Long as Possible
The skin is very sensitive after a chemical peel and hot water, steam or other forms of heat can cause burns and hypersensitivity that can affect the peeling process and healing.
7- Moisturize, But Do not Overdo it
It is beneficial to apply a light moisturizer to your skin after a chemical peel to prevent overdrying.
However, the skin does need to flake and shed (even if it is microscopically) in order for the process to work. Therefore, remember to use your moisturizer consciously.
8- Always use sunscreen and limit sun exposure
If your skin gets damaged from the sun, instead of shedding and peeling to produce fresh skin, it will instead have to produce an inflammatory response to heal the sunburn.
Therefore, instead of fresh skin, you may end up with damaged skin.
9- Allow your Skin time to Peel Naturally
Do not dive right back into your normal skincare routine and pack various serums, lotions, and other products or makeup on your face. This will slow down the skin’s ability to peel and shed.
10 Rest and Hydrate
It is important to support the skin in its effort to repair and renew without further stress. Get plenty of rest and stay away from coffee and alcohol.
Why Skin Not Peeling After Chemical Peel
I have an entire article that will give your 5 reasons why your skin may not peel after a chemical peel, click here to read it.
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Can You Get a Chemical Peel When Pregnant or Breastfeeding
Chemical Peel Gone Wrong – What to Do & How to Prevent