I have already told you how pleased I am with my recent Vi Peel which sloughed off tons of dead brown cells from my face and left it pink and glowing.   I also told you that I live by the motto, “more is more,” so now I would like to tell you about Dermaplaning, a non-invasive procedure that takes your peel one step further.

Ten days after I lifted my once freckled face to my aesthetician Dr.Anca Tchelebi- Moscatello, I returned to her spa in Armonk New York and eased myself onto a cozy heated bed. This time I allowed aesthetician Svetlana Kouzmetsov to take a tiny scalpel to my already flaking pink face and scrape off even more dead cells. The experience was not at all as traumatic as it sounds, and the results were actually quite gratifying.

Not to say that it was entirely pleasant either.  First Lana applied that lovely smelling acetone to my face in order to clean and degrease it.  That way, she explained, the dead skin cells are disentangled from the fresh ones and can easily be separated and disposed of.  This is a good thing.

Then she took her little scalpel, a 1/12” surgical blade, and literally “shaved” the remaining dead cells off my face; a process that is no riskier than a man shaving his face, as long as you go to someone who is experienced.  When the scraping process was completed to Lana’s satisfaction, she applied a glycolic acid peel to my skin to tighten the pores and loosen the cells even more.  This stings a little and smells a lot, but only for a minute.

The next step seemed a little futuristic.  Its called cryogenic therapy and all I could think of is the rumor about Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen in order to preserve his body for the future.  But “preserve” being the operative word, I told Lana to go for it.  She then brushed my face with a dry ice, acetone and carbon dioxide combination and the coolness felt great against my skin. It is an anti-inflammatory and it also closes and sanitizes any possible wounds from the scraping and peeling.  Again, this is a good thing. Just make sure you go to a reputable spa or dermatologist, because the scalpel can cut you and the peel can blister your skin. 

At this point Lana hands me a mirror and I can see that my skin looks plump, smooth, but a little flat. So I allow her to apply an oxygen mist by placing gauze over my face and spraying it with oxygen and water.  This was very soothing and afterwards my skin really was glowing.

Now, when I got home, did my husband say, boo?  No, but a friend of mine who has the same aging concerns as I do, not only said my skin looked ten years younger, she booked a peel for herself. My next step is Photo Regeneration. I’ll keep you posted.

One day, two years ago I bought a new digital scale.  I took off all of my clothes, every piece of jewelry and, holding tightly to the edge of the sink, I tiptoed on to the high tech weighing machine.  The number that popped up in black and white and stared me straight in the face was a solid ten pounds higher than the number my old scale used to dial up.

Now I really resent when people who are over 45 surrender to father time. However, I must admit that I was confused because I had not changed my routine; I still exercised seven days a week and I really wasn’t eating excessively.  Still, I refused to hide behind the age card, so I went to Dr. Bruce Bloom, a man who touts himself as the “Health Coach of Westchester,” and he set me straight.

As we age, Bloom told me, “The rules of the game change dramatically.  The model we once had is older and less energy efficient.”  By the way, that doesn’t only mean you may gain weight, when your metabolism breaks down you can also get more wrinkles – it’s all part of the same degenerative process.  “The single most important physiological function of the human body,” Bloom insists,  “is to convert fuel to energy.”

The first thing we did to see what was wrong with my older and slower metabolism was to run an electrical current through my body (no it doesn’t hurt) to get a break down of how much of my weight was fat, protein, water and muscle.   To my chagrin that extra ten pounds was fat.

Apparently I had killed my metabolism by eating the way I had been since college.  Basically, that meant not eating at all until at least four o’clock in the afternoon. Coffee carried me through my errands, and it wasn’t until the witching hour- that would be the time when I cooked dinner for my kids- that I allowed myself some fuel.  My body thought it was starving, so the food I fed it was stored as fat. UGH!

Resurrecting my metabolism took some discipline.  First I had to detoxify by drinking a very foul concoction that tasted like sulphur, or perhaps you can identify better with a rotten egg; either way, you get the picture. Bloom also believes in taking natural supplements that he says help your cells burn fuel more efficiently, or as he puts it,  “They turn on a metabolic switch.”  Still, the most important thing I did was to eat.

For the first time in my adult life I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks.  My calories for the day totaled about 1200.  I was allowed to eat as many green vegetables as I wanted, but only three ounces of protein with each meal for the first four weeks.   After that I upped the protein to six ounces and in a month and a half I had lost 15 pounds.  Oh yeah, and my nighttime snack was a glass of red wine!

Now, after we pass a certain age, we have been told by beauties such as Catherine Deneuve that we have to choose between north and south – our faces or our bodies. I am 5’4” and have never worn larger than a size 6, so I was shocked, even embarrassed, that I could lose that much weight and still not look gaunt. According to my health coach that was because my body composition was divided up properly and I had lost fat without losing protein or muscle.  So you see- you can have your cake and eat it too!

To Peel or Not to Peel:  If you want to look younger the answer is, yes.

I have had freckles all of my life.  I hated them until I realized that freckles could hide a multitude of sins, from pimples, when you are a teenager, to wrinkles as you age, or at least so I thought.  But my aesthetician informed me that many of those, what used to be called, “cute little brown spots” that sprinkled my face, were actually age spots, and there is nothing “cute” about age spots.

So I agreed to bite the bullet and subject my freckles, to a chemical peel: the latest and greatest being touted as the “Vi Peel.” I entrust my face to Dr. Anca Tchelebi-Moscatello in Armonk, New York, a woman who has never met a wrinkle or a brown spot that she likes.  Dr.Tchelebi also has offices in Rye Brook, New York and on Park Avenue in New York City.  She was offering a special on her version of the “Vi Peel” for $300. So on a Saturday afternoon I reclined on a lounge in one of her offices, and lifted my chin while the good doctor painted a substance that smelled a lot like acetone, probably because it is acetone, on my entire face and neck.  It burned for a few minutes but, hey, no pain no gain. 

Afterwards, I went to the movies and the only problem I had was not being able to get away from myself because I reeked of what can only be described as the scent of nail polish remover.  Still, I managed to leave the solution on my face until the next morning.  However, if you are a wimp, you can wash it off after four hours, but the peel will go deeper the longer you leave it in contact with your skin.  

That night I cleaned my face, what a relief, and applied a Retin A towelette that was provided for me, and went to sleep. When I awoke the next morning my face was tight, a little swollen, and I looked like I was sunburned.  However, by the end of the day, my face resembled my favorite chocolate alligator pocketbook – brown, wrinkly and old- but I went to my tennis clinic anyway.  It’s funny; people won’t say anything, if you don’t.

Day four, I had chunks of dried brown skin that threatened to fall off onto the tennis court, but I managed to get myself home where I practically immersed my face in a tub of Aquaphor.  The Vaseline-like substance made me not only feel a lot better, it allowed me to easily slough off the dead skin and, I must tell you, the line of demarcation between the dead charred cells and the new pink ones was actually remarkable.

Now I have had laser treatments that promise the same result, and I promise, as far as the pain and  the gross-out family factor, the peel was a lot less scary. What is scary, however, is getting a peel from someone who is not qualified; you can burn and you can scar. Also remember, everyone’s skin is different.  Make sure you go to a doctor and she chooses a peel that is right for you, whether it is light, medium or deep.

At least three people have told me that my skin looks as fresh as a newborn baby’s butt and, while I realize that is an exaggeration, I also know it was a lot easier to look in the mirror on Thursday than it was on the Saturday morning before the peel. One week later, my skin is still slightly pink and a bit flaky, but a little makeup and a lot of moisturizer go a long way.  

So, the answer to the question, “to peel or not to peel?” Definitely, go for the peel!  By the way, I’m taking this one step further.  Next week I’m going for a dermaplaning, where they use a small surgical blade to scrape away even more dead skin; after all, I always say, more is more.