No matter what anybody claims, there is NO permanent hair removal laser that can treat tanned skin.  We recently had a client come up from the states that was absolutely irate because she admitted to being tanned and we refused to treat her.  Why would we do that?  I mean, she’s willing to pay for the treatment – why wouldn’t we take her money?  Because we didn’t want to burn her! Kudos to you, Adrienne, for standing your ground!

This is the way permanent lasers like the Lightsheer work: the laser emits a beam of energy that is attracted to the melanin (pigment) in the hair follicle.  Enough energy is released to destroy or permanently disable the follicle from producing hair in the future. Now, when your skin is tanned, there is excess melanin (pigment) at the surface of your skin.  The laser cannot determine if the melanin is in the hair follicle or your skin.  It doesn’t care.  All the laser cares about is the pigment. So if the pigment is in the skin cells (rather than the hair follicle), the energy produced will be absorbed by the skin cells resulting in one or a combination of three things: 1) Permanent hypo-pigmentation meaning that when your tan fades, you will have noticeable lighter spots where the laser killed the melanin in your skin; 2) Permanent hyper-pigmentation, meaning the laser didn’t kill the melanin, and when your tan fades, you will be left with square freckles because the laser only damaged the melanin in your skin and made it worse; 3) The energy (heat) from the laser is too intense and cannot be released due to the amount of melanin in your skin cells and you will be left with blistering burns that can leave permanent scars.

This is something we stress in consultation and ask every time someone comes in for re-treatment.  “Do you have sun exposure?” or “You cannot be tanned and receive Lightsheer treatment for X reason”.  For some reason, this particular customer couldn’t understand why we would be looking out for their best interest and not for our own wallet.  To us it makes more sense to say no to treatment than to risk permanently damaging our clients skin.  I simply can’t wrap my brain around why someone would be so mad at us for looking after their best interest.

The good news is I’m done ranting, and can offer two alternatives.  The first is wait a couple of weeks until your tan fades.  That way, you can be assured there is no risk to permanent damage to your skin.  The second is the Softlight laser.  The Softlight, while being non-permanent, will remove the hair without the risk of injuring your skin.  The Softlight is  a low level laser that only treats the superficial pigment of the hair.  It has excellent results for both coarse and fine hair, even on tanned or darker skin types.  Although it is not permanent, you can expect great results for months!

Here’s a video – hope it works  

You can see the hair instantly turns blonde and he doesn’t even flinch!  It’s a great alternative to the Lightsheer if you have a tan.

Anyway, this rant is long enough.  If you have any questions or concerns, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 or check out our hair removal page on our website.  Thanks, and look forward to seeing you soon!

Okay, I’m hoping the link below takes you to our short video about Glo Mineral makeup (yes, I know it says Delta laser, that’s because I wasn’t smart enough not ot use the clinic name it was filmed at). Don’t laugh, it was my first time, okay? Anyway, the point we were trying to make it that mineral makeup is far superior to the basic stuff you can buy at London Drugs or Shoppers, and it doesn’t really cost any more (unless you’re buying Bonnie Bell or the like).

I’ve been using products like Lancome, Estee Lauder, etc, and Glo Mineral Makeup isn’t any higher priced, but the big differences are these:

1) Glo Mineral Makeup is, as it says, mineral based. This means no bacteria can grow in the product so you don’t have to throw your stuff away every few months. For someone like me, who rarely wears makeup, this is a BIG bonus. I get so tired of spending money on new makeup, oh, and they don’t have that color you like anymore, oh yeah, and that type of lip gloss? Discontinued. And for people who experience acne, you don’t have to worry about bacteria growing in your makeup, because minerals are inert and don’t harbour bacteria, therefore you don’t have to worry about your brush touching a pimple and spreading that bacteria to another Glo Minerals product.

2) Glo Mineral Makeup was developed with people like you and me in mind. Our skin isn’t perfect, but we’d like to be able to cover the imperfections without looking like we’re going to crack when we smile – and I laugh alot. Glo Mineral Makeup is able to cover all kinds of skin problems – rosacea, brown spots, acne scarring, etc, without the heavy look or feel.

3) I don’t know about you, but my skin is extremely sensitive. I used a makeup remover for sensitive skin once, didn’t realize it had witch hazel in it, and walked around with a bright red rash for three days! Glo Mineral Makeup is so gentle to your skin, you don’t have to worry about allergic reactions – ever.

 

If you have any questions, or would like to book your Glo Mineral Makeover, please give us a call at 604-421-3111 or e-mail us at info@lougheedlaser.com to book your consultation.  Thanks and look forward to meeting you soon!

This year’s Women’s Weight Loss & Wellness Conference will be held on November 1 at the Executive Plaza Hotel at 405 North Road in Coquitlam.  The event starts at 9:30am and promises to be a fun-filled educational day just for women.

At the trade show in the morning you can learn about unique entry level workout programs; heart smart foods and supplements; dance; clothes to fit your body type; makeup and skin care; Yoga; Menopause information; naturopathic information and more…

In addition, there will be a series of live talks and demonstrations including our own Dr. Marcia Fleming who will be speaking at noon about the Soft Lift procedure. Other demos include cooking fast, well and healthy; Yoga for the beginner; entry level excercise and stretching; mineral makeup demonstrations; salsa dancing and food label reading.

For more information, please click the image below.  Thanks!

If you have acne scars you’re not alone.  Every day we get calls and e-mails regarding the removal of acne scars.  Our response is always the same – Fraxel Laser Treatment.  Too often we just expect everyone to know what we’re talking about when we throw those phrases around.  I’ve even had this discussion with the girls at our clinics – “of course everybody knows what Fraxel is and what it does, after all, it’s on tv!”.  Fortunately for me, not everyone has the extra time on their hands to watch tv during the day or else I’d be out of a job!

That being said, I guess I’ll start with what the Fraxel Laser is.  Simply put, Fraxel was the first laser of it’s kind in the rejuvenation market and has performed well over 500,000 treatments across North America with an unparalleled record of research, FDA clearances, proven results and physician endorsements.  Although you might hear other clinics talk about their “fractional” or “pixellated” laser treatments, there is only one Fraxel. There’s just nothing else like it for safely and effectively improving the appearance of your skin and creating a renewed self confidence.

The way Fraxel works is by shooting microscopic laser columns deep into the dermis causing tiny wounds, which trigger your body’s natural response system to heal those wounds.  This speeds up the remodelling of the natural collagen and elastin in your skin which results in smoother, tighter, fresher and more youthful looking skin.  Just as important is the area of skin that Fraxel treatment doesn’t touch. Because the treatment is so precise, the laser columns target only a fraction (get it? – “fractional”?) of skin at a time, leaving the surrounding tissue intact. This fractional treatment allows your body to heal the skin faster than if the entire area were treated at once.

Acne scars can occur as the skin heals from pimples, whiteheads and/or blackheads.  These scars are typically indented marks or raised, red areas that sometimes give the skin a wavy appearance and are caused by a variety of factors. Fraxel effectively removes damaged skin on the surface and reaches deep into the skin to stimulate collagen remodeling. In this way, Fraxel acne treatment improves the elasticity, texture and tone of your damaged skin while keeping your healthy tissue intact—which minimizes any discomfort or downtime. 

 Traditional approaches—such as deep chemical peeling, conventional lasers, topical agents and abrasion therapies—usually achieve only moderate results or, worse, they destroy a lot of healthy tissue along with the scar, and often require long recovery times. Fraxel laser is also better to remove acne scarring instead of more invasive treatments (invasive treatments are things like CO2 laser resurfacing which can lead to alot of down time due to scabbing, oozing puss, open wounds and the like) because there is minimal downtime - oh, and no puss.  

Fraxel Acne Treatment Before & After

 

Fraxel Acne Treatment Before & After

Over 20 million people in North America suffer from acne.  Acne scars left over from your teenage years can have a negative affect on your self-esteem. The Fraxel may be the solution you’re looking for to get rid of those embarrassing acne scars (without the use of blue dye – yeah!!).  Find out more about Fraxel laser by visiting our website, checking out our blog post “Photorejuvenation vs. Fraxel: What do I Choose?”. Or, simply give us a call at 604-421-3111 or e-mail at info@lougheedlaser.com to book your consultation and get started on the road to clear, smooth skin, and a brighter, more confident future!

A viewer, Judy, recently posted a comment referring to our blog: Botox: How Does it Work?”  Her comment was regarding the before and after photos – “Why do you have the women in the before and after photos for botox squinting?  Does this not create a false before photo.”

I was going to just post a response to Judy’s question, but then I thought, what a good subject for a blog!  I’m sure more than one person has wondered this.  The truth is, the women are squinting in both the before and after photos.  This is to show how Botox reduces what we refer to as “dynamic wrinkles”.

Photos Courtesy of Dr. Marcia Fleming

Photos Courtesy of Dr. Marcia Fleming

Dynamic wrinkles are created by using facial muscles to squint, frown, squinch (is that a word?) your nose, etc.  Over time, these wrinkles can become very pronounced, deep and ulitmately permanent, causing us to look years older than we are.  Not that there’s anything wrong with expression lines - nobody wants to look “frozen”, and ALL of our doctors realize that, but I don’t think anybody likes deep furrows on their brow either.

The way I usually decsribe the development of dynamic wrinkles is like this: when you go to the gym and work out, you are building muscle tissue that eventually grows and becomes stronger.  When you frown etc., you are working out your facial muscles, building them up and making them stronger, and eventually those muscles grow and make deep wrinkles because the muscle is big and trained to be in that position.

Botox causes those muscles to relax, thereby reducing dynamic wrinkles.  Over time the muscles weaken, and quite often that leads to fewer trips to the clinic for treatment and/or less Botox required to acheive the same result. 

Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with expression lines.  Even my 20 year old step daughter has laugh lines – and our doctors are very aware of this fact.  That’s why we always do an initial consultation and a two week follow up after treatment.  This way, we can use less Botox to achieve the desired result.  Kind of like cooking a steak – it’s better to under cook it because you can always put it back on the grill to get it done right.

Judy, hope this answers your question.  For some more light reading, you might want to look at “Botox: A Shot at Happiness”, The SoftLift Makeover with Botox & Juvederm, or visit our website to learn more.   If you’d like to call for more information, we can be reached at 604-421-3111 Monday through Thursday from 9am – 8pm and Friday and Saturday from 9am – 5pm, or by email at info@lougheedlaser.com.  As always, we welcome your questions and hope to be a help in any way possible.

Lougheed Laser Open House

Sorry for neglecting you all and not posting in a while.  Things have just been crazy since our Open House in April – you might be able to tell that because the title of this blog says “spring”, and now we are clearly into summer.  Between the ”Spring Into A New You” Open House on April 28th, and the charity event we hosted with our sister clinic, Delta Laser, on June 9th to help a local family whose lives have just been devastated by cancer, there hasn’t been much time to do any of the fun stuff!  I would like to take this chance to thank everyone who attended (or donated to the charity event) & helped make both evenings so successful!

The main topics of the April Open House were Fraxel Laser Treatment presented by Christie Ritchie of Reliant, SoftLift presented by our very own Dr. Marcia Fleming, Fashion Sense by Giovanni Amenta of Pink and Grey Style and Image Consulting (loooovve him!!!), and Glo Mineral makeup presented by Sharlene from Vivier.  

Giovanni is a girls best friend.  I’d like to have a miniature of him to take with me every time I go shopping.  Apparently, he started giving fashion advice at the age of 5 to his good friend, Barbie, and has been going strong ever since. He has this thing he calls 5 ways to make yourself look slimmer and this other thing where he gives certain clothing articles points and says you should always try to be a ten.  For example, you get one point for black patent stilettos, but two points if the toe has some bling.  One point for a bracelet, one for a necklace — you get the idea.  Yes, the ten points goes for men too!  I’ll have the videos posted on Viddler and YouTube by the end of the week.  Just do a search for Lougheed or Delta laser and you’ll be able to find us.

Our Charity Event was to help support the Cheung family.  In late November, Andrea Cheung and her children’s lives were devestated when they found out Rob, her husband of 13 years, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Rob doesn’t have life insurance and won’t be receiving help from his work since he’s self-employed, so Andrea still has to work her regular schedule at the Royal Columbian Hospital to make sure her family has the financial support needed to get through this tough time. 

The evening included presentations by Dr. Marcia Fleming and Giovanni Amenta, as well as a silent auction.  There was also a live auction for lunch for two with Trevor Linden as well as a signed jersey.  Congratulations to Laurie and Paul for winning that one! Woo hoo!  Our goal for the evening was to raise $1o,ooo for Rob & Andrea, and with everybody’s help, we managed to raise almost $11,000 that evening.  Thank you all soooo much! If you’d like to find out more about the Cheung’s, or if you missed the event but would still like to make a donation, I still have the cheungfamily page available on our website.

Again, thanks to all who attended either or both events.  If you missed out and didn’t get an invitation, you can go either to our Contact page or Newsletter subscription page.  There’s a button for event notifications.  Worse comes to worse, you can always call us at 604-421-3111.  Bye for now, and I promise I’ll post again later this week!

 The Soft Lift Makeover with Botox and Juvederm – so you can make the most of you!!!

OK, so have you heard the new BUZZ word… Soft Lift.  Let me tell you more about it. The Soft Lift is a new approach to discretely reverse the aging process. This treatment targets multiple signs of aging at the same time.  The whole idea behind the Soft Lift is by combining the dermal filler Juvederm with Botox Cosmetic, you get an overall result that will keep your own natural look in balance while providing an instantly more youthful looking you.  The best part about it is that it can be done in one session with no downtime. 

Here’s how it works: first we have the Botox.  Botox is a purified protein that relaxes muscles and smooths away wrinkles.  It can be used to treat horizontal forehead lines, frown lines in between your eyebrows and crow’s feet around your eyes.  This creates an overall more refreshed,  relaxed look.

Next we have the Juvederm.  Juvederm is a safe  injectable gel used to smooth away wrinkles and restore lost volume.  It  is made from hyaluronic acid, a sugar found naturally in your body.  Juvederm is used most often to smooth away lines around your mouth and nose, to enhance the lips, ( my personal fav), and to restore lost fullness to the cheek area.

So, in a nut shell, the Soft Lift combines Botox and Juvederm. The Botox will address the lines around the eyes and forehead that can often make a person look angry or tired, and the Juvederm is used to treat lines around the mouth and to restore the loss of fullness that can occur with aging in the cheeks, lips and chin.  They are recommending the Soft Lift for people in their 30’s right thru to their 50’s. 

Softlift Before and After

 

There you go – ”The Soft Lift” – you heard it here first!  If you want to know how the Soft Lift can benefit you, please call us @ 604-421-3111 or e-mail us at info@lougheedlaser.com and come in for your personal consultation with Dr. Fleming.  What are you waiting for?….

Photorejuvenation VS Fraxel:

Traditional facelifts are out.  The new generation of non-invasive, non-surgical procedures are in.  Lasers have been one of the most popular and easiest ways to achieve younger looking skin.  Both Fraxel and Photorejuvenation treatments are helping turn back the clock on aging without sugery.

So why choose one over the other?  Maybe this will help clear things up:

Photorejuvenation is a non-ablative process that is also often referred to as “IPL”.  This stands for Intense Pulse Light.  The Intense pulsed light is used to rejuvenate the skin.  These treatments are generally performed in a series of about three to five procedures, done in monthly intervals.  The beauty of this procedure is that the patient will return to their daily activities IMMEDIATELY after the treatment.

Photorejuvenation will best treat skin that has pigment change due to sun damage, hyperpigmentation or mottled pigmentation.  It also treats fine blood vessels (telangiectasias), symptoms of rosacea and flushing.  Photorejuvenation will also improve pore size, fine lines,wrinkles and improves the overall appearance and texture of your skin. 

Fraxel is also a non-invasive safe laser treatment that has the ability to take years off your appearance.  Fraxel treatments affect a fraction of your skin’s tissue at a time with thousands of microscopic laser coloumns.  Each coloumn is just one tenth the size of a hair follicle in diameter.  The laser coloumn stimulates the natural healing process within your own body.  Each coloumn stimulates new collagen production resulting in smoother,  younger looking skin.  The Fraxel is also revolutionary because it can also safely treat darker skin types, where Photorejuvenation cannot.  Fraxel treatments are generally performed as a series of about three to five procedures done in monthly intervals. 

With the Fraxel, a patient can expect some downtime.  After the procedure patients will often be quite red and swollen for approximately four days.  Because there is some downtime this procedure can interupt your lifestyle.

The Fraxel has FDA clearance to treat the following conditions: wrinkles, fine lines around the eye area, age spots/ sun spots, acne and surgical scars, melasma ( pregnancy mask), enveven pigment, sun induced redness, irregular texture and actinic keratosis (pre cancerous lesions).   Patients receiving the Fraxel treatment can expect minor resurfacing as well as smoother, healthier younger looking skin. 

So, to go back to the original question, why choose one over the other-

Photofacial is an excellent choice if your only concern is redness, superficial brown spots,  or if your lifestyle allows for no downtime.  Fraxel is a little quicker in showing more dramatic results, however it is more expensive and you must be able to allow for some downtime.  Fraxel will also do a better job if your concern is scarring, acne or surgical, as it does give some resurfacing.  Fraxel is also a better choice if you have a darker skin type because photorejuvenation is not tolerable on a darker skin.

If you have questions or would like to book your confidential consultation, please call us at 604-421-3111or e-mail info@lougheedlaser.com or post your comments. We will be glad to assist you in any way we can.

Are you tired of being lied to about laser hair removal?  Hopefully we can help.

The first thing to understand it that there is no such thing as permanent hair removal, only permanent hair reduction.  This is because, our bodies are completely covered with hair.  Most of that hair is too fine to be seen.  For example, I am one of the fortunate people who have barely visible hair on their arms, whereas my husband looks like he’s wearing a sweater year round.  The truly unfortunate thing is that there are laser clinics out there that tell you they can get rid of ALL of your unwanted hair, regardless of skin tone, follicle colour or thickness.  The good news is, whatever your situation, there is a laser that can provide better and more permanent results than plain waxing, threading, etc.

For example, the LightSheer Diode can effectively remove or ’reduce’ hair especially when the skin is very fair and the hair is very dark and coarse,( however the skin does not have to be fair.) Like myself, I’ve had three underarm treatments and haven’t shaved in four years.  The energy from this laser is attracted to the pigment in the hair follicle and effectively kills the follicle so it can’t produce new hair.  Therefore, having dark, coarse hair with fair skin provides optimal results.

Then, of course, for tanned skin or lighter, finer hair, there’s a laser called the SoftLight. This is a non-permanent laser which is primarily used to treat fine facial hair or men who have finer hair covering their back or who are too wimpy to take the LightSheer treatments (like my husband – look for his SoftLight video coming out soon – REALLY).  The benefit of the SoftLight is that it CAN be used on tanned or darker skin, the hair instantly turns blonde, the skin often feels smoother, and the effects of the hair removal last longer than the more conventional methods of hair removal like waxing or tweezing.

Here’s a before & after pic of a guy who was using our LightSheer after two treatments (10 weeks apart):

Lougheed Laser’s Laser Hair Removal Before & After Photo

So, I think you can see from the photo how effective LightSheer hair removal is…

For your complimentary consultation call 604-421-3111 or e-mail info@lougheedlaser.com.

“Botox: A Shot at Happiness” was recently featured in the Globe & Mail (Friday, April 3, 2009). According to a study done by Dr. Michael Lewis, an experimental psychologist at Cardiff University in Wales, shows that patients who have their frown lines treated with Botox  tend to be happier because they are in a better mood.

My husband brought this article to my attention, and when I read it I thought “Great blog!”. Apparently, this Dr. Lewis teamed up with a number of British cosmetic surgery clinics and followed 25 women who have undergone various facial procedures. Twelve women had their frown lines treated and 13 had other areas done with Botox. Questionnaires (including the “Irritability-Depression-Anxiety Scale”) were filled out after the treatments so the results could be quantified.

Women treated with Botox scored “significantly lower” on the anxiety and depression scale. However, looking younger and feeling refreshed didn’t seem to explain the difference as, according to the study, both groups were equally as happy with their results.

Dr. Lewis extrapolated (okay, guessed, but hey, I have to use the big words when I can) that a phenmenon called “facial feedback” is the cause of the happier feelings. Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that frowning naturally makes people unhappier and conversely, (like I said, big words), smiling naturally makes people happier.  Apparently there is growing evidence such as this to prove that theory true.

I mean, it’s common sense that when someone looks at you and says “hey, you look great today” instead of “oh, you look tired” or “what’s wrong? You look stressed, upset, or angry”, the “hey, you look great” is going to make you feel better about yourself and therefore happier. It’s like when you haven’t lost a single pound but people say “you look great, have you lost weight?” I always respond by saying, “Why, was I fat before?”, but it really does make me feel good that my peers think I look fabulous.

The more medical explanation of “facial feedback”, according to Dr. Marcia Fleming, is that the frown muscles are referred to as “negative muscles” and trigger negative responses in the brain, which in turn, make you less happy. On the other hand, when you smile you use “positive muscles” which release endorphins to the brain, and endorphins make you happy. So Botox prevents you from using your negative muscles and promotes positive muscle use, thereby promoting the release of endorphins in your brain, therefore making you happier.

It’s also my own experience that when you feel good about yourself and the way you look, you both display and carry yourself with more confidence. That, in turn, makes people perceive you as being happier, obviously more confident, more content – like you’ve got it all together, which I find really empowering. And when you feel like you can achieve, and you feel good about yourself, you can accomplish just about anything your heart desires.

And, BTW, Botox is also used to reduce or eliminate migraines and also control excessive sweating, commonly referred to as “hyperhidrosis”, which getting this condition under control, can also make a person happier…

So, for more information or to book a consultation, call us at 604-421-3111 or e-mail us at info@lougheedlaser.com. We’ll be “happy” to assist you in any way we can.