Diving Face First Into the Pursuit Of Glass Skin Through Laser Treatments — How Facials Are Different at Skin Laundry

Searching for a solution to nagging skin concerns? Whether you’re contending with acne scarring, hyperpigmentation, or deep wrinkles and fine lines, you might consider a facial laser treatment, or a series of them to tackle what irks you most.

But where to start? Ablative laser treatments like C02 and Erbium: YAG lasers — administered by a dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon — deliver real results by emitting a concentrated, intense beam of light to vaporize damaged, surface skin issues while heating deeper dermal layers to cause controlled micro-injuries. Damaged tissue is removed, sparking longterm collagen formation and a tighter, smoother and more rejuvenated visage.

But the big downside is recovery can take anywhere from one to theee weeks with residual redness in some cases lasting even longer.

If your lifestyle doesn’t afford you that kind of downtime, there’s an effective alternative that fortunately doesn’t involve an uncomfortable convalescence that leaves you looking like a burn victim after treatment. Skin Laundry, with locations across Houston, Dallas, Austin and now The Woodlands, offers non-ablative, but effective dermatologist-designed laser facials and protocols that are designed to be safe for all skin types and tones.

Backed by clinical research and medical oversight, their treatment schedules — or as Skin Laundry dubs them laundry cycles — are tailored to offer both immediate and longterm improvements.

“Just like building muscles at the gym, optimizing skin health takes time — it’s not a one-facial-and-done deal,” says Dr Roberta Del Campo, Skin Laundry’s chief medical officer. “We assess each client’s skin condition and get them on a personalized treatment plan with carefully spaced intervals designed to deliver maximum benefits while minimizing side effects.”

The Skin Laundry Process

Facials are performed by licensed, trained professionals under the supervision of a team of board-certified dermatologists. Each registered nurse and laser specialist receives rigorous, ongoing training in Skin Laundry protocols, learning to assess your skin’s profile before a laser even touches it. Unlike ablative laser procedures, there isn’t a need to apply topical numbing cream prior to the procedure to dull the pain, as there isn’t any pain. But you should arrive with a freshly washed face.

Initially, the introduction to Skin Laundry typically comes with a Signature Laser Facial or perhaps the Power Signature Facial (which delivers twice the energy of the former). Either is only administered after an analysis of your skin’s sensitivity. The 15-minute sessions are designed to deliver high-energy, infrared light beneath the skin’s surface to painlessly correct and work to prevent breakouts, calm redness, rosacea and breakup hyperpigmentation, all while stimulating collagen production.

After 10 to 14 days, if you’ve tolerated the first treatment well, one can either repeat the same protocol or try a more powerful one. In addition, like an aesthetic buffet, you can add on enhancements. Options include a detoxifying carbon peel to remove excess oil, bacteria and the debris that clogs pores — great for those battling breakouts. Or try, as I did, the tingling rejuvenator, a gentle chemical peel designed to brighten, lighten and tighten the skin on the face, neck, and chest. It’s about walking away with that glass-like skin, the K-Beauty aspirational standard for hydrated, radiant skin that’s taken over TikTok.

Options abound. When your pores are open and thirsty, one can elect to finish with one of Skin Laundry’s pharmaceutical-grade serums, such as the cell regenerator. Formulated with buzzy actives like PDRN derived from salmon DNA, synthetic exosomes, snail mucin and plant stem cells, this is a two-step, scientifically advanced, regenerative post-facial treatment that works at the cellular level to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles, improve firmness, elasticity and accelerate healing.

A Skin Treatment Veteran Weighs In

As a veteran of many ablative laser treatments procured elsewhere, after I completed the power signature facial at Skin Laundry, a couple of weeks later, I tried their most comprehensive offering, The Power Duo Facial, which targets the surface and deeper layers of the skin simultaneously. This duo combines the Power Signature with the Power Resurfacing Facials, the latter is Skin Laundry’s answer to the popular anti-aging therapy, microneedling with fractional RF (radio frequency), a device that delivers microscopic injuries to the skin through short, thin needles, while the RF component heats the skin to tighten and regenerate the elastin fibers.

Skin Laundry’s nano-fractional resurfacing RF tool works at a shallower depth and doesn’t actually pierce your skin. Rather it just hovers at the surface, and when the tool is triggered, a wave of heat is sent through to your pores, stimulating the body’s natural inflammatory healing process, increasing skin cell turnover and creating microchannels that enable greater absorption of products like serums.

Aftercare instructions for that treatment suggest that for the next 72 hours, you use just a gentle cleanser free of active ingredients, avoid heat exposure (saunas, steam rooms), and, surprisingly, do not use sunscreen and moisturizers while you repeatedly apply hyaluronic acid serum. I experienced only slight redness post-protocol that lasted for a few hours, and in the days after, a noticeable firmness appeared along with a more even skin tone, with discoloration diminished.

Before-and-after photos on the Skin Laundry site show remarkable results for some who show up consistently over several months, with a customized cocktail of laser, resurfacing treatments and peels to achieve lasting results.

Skin Laundry’s pricing is based around one’s level of membership, ranging from a prevent and protect program for $150 a month to $550 monthly for an all-access membership to the maximum number of facials monthly, as well as enhancements and peels.

Houston has a Skin Laundry in the Montrose Collective mixed-use development (888 Westheimer Road) and another in Uptown Park. Dallas has Skin Laundry clinics in The Hill mixed-use development and in Lakewood at 6406 Gaston Avenue. The Woodlands’ new Skin Laundry is located at 1950 Hughes Landing Boulevard.