I have been tall (6'2) and have always been considered handsome by most people. But I have had moderate-severe acne scars. A fair evaluation of myself from a facial structure would be maybe an 8/10. I'm not Brad Pitt but I have a decent facial structure and in good shape/well dressed.
I have high self confidence and decent game so it never stopped me. But the girls I was getting were always less attractive (like 4s and 5s). Every time I would hit on a 7 or above, I would get the cold shoulder. If it was online dates - I would obviously look better in my photos because of gentle air brushing them - so I would meet 7s, and in person I could see them stare at my skin and the dates would not lead anywhere.
This year - I took an aggressive approach at treating my acne scars. It was actually a lot cheaper than I expected. All in, I spent about $6,000. But you could easily spend twice as much and not see good results. So I am going to give you guys a breakdown of what I did and what impact it had.
First: the impact!
As I mentioned, I have a decent facial structure - but I feel like with the scars, it brought me down to a 5/10 or even worse. My scars were moderate-severe. I had a combination of all types of scars, icepicks, rolling scars, boxcar scars, even several hypertrophic (raised) scars.
After 8 months of working on my scars, I have had an 80-85% improvement in my skin and I believe I will be able to get it to 95% by the end of the year. So right now - my skin is not perfect by any means. But the quality of dates that I am getting has improved dramatically! The 7s and the 8s that were turning their backs on me are very flirty now. Even occasional 9s are very receptive. I recently flirted with an engaged woman who was a solid 9/10 high powered executive and she was very flattered that I am hitting on her in her words "being so good looking". I didn't get these kinds of comments a year ago from women.
I am closing almost every online date I am getting now. Before, I only managed to get 25% of first dates into date #2, now it's 90%+.
For the $6,000 I spent on these treatments - it has made a huge difference in my life.
The treatment:
I followed Acne.org forums on scar treatment and I learned a lot. I had to treat every single different acne scar procedure out there, so if you have a combination of acne scars, this is likely what you have to do as well.
- Infini RF (this is the most expensive treatment, it's radiofrequency with microneedling. It injects your face with ~25,000 needles per treatment and pulses heat to stimulate dermal burns that result into collagen and elastin production. This breaks down boxcar scars and turns them into rolling scars which end up rising gradually from collagen production). For me 3 treatments of Infini resulted in a 40% improvement. This usually costs $1,000 a piece.
- Subcision (they cut underneath the scar with a nokor needle to free up tethering and lift the rolling/boxcar scars). For me, 3 treatments resulted in a 20% improvement for me. These are usually ~$300 a piece
- Bellafill - permanent injectable filler to help level off any scars that are too deep for Infini/Subcision to correct. This is ~$800 a syringe. I needed two injections. Some people might need more if your scars are more severe.
- Vbeam - reduces all redness associated with acne scars (this is $300 a piece, you will need 2 or 3)
- TCA cross - 100% TCA - for spot treating ice pick scars and enlarged pores
- TCA peels - 25 to 30% TCA - for overall texture & pores at the very end
How do you do this in 8 months to a year?
- Alternate between Infini RF & Subcision (with vacuuming) every 3 weeks. This will take about 4 months but will get rid of most of your boxcar scars and rolling scars.
- Immediately after your last subcision treatment heals, start doing TCA cross treatments. These need 6 weeks in between. You will want to do 3 of these as well. These take care of your ice pick scars.
- About two months after your last Infini, get Bellafill filler to take care of rolling scars that are left over
- Continue doing TCA cross until you are happy with how your enlarged pores and ice picks look
- After this, do several medium level depth peels (25-30% TCA for Caucasian skin, lower percentage for darker/Asian skin tone)
- At the very end, after you have done everything - do a series of 3x vbeam vascular lasers to remove all redness in the skin tone. This disintegrates red marks and red blood vessels from the face and leaves your skin one nice even tone.
Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, this is a log of my treatment - do your own research! Don't do permanent damage to your face! And always see the very best doctors you can afford to pay for. Don't take short cuts with $$.
I have high self confidence and decent game so it never stopped me. But the girls I was getting were always less attractive (like 4s and 5s). Every time I would hit on a 7 or above, I would get the cold shoulder. If it was online dates - I would obviously look better in my photos because of gentle air brushing them - so I would meet 7s, and in person I could see them stare at my skin and the dates would not lead anywhere.
This year - I took an aggressive approach at treating my acne scars. It was actually a lot cheaper than I expected. All in, I spent about $6,000. But you could easily spend twice as much and not see good results. So I am going to give you guys a breakdown of what I did and what impact it had.
First: the impact!
As I mentioned, I have a decent facial structure - but I feel like with the scars, it brought me down to a 5/10 or even worse. My scars were moderate-severe. I had a combination of all types of scars, icepicks, rolling scars, boxcar scars, even several hypertrophic (raised) scars.
After 8 months of working on my scars, I have had an 80-85% improvement in my skin and I believe I will be able to get it to 95% by the end of the year. So right now - my skin is not perfect by any means. But the quality of dates that I am getting has improved dramatically! The 7s and the 8s that were turning their backs on me are very flirty now. Even occasional 9s are very receptive. I recently flirted with an engaged woman who was a solid 9/10 high powered executive and she was very flattered that I am hitting on her in her words "being so good looking". I didn't get these kinds of comments a year ago from women.
I am closing almost every online date I am getting now. Before, I only managed to get 25% of first dates into date #2, now it's 90%+.
For the $6,000 I spent on these treatments - it has made a huge difference in my life.
The treatment:
I followed Acne.org forums on scar treatment and I learned a lot. I had to treat every single different acne scar procedure out there, so if you have a combination of acne scars, this is likely what you have to do as well.
- Infini RF (this is the most expensive treatment, it's radiofrequency with microneedling. It injects your face with ~25,000 needles per treatment and pulses heat to stimulate dermal burns that result into collagen and elastin production. This breaks down boxcar scars and turns them into rolling scars which end up rising gradually from collagen production). For me 3 treatments of Infini resulted in a 40% improvement. This usually costs $1,000 a piece.
- Subcision (they cut underneath the scar with a nokor needle to free up tethering and lift the rolling/boxcar scars). For me, 3 treatments resulted in a 20% improvement for me. These are usually ~$300 a piece
- Bellafill - permanent injectable filler to help level off any scars that are too deep for Infini/Subcision to correct. This is ~$800 a syringe. I needed two injections. Some people might need more if your scars are more severe.
- Vbeam - reduces all redness associated with acne scars (this is $300 a piece, you will need 2 or 3)
- TCA cross - 100% TCA - for spot treating ice pick scars and enlarged pores
- TCA peels - 25 to 30% TCA - for overall texture & pores at the very end
How do you do this in 8 months to a year?
- Alternate between Infini RF & Subcision (with vacuuming) every 3 weeks. This will take about 4 months but will get rid of most of your boxcar scars and rolling scars.
- Immediately after your last subcision treatment heals, start doing TCA cross treatments. These need 6 weeks in between. You will want to do 3 of these as well. These take care of your ice pick scars.
- About two months after your last Infini, get Bellafill filler to take care of rolling scars that are left over
- Continue doing TCA cross until you are happy with how your enlarged pores and ice picks look
- After this, do several medium level depth peels (25-30% TCA for Caucasian skin, lower percentage for darker/Asian skin tone)
- At the very end, after you have done everything - do a series of 3x vbeam vascular lasers to remove all redness in the skin tone. This disintegrates red marks and red blood vessels from the face and leaves your skin one nice even tone.
Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, this is a log of my treatment - do your own research! Don't do permanent damage to your face! And always see the very best doctors you can afford to pay for. Don't take short cuts with $$.
