Many skin goals can be met with laser treatments. These services can be used to boost collagen production, smoothen fine lines, or treat and tighten skin. But these services can be difficult to schedule. These treatments usually require some downtime. Your skin may become red, flaky, or rough during this time. This is why it is becoming increasingly popular to combine multiple treatments in one session. You’ll get better results and minimize disruption to your daily life. Sam Pang, an aesthetic nurse practitioner says that layering treatments (also known as combination therapy) can provide powerful results to maximize benefits and minimize adverse effects. It also saves time for clients.
These interwoven, non-surgical treatment combinations are considered to be “the future of aesthetics.” They are called “Stackable Treatments”, a term invented to describe their complementary and synergistic use. Dr. Few tells that the Stackable Treatments approach focuses on three main components of aging: skin wrinkling and loss of volume. It does this by layering innovative peels and injectables with laser and ultrasound treatments.
“You’re already going to be down once, so let’s go ahead and take advantage of the downtime and enhance the effect of all the treatments,” reasons , a board-certified dermatologist. “As long we don’t do anything that is too aggressive [for skin] or that is harmful to another treatment, we know we will get an additional benefit from the combination of different technologies at once.”
Ahead, we speak to skin-care experts in order to break down four of the best layering treatments that’ll have the greatest impact on your skin. This combination increases collagen, improves the appearance of pores and fine lines, as well as gives skin a healthy glow.
Lasers, like Clear + Brilliant, create tiny channels in your skin that allows topical products, like your serums and moisturizers, to penetrate deep into your skin. PRP is a great time to use it. We know that PRP is great at stimulating collagen and elastin growth. We know that if we increase the effect and make it deeper into the skin, we’ll get a stronger effect. There are two types of the Clear + Brilliant Laser. Clear + Brilliant Permea is available if you are interested in reducing hyperpigmentation.
BBL Hero or BBL Halo + Radiofrequency + Microneedling
When it comes to removing pigment, tightening the skin, and promoting collagen, Dr. Emer’s uses a radiofrequency and microneedling device to stimulate collagen above and below the surface of the skin. The BBL Hero (by Sciton) is next. It’s an IPL treatment that removes surface-level pigmentation caused by sun damage. This makes it ideal for eliminating undesirable browns and reds. The BBL Halo treatment can also be used to smoothen texture and fade scarring from acne.
After this treatment, PRP is applied like a serum to the skin in order to promote healing and reduce inflammation. This is a reminder that IPL treatments should not be used on people with melasma and those with darker skin tones.
“We have also been experimenting more with microneedling,” says Dr. Hartman. It might be useful for treating melasma. There has been an increase in studies that have looked at the effectiveness microneedling. He also noted that microneedling helped to restore color from hypopigmentation (aka loss of pigment due sun damage or tattoo removal).
Are Layering Treatments for You?
When the right treatments are combined, they can treat a variety of skin conditions. Your skin type, skin diagnosis, and desired results will determine the best treatment course for you. It’s also important to remember that taking care of your post-laser skin-care routine matters as well. Your treatments will be successful if you continue to follow your home-care routine long after sessions are over. This includes applying and reapplying sun protection regularly. The efforts of dedicated skin-care enthusiasts are well worth it.
