Plastic surgeon weighs in on extreme laser treatments

As more and more celebrities swear off of injectables like Botox and fillers, many are turning to intensive laser treatments to keep their skin youthful and glowing. 

Despite the brutal recovery process, stars are walking away from extreme laser facials with brighter, clearer, and much more youthful skin.

Fans of CO2 laser resurfacing include actress Ellen Barkin, singer Jhene Aiko, Love Island’s Alexandra Cane, and Real Housewives of Orange County star Tamra Judge – who bought herself the laser treatment and a brow lift as a 57th birthday present.

Explaining the procedure to DailyMail.com, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Sykes in Beverly Hills said, ‘It’s a treatment that basically takes off layers of the skin to make the skin smoother.’

He continued, ‘It creates a little bit of tightening, but more so it just rejuvenates the whole skin texture. It’s really good in combination with surgery. For people that have sagging, you lift them and then you make the quality of their skin better.’

Dr Sykes said that it’s generally safe to get plastic surgery and a laser treatment in one session – like RHOC star Judge did – but stressed that it needs to be done by an ‘experienced person.’

When it comes to different treatments, Dr Sykes explained that patients can opt for the full CO2 laser resurfacing, or less intensive fractional lasering.

Recovery time for fractional lasers can be as little as a few days, while a full CO2 laser treatment can last around two weeks and can be incredibly painful for the first few days.

Dr Sykes also recommends Erbium laser resurfacing, which is more focused than other lasers and comes with less risk of scarring.

In recent years, celebrities have started turning away from fillers and Botox so that they can achieve a more natural look.

Last year, Blac Chyna got the fillers in her cheeks, jawline and lips dissolved, saying, ‘enough is enough.’

Yolanda Hadid, Molly-Mae Hague, Megan McKenna, and Courtney Cox have all pulled back on injectables too.

Barkin also ditched Botox after feeling that it hindered her ability to be expressive as an actress. 

‘I don’t like the way [Botox] makes people look. Too many people go overboard, and for an actress, that’s deadly. It keeps you from being able to have expressions,’ she previously told Oprah.com.

She dived deeper into her love of lasers with Violet Grey, telling the website, ‘I have not been under the knife. I laser. And I’ve tried every type of laser out there.’

She continued, ‘Now I’m into the Ulthera Laser. I do it once a year. It’s extremely painful. You don’t have any downtime at all. And I am religious about my Fraxels. It gets rid of discoloration and smooths out the surface of your skin. I still have hardly any pores on my face.’

Meanwhile, Real Housewives of Orange County’s Tamra Judge recently vowed to stop going under the knife after a ‘brutal’ brow lift, CO2 laser facial and chemical peel left her in agonizing pain.

The reality star, who splashed out on the surgical makeover as a 57th birthday gift to herself, has spent days recovering in bed from the procedures.

‘The pain is coming in different ways,’ she told DailyMail.com.

‘At first it was my forehead that hurt so bad for three days. I couldn’t even listen to people talk. I couldn’t have the TV on. All I could do is just lie in one spot,’ she continued. 

‘So after a couple of days of that, then it became my teeth that were throbbing, and then my sinuses were throbbing, and now my face is crunchy. So every day it’s something new.’ 

Judge said that she’s cleared her entire schedule for the next two weeks to focus on recovering.

When asked why she went back under the knife, Judge admitted that she was trying to balance out a lower face lift she’d had done back in 2017.

‘I had a lower facelift, so it was like my brows were starting to get heavy but my lower face was staying the same,’ she explained.

‘So I felt like, you know what, I’m going to go ahead and get a brow lift!’ 

When she went in to consult with Newport Beach surgeon Dr. Donald Mowlds, he suggested that she also do a CO2 laser treatment and blue chemical peel to help with the texture and appearance of her skin.

‘I have a lot of brown spots and fine lines and stuff like that, so it’s supposed to take 10 years off your skin,’ she explained.

‘So I said, “Sure, let’s do it” – not knowing that the CO2 laser was going to be this brutal!’ the reality star admitted.

Judge said she decided to get it done after her 57th birthday, pointing out ‘sixty is around the corner.’

‘So I might as well do it now because there’s got to be an age where I just stop caring,’ she quipped.

Unlike some of her fellow Real Housewives stars, Judge said it was important for her to be ‘open and transparent’ about the work she’s had done.

‘I don’t want people to think I’m doing nothing and this is the way I look. And if I can help somebody else be like, “You know what? I want to do that too. I want to feel better about myself.” Why not?’

As for the future, the star says she’s back to focusing on leading a healthy lifestyle through diet and exercise and has no plans to have any more work done.

Judge has been documenting her excruciating recovery process on social media.

On Sunday, she shared an update on day three of her recovery, with her face looking much more swollen and her skin peeling, as she told her followers it felt like her skin was ‘going to burst.’

‘I don’t know how it can get any worse. You can see it’s getting oozy. I can barely open my eyes,’ she shared.

‘Day three and the swelling’s making a statement. Progress isn’t always pretty, but it’s happening.’