A young woman, from Sydney, was left with dark spots all over her legs following a laser hair removal appointment gone wrong.
Tess Crosley visited a laser clinic on November 3, 2022 but walked out with small painful burns covering from her shins up to her thighs.
What followed was a six month ‘saga’ attempting to reverse the damage that had been done.
The 27-year-old tried ‘everything’ from taking cold showers, speaking to dermatologists and spending money on LED treatments.
But at first nothing seemed to work. As time went on the spots naturally started to fade. The mum-to-be shared her experience in a TikTok video.
Scroll down for video.
After arriving home from the appointment, Tess was in dreadful pain and the spots started to welt, so she applied ice over the skin and took cold showers for ‘hours’.
‘I used laser aid [cream] for days because my skin was so hot,’ Tess wrote in the video.
She contacted the clinic and had to wait a couple days before returning. She then started yellow LED treatment every two days for weeks to help with wound healing, skin rejuvenation, rosacea and redness.
After one week she noticed the welting start to go down and continued the treatment. Four weeks later she began applying hydroquinone cream twice daily as prescribed from the clinic.
‘I came home sobbing because people asked what was wrong with my legs in public,’ she wrote in the video.
‘I spent so much money on different opinions and advice. No one could do anything, even dermatologists.’
At this point the spots had turned from red to white and looked like ‘reindeer spots’.
However, a couple weeks later Tess said her legs got ‘really burnt’ one day from being in the sun. To her surprise, the spots began to fade, so she decided to purposefully go out in the sun again to see if it would help.
She noticed as her legs got more tanned the spots kept fading and ‘evened out’ her skin tone. Today Tess’ legs are free from the circular white spots.
‘My six month leg saga. I [definitely] am not posting this TikTok recommending to go out in the sun if this happens to you.. please be very careful and do your own research,’ she caption the video.
According to Calveo, to avoid laser hair removal burns in the first place, it’s advised to avoid sun exposure.
Having laser treatment after tanning can cause hyperpigmentation, burns, and scarring.
