About the treatment
An acid that does not behave like the one you are picturing
When somebody says chemical peel, most people imagine a strong acid, a burning sensation and a week spent avoiding other humans. That is one kind of peel and it is not this one. An AFA peel is built on amino acids combined with fruit acids, and the combination behaves differently on skin from the start.
The amino acid part matters. Amino acids are what your skin is already made of and what it uses to hold water at the surface, so the formulation is working with the barrier rather than stripping it on the way past. The fruit acids do the resurfacing; the amino acids keep the skin supported while they do.
What that means in practice is a peel we are willing to use on faces that cannot take a conventional one — dry, reactive, thin, or simply worn down by a Calgary winter. At our Ranchlands Boulevard clinic in northwest Calgary it is the peel we reach for most often, and the strength is decided when we look at your skin on the day rather than when you book.
How it works
Three things a peel is doing that a scrub cannot
Exfoliation is the word everyone uses, and it covers several quite different processes. These are the ones that matter here.
It dissolves the glue, not the cells
Dead cells are held to each other by bonds that a scrub cannot reach and can only tear at. The acid loosens those bonds chemically, so the surface releases evenly instead of coming off wherever the most pressure was applied.
It speeds up the queue behind
Removing the top layer signals the living cells beneath to divide and move up faster. Over a course that reset in turnover rate is what changes tone and texture, rather than any single session.
It supports while it works
This is the part specific to an AFA formulation. The amino acid component holds water in the surface during the process, so you are not left with a barrier that has been dismantled and has to start again from nothing.
Why here
Fitting a peel course around a Calgary year
Peels and sunlight are a poor combination, and so are peels and a barrier that is already struggling. Both of those are seasonal here.
Late autumn is the window to start
Shorter days, weaker sun and months of covered weekends ahead. A course of peels run from October gets the resurfacing done before anyone is outside in strong light again.
Ski days interrupt a course
A bright day at altitude on snow is real ultraviolet exposure, whatever the temperature was. Tell us about the weekend before we peel, and use a proper sunscreen on the hill if you are mid-course.
A chinook week is not the week
When the humidity falls off a cliff and everyone in the city is suddenly flaking, that is a barrier under strain. We will often drop the strength or move the appointment rather than peel skin that is already struggling.
Space them four weeks apart
That matches your own turnover. In a climate this dry, peeling more frequently than every three weeks takes the barrier down faster than it can rebuild, and the skin that results looks worse than the skin you started with.
Indications
What is it good for?
Tone, texture, pigment and the marks left behind after breakouts have healed.
Congestion and blackheads respond better to the suction of a Hydro Facial, and surface flaking to dermaplaning. If you have been diagnosed with melasma, say so — it needs a cautious plan rather than a standard one. Everything available in northwest Calgary is on our Calgary NW clinic page.
The week after
What actually peels, and when
The single most common question, and the one people are most anxious about. Here is the realistic version rather than the reassuring one.
The first two days
Pink and slightly tight, looking rather like mild windburn, which in this city nobody remarks on. Make-up is fine from the following morning. Most people carry on entirely as normal.
Days three to five
Light flaking, usually around the nose, mouth and chin rather than across the whole face. It is closer to dry skin than to sheets coming off, and at a gentle strength many people barely peel at all.
Days six and seven
The flaking finishes and the new surface is visible. This is the point at which skin looks noticeably brighter and smoother, and the point at which it is tempting to book the next one too soon.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
The list before matters more than for anything else we do, because what you have been using decides how your skin responds.
In the week before
- Stop retinoids five to seven days out. Not three. This is the single most common cause of a peel going further than intended.
- No acids, scrubs, cleansing brushes or exfoliating cloths for five days.
- No waxing, threading or laser on the face for two weeks.
- No sun, sunbed or self-tanner, and tell us if you have been skiing.
- Disclose cold sores, isotretinoin use and any recent cosmetic procedure. Any of the three changes what we do.
For a week afterwards
- Do not pick or pull at flaking skin. Lifting it early is how people end up with a mark that lasts months.
- Cleanser, moisturiser, sunscreen. That is the whole routine until the peeling has finished.
- High-factor sunscreen daily, reapplied outdoors. New skin burns and marks very easily.
- No sauna, steam room, hot tub or hard training for 48 hours.
- Moisturise more than usual. In this climate a peeled face dries out faster than you expect.
Results
Chemical peel before and after
A You Glow Aesthetics client across a course. Evenness of tone is the thing to compare here, rather than any change to the structure of the face.
What any one person gets depends on skin type, what is being treated, the strength used, how many sessions are completed and how carefully sun is avoided in between. Pigment in particular is a course rather than a single appointment.
Also on Ranchlands Boulevard
Treatments that pair well with a peel
- Hydro Facial in Calgary NW — for congestion, and gentler in the weeks between peels
- Dermaplaning in Calgary NW — surface exfoliation without acid, on the alternate weeks
- Red Light Therapy in Calgary NW — settles the skin and supports recovery afterwards
- Face and Neck Tightening in Calgary NW — firmness underneath the tone a peel improves
- AFA chemical peel brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
