Sis, I badly need help. I had my 2nd TCA session (back peel) with my derma last September 3. I've always used Kojie-san kojic soap during bath (face and entire body for 5 minutes), and I asked my derma if it's okay to use the same soap after TCA, and she said it's okay. For reference, I usually leave the soap on my skin for 5 minutes before rinsing it off, and I only take a bath once a day during mornings before leaving off for school.
Anyway, during the first week, my skin was really itchy but I didn't scratch it, and I only pat it dry with a towel afterwards. It was very hard for me to sleep during the 1st week because I can feel my skin cracking whenever I move in bed, so I usually lie still to make the pain go away. Since I cannot see my back, I usually touch it during the afternoon or evening (whenever it's dry) to assess if my skin is peeling. It felt very hard and dry. However, I recently looked at myself in the mirror (side view), and I was surprised to see the super obvious difference between my normal skin (yellowish tone) and the skin on my back, which got even darker due to TCA. My skin is still dry, but it's not peeling anymore. It's not even itchy and uncomfortable anymore, but my skin is still really dark (the kind of darkness the skin gets whenever TCA is applied). I thought it would go away once the dead layers of the skin has peeled off, but the color stayed the same (it's 3 shades darker than my original skin tone). Now, I'm so depressed and I don't know what to do anymore. I'm really afraid that my skin won't return to normal.
As for the reason why I had TCA, I decided to get it because of my bacne. Since puberty, I've had bacne that is super itchy and I often scratch it. And as a result my back is darker than my body, and really ugly due to the scars. However, only my upper back is pimple-prone; the lower back is smooth and has the same skin tone with the rest of my body. As for the color of my upper back, my waxing technician often comments that it looks like I had sunburn. But what's even more depressing is that now even my lower back got dark and now has the same tone as my upper back, since I underwent this latest TCA with my derma.
For my TCA history, I first had my back peel by Dra Six on January, then came back March for the second session. Despite the expensive fee, my skin didn't get better at all. In fact, its' effect is only micropeeling similar to my kojic acid, so I stopped seeing Dra Six. On June/July, I had my first peel with my present derma, and it was super painful, and I was writhing in bed. Unlike Dra Six's, I think the peel I had with my present derma is more effective cause my back really itched and I could feel it flaking off. But then, I didn't see any changes with the skin tone, so I went back for another session, and my derma told me that she'll be using a stronger one so that I will be able to see more obvious changes in skin tone. True enough, I did see super obvious change - and it's because my skin even looked worse than ever before.
I hope someone can post their insights with regard to my problem. I really don't know what to do now.
