A non-terrible way to spend a Sunday morning: hanging out at your friend’s beautiful children’s boutique, signing copies of your new book and eating really a lot of donuts while your excessively-sugared up, primed-for-a-tantrum-of-epic-proportions children are off doing…well, you don’t know. But something else. (Thank you, Kendrick.)
Everything was lovely about this morning except one tiiiiiiny little thing. Or rather, two tiny little (but still much bigger than normal) things. Take a look at that photograph above. Notice anything a little “off” about it? In the region of my face, perhaps?
No?
Try this one:
See it now? That little “adjustment” to my jawline that suggests that I may have tucked handfuls of walnuts into each cheek, like the world’s least-adorable chipmunk?
(You may really not see it. If you don’t, that’s the photo’s fault, because trust me: it was visible.)
Those cheeks of mine were the less-than-desirable result of last week’s BBL laser treatment (the second in the series of three I’m getting in an attempt to lessen my rosacea). Last time I had a laser treatment, I had a few days of redness (the treatment makes the pigment in your face even more prominent before reducing redness and sun spots, so this is normal). This time I had almost no post-treatment redness, hooray – but…ummmmmmm…..
I had jowls. Jowls. (These photos were taken three days post-treatment, when they had shrunk into the approximate size of cheese puffs – I wasn’t in the mood to have a camera in my face while I was busy looking all jowly – but I promise: the effect was dramatic enough that poking my cheeks became my children’s entertainment for an entire evening.)
I’m mentioning this because I want to make sure any of you who are considering a BBL treatment know that it is possible – not likely, but possible – that you, too will end up looking chipmunk-y for a couple of days. I still think the end result is worth it – my rosacea-associated redness has decreased dramatically (although I still think I should explore topical treatments, too) – but swelling is a little tougher to conceal than redness, and…I don’t know, it seems like good information for you to have. In case spending three straight days having everyone who sees you do a double-take and say, “What’s wrong with your face?” doesn’t sound like an especially fun situation.
More event photos that include things that are prettier than my post-embarrassing-vanity-related-mishap cheeks, below.
