I’m originally from Southern California, and I can tell you that there isn’t one human over 10 years old in that state that hasn’t gotten a sunburn.  They say that’s what a chemical peel is like, a sunburn, except that it doesn’t hurt as much because it isn’t between your shoulder blades.  Depending on your skin, a light peel is 2 hours in the sun, a medium is 3 hours, and a strong peel is that day you fell asleep in the sun without any sunscreen at all, you fool.

Candidates for chemical peels are people, increasingly men, who have acne and acne scars, sun damage, age spots or fine lines, or who just plain want to brighten their skin.  You are basically burning off the top part of your derma, so that newer, healthier, brighter skin will shine through.  Ethnic people must be very careful, as the process can wreck havoc on pigmentation and cause the skin to lighten unnaturally (seen Sammy Sosa lately?).  The office time is short while they mix and apply the peel, but the recovery times depends on the degree of the process.  It can be anywhere from 3 hours to 3 weeks.

• Light peel range:  generally an AHA or fruit acid peel: pink skin for a couple hours to three days.
• Medium peel range: generally a TCA product (Trichloroacetic acid); three to seven days healing time, depending on the skin
• Deep peels: TCA’s and Phenol products:  seven days to three weeks, and several of those days you are NOT going out of the house.

All peels are based on glycolic or fruit acids and the degree of the peel depends on how much the active ingredient is diluted.  Patients make those decisions with their specialist.

And speaking of specialists, chemical peels can be done by trained estheticians and not doctors.  The specific requirements differ state-by-state, and you should know what yours are before shopping around.

The cost:  from $200 to $1000.

The big players in the game are Obagi and Physician’s Choice, but there are many, many others.  Chemical peels can be obtained on the ‘net, but it is not recommended that you do this alone.  Many over-the-counter products don’t do enough, but the good ones could do WAY too much.

Here are other good resources on chemical peels as well as directories for choosing a specialist in your area:

• Cosmeticsurgery.com
• PlasticSurgery.org
• AmericanHealthandBeauty.com