Skin & Resurfacing · Four protocols

Four treatments. Four different depths.

A HydraFacial cleans the surface. Dermaplaning shaves it. A peel dissolves it. Microneedling goes straight past it. They get sold side by side, and they are not variations on one theme.

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The useful question about a skin treatment is not what it is called. It is how deep does it work, and what does it ask of your week. The honest recommendation usually sits lower on the list than people expect.

Two of these remove. A peel dissolves the bonds holding dead surface cells together and lets them shed; dermaplaning takes the same layer off mechanically, with a blade. Two do something else. A HydraFacial cleans, extracts and hydrates without a wound of any kind. Microneedling makes controlled channels into the dermis so your own healing response builds collagen in the weeks after.

Which is why microneedling is not a peel, and no amount of menu shorthand makes it one. A peel works top down and takes something away. Microneedling works inside out and, over months, adds something back. Booking one when you needed the other is the most common way people spend money on skin and see nothing.

Downtime, plainly

HydraFacial: None. Makeup the same afternoon
Dermaplaning: None. Occasionally a few hours of pinkness
Superficial peel: Tightness day one, light flaking days two to four
Medium-depth peel: Real. Visible sheeting for most of a week
Microneedling: Like windburn for one to three days. No makeup for twenty-four hours
Sunscreen: Non-negotiable after all of them, and Denver is 5,280 feet of extra reason

The four, in order of depth

Shallowest to deepest.

Prices are per session. Where a series is the honest recommendation, it says so, and says why.

01$285 · 60 min

HydraFacial MD: surface only.

A device protocol in four passes: a cleanse, a gentle acid blend to loosen what is stuck, vortex vacuum extraction, then serum infused back in. Nothing is abraded and nothing is wounded. This is the treatment for congestion, dullness, and an event on Saturday.

Downtime: none; makeup goes back on the same afternoon. Cadence: monthly suits most people, which is why it sits inside a membership rather than being bought one at a time. Not for: texture or scarring. It does not reach that far down, and a practice saying otherwise is selling.

02$115 · 45 min

Dermaplaning: mechanical, not chemical.

A sterile blade held at an angle removes vellus hair and the dead outermost layer in one pass. Makeup sits differently afterward and actives penetrate better for a week or two. Exfoliation without acid, which makes it useful for skin that does not tolerate acid.

Downtime: none, occasionally an hour of pinkness. Cadence: every three to four weeks; sooner is pointless, since you are waiting on the cell cycle. Not for: active inflammatory acne. Dragging a blade across pustules spreads them. And no, the hair does not return darker; vellus hair grows back as vellus hair.

03From $220 · 60 min

Chemical peel: depth is a decision.

An acid dissolves the bonds between dead surface cells so they release. Peel covers a wide range: a superficial lactic or mandelic pass is a quiet refresh, while a medium-depth Jessner or TCA is a genuine week of your life. Agent, concentration, layers and skin prep set the depth. Not the name on the bottle.

Downtime: two to four days of tightness and light flaking after a superficial peel. Visible sheeting for most of a week after a medium one. Cadence: superficial peels three to four weeks apart, typically as a series of three to six where pigment is the target, because uneven pigment does not lift in one pass. Before you come: retinoids pause, and recent sun postpones the appointment.

04$450 · 75 min

Microneedling: collagen induction.

A sterile cartridge of fine needles creates controlled micro-channels to a set depth, adjusted region by region: shallower around the eyes, deeper across cheeks and older acne scarring. The channels close within hours. What matters is the healing cascade they trigger, which lays down collagen over the following weeks and keeps remodeling for months.

Downtime: one to three days most people describe as windburn. Pinpoint bleeding during treatment is normal. No makeup for twenty-four hours. Cadence: a series of three, roughly four weeks apart, because collagen remodeling is cumulative and one session mostly gives a day of glow. The course is $1,215. Platelet-rich plasma, drawn that morning and layered into the channels, takes a session to $650.

Why a series, and when we say don't

A series is not an upsell mechanic. Collagen work and pigment work are both cumulative: the first session starts a process, the third finishes it, and stopping halfway is how people conclude microneedling doesn't work. Where a course is genuinely right we price it as a course. Where it isn't (most HydraFacials, most dermaplaning) we sell single sessions, because packaging them would be a financing decision dressed as a clinical one.

Add-ons, and what pairs with what

A short list of sensible combinations.

Dermaplaning before a HydraFacial

Clears the surface first · +$115 · same visit

LED and bond, twenty minutes

Red and blue light plus a topical · $95 · any skin service

PRP into microneedling channels

Drawn and spun that morning · session becomes $650

—

Peel and microneedling together

Not on the same day · two weeks apart, minimum

Screening

The things that move the date.

Skin treatments are screened, just less formally than injectables. Any of the following changes the plan, the depth or the day. All of it is taken in the room rather than in a web form.

ISOTRETINOINRecent oral isotretinoin postpones resurfacing. A conservative interval, because we would rather wait than gamble with healing.
COLD SORESA history of oral herpes means antiviral prophylaxis before microneedling or a peel. Skin under stress can trigger an outbreak.
ACTIVE BREAKOUTInflammatory acne where the blade or needle would pass gets treated first.
RECENT SUNA fresh tan is not a baseline. Sunburn, a ski week or a beach trip pushes the date out.
KELOID HISTORYA tendency to keloid or hypertrophic scarring changes what we will do, and how deep.
PREGNANCYSome agents come off the menu entirely. Tell us and we work around it, or wait.

Common questions

Reasonable questions.

Is a HydraFacial the same as a chemical peel?

No. A HydraFacial uses a mild acid blend as one step of a cleansing and extraction protocol, and the whole point is that nothing sheds afterward. A peel is designed to make the surface shed. Sold a HydraFacial while expecting a peel's result, you will be underwhelmed; sold a peel while expecting a HydraFacial's downtime, you will be unhappy on Wednesday.

Which one is right for acne scarring?

Usually microneedling, planned as a series, sometimes alongside fractional resurfacing depending on the scar. Rolling and boxcar scars respond differently from ice-pick scars, and a consultation exists partly to tell you which you have. Nobody should quote a session count before looking at your skin under proper light.

Can I have a skin treatment on the same day as my consultation?

Sometimes, unlike the injectables. If screening is clear and the schedule allows, a HydraFacial or dermaplaning can often start that day. Anything with real downtime (a medium peel, microneedling) gets its own appointment so you can plan the week around it.

— Step one

Thirty minutes, under proper light.

Thirty minutes with the lead nurse practitioner, complimentary, under proper light. You leave with a written plan, a depth, and an honest answer about how many sessions it takes.

Request a consult

Tue — Sat · 9 — 6248 East 3rd Ave · Denver720.555.0177consult@alderaesthetics.co