“Does the kid with the fat red cheeks live here?”

It was 1969 and the innocent, albeit forgetful new boy in the neighborhood was looking for his playmate, but couldn’t remember my name. Yes, I was that kid with the fat red cheeks. That moniker—and malady—followed me all the way into adulthood. Dermatologist Albert Kligman called people like me “flushers and blushers.”

Those skin issues were compounded by the fact that while working on a farm as a teenager, I never applied sunscreen. No wonder then that my dermatologist, Aanand Geria MD, said to me: “I can do something for your face.”

Excuse me?

“You know, the rosacea, the crow’s feet, the acne scars…I can help you out.”

Gee, thanks doc.

I’ve known Dr. Geria since he was in med school. He’s the son of long-time Happi columnist Navin Geria, who proudly notes that all three of his kids are doctors. Friends and family wondered why I would agree to treatments, but I’ve had complete faith in him—even after he warned me “there might be some discomfort.”

Still, I took Geria up on it, and over the course of nine months I received five treatments that involved IPL (Intense Pulsed Light), Fractional Nonablative 1550nm Laser (Frax1550) and CO2 laser. The IPL specifically targets pigment and blood vessels resulting in decreased sun spots and redness, respectively. The CO2 laser and Frax 1550 target water to resurface the skin thereby improving texture, fine lines, wrinkles and acne scars. The Frax is non-ablative whereas the CO2 is ablative.

“Any time you are ablating skin (vaporizing it) that means more down time,” explained Geria. “They are doing similar things but the CO2 is more aggressive, which means better results in less treatments but with more downtime. If you can’t handle downtime, I recommend using the Frax 1550 but you’ll need more treatments.”

Skin can be resurfaced in an ablative or non-ablative fashion; the more severe the wrinkles, acne scars and sun damage, the more aggressive the treatments.  You can see the results below. Clearly, the crow’s feet have flown, the worst of the acne scars have diminished and my face has a more uniform tone. After every treatment, Geria reminded me to wash my face with a gentle cleanser, apply moisturizer at night and wear sunscreen during the day.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually followed that regimen—and that’s a bit of a surprise. I surveyed a few male coworkers and their hygiene habits were unsettling.

One guy said he never uses anything but water to cleanse his face; another admitted, “I really don’t wash my face, I sort of let the shampoo run down my face.”

Even at my worst, I wasn’t that bad!

Just one coworker had a skin care routine; a habit he got into as a child afflicted with eczema.

Geria and others ask me what my wife of 30-plus years thinks of the new me. I tell them MaryEllen’s view hasn’t changed since she first laid eyes on me back in 1985 as she walked past a pickup basketball game during college.


“That dufus,” she thought to herself, “wears his socks too high.”

Whether six or 60, first impressions, apparently, aren’t my strong suit.