Winter is laser season: sequencing lasers, retinoids, and sunscreen in Vancouver

Vancouver gives us eight months of cloud and four months of glorious UV, and that calendar, more than any promotion, should decide when you book laser. Treated skin needs a low-sun window on both sides of a session: sun before treatment changes how light behaves in your skin, and sun after treatment can re-pigment exactly the spots you paid to clear.

The seasonal logic

IPL and resurfacing series ideally start in fall and finish by mid-spring. Hair removal is more forgiving on covered areas (legs in tights don't care what month it is), but faces and hands follow the same fall-to-spring rule. If you arrive with a tan, beach or spray, expect us to reschedule. A tan isn't a cosmetic inconvenience for lasers; it's a safety variable.

Retinoids: pause, don't panic

Retinoids thin the outermost skin layer slightly: great for long-term texture, unhelpful the week of a laser or peel. The standard sequence: pause your retinoid 3–5 days before treatment and resume once any redness or peeling fully settles, usually 5–7 days after. You lose nothing by pausing; retinoid benefits are cumulative over months, not days.

Isotretinoin (oral Accutane) is a different animal entirely: we defer resurfacing and microneedling for six months after a course. Flag it at your assessment even if it feels like ancient history.

Sunscreen is half the treatment

Every laser result we deliver is co-signed by your sunscreen habit. Broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, every morning, re-applied if you're outdoors: for at least four weeks after treatment and honestly forever. Patients who keep the SPF habit hold their IPL results season over season; patients who don't book the same spots again next year. We'd rather you keep the result.

A realistic sequencing example

A typical tone-and-texture year at Lumen: skin assessment in September; IPL sessions in October and November; a microneedling series January through March; retinoid running continuously except treatment weeks; SPF daily throughout. By May, patio season, the work is done, settled, and protected. That's not marketing poetry; it's just how the biology and the weather line up.