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.