Texture, three sessions in

The scarring was mostly rolling — shallow, wide depressions tethered from underneath — with a scatter of boxcar scars along the left cheek. Rolling scars do not respond well to resurfacing alone, because the tether pulls the surface back down however smooth you make it.

So the first session was subcision, releasing the fibrous bands under each depression, followed by a conservative resurfacing pass. Sessions two and three, four weeks apart, were resurfacing at increasing depth on the boxcar areas.

Recovery ran as expected each time: two days of heat and redness, drying through day four, back to normal by day six. He took the Thursday off and was in the office the following Monday every time.

At fourteen weeks the cheeks catch light evenly for the first time. The deepest two boxcar scars are still visible under raking light, and we told him at the outset that they would be — the change is from obvious to noticeable-if-you-look, not from scarred to unmarked.