They flew Lucy Goff in from London. What followed was a frank expert conversation that changed how Dr. A thinks about her skin.
When the hosts of podcast SHE MD - world-renowned OBGYN Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi and women's advocate Mary Alice Haney - wanted to understand the LYMA Laser, they didn't just book a call. They flew founder Lucy Goff in from London. What unfolded was a frank, expert conversation about the difference between a "hot" laser like CO2 and LYMA's cold Laser - and why, for the first time, Dr. A felt there might be a device made for skin like hers.
SHE MD is not an easy room to win over. The weekly podcast is hosted by Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, also known as "Dr. A," who is one of the most respected OBGYNs in the US, and Mary Alice Haney, a women's advocate and influencer who has built a loyal following by being honest about what actually works.
Between them they have heard every claim the beauty and wellness industries can make. Dr. A, in particular, brings a clinician's scepticism to anything that promises to transform your skin.
So when both of them admit to being genuine fans of the LYMA Laser - big enough to fly its founder, Lucy Goff, across the Atlantic from London to sit down with them - it's worth paying attention as to why.
The reason cuts to something personal. As Dr. A explains, she is Persian, with darker, melanin-rich skin, and she has spent her career being careful, wary of bringing almost any light treatment near her face. She has watched Mary Alice use the LYMA Laser for years and admired the results, all the while assuming devices like it weren't built with her skin in mind. That assumption was at the heart of the conversation which unfolded between the three women.
The LYMA Laser, Lucy explains, works differently: it's a cold, FDA-cleared device that doesn't rely on heat or controlled damage at all, which is precisely why she believes it's designed to suit every skin tone, Dr. A's included.
A Laser worth crossing an ocean for
On most topics, Dr. A and Mary Alice bring different views. On the LYMA Laser, and on Lucy Goff, they agree entirely.
Mary Alice has used the device for years and makes no attempt to hide her enthusiasm.
"Thank you for the Laser, because I love it and I've been using it for a while."
Mary Alice is just as quick to praise her co-host.
"Dr. A never does anything for herself - she's always asking me about my skin."
The compliments run both ways.
"Every time she sits next to me," Dr. A says of Mary Alice, "I'm like, 'Your skin looks so good.'"
What makes that praise land is how hard-won it is. Dr. A is a clinician, and a sceptical one.
"Sometimes you just put stuff on - I slather products and I use things and you just don't know if it works. But I actually think this one does."
Their admiration extends well beyond the device to the woman who built it. Lucy's story is not a typical beauty-founder origin tale. LYMA began not with a laser but with a health crisis: a severe case of preeclampsia and, in the aftermath, septicaemia that left her gravely ill.
"I left the hospital completely finished."
A chance meeting with longevity professor Dr. Paul Clayton led her to the ingredients behind LYMA's first product, a Supplement - and to a turning point.
"About three weeks after taking them, I just felt myself again. That was the idea for starting LYMA."
Mary Alice, who has long admired the brand's craftsmanship, remembers being struck by it before the two had even met.
"I love your packaging, that gold. It looked really expensive to make... It was just beautiful."
"It always starts with a problem that you want to solve with yourself." - Mary Alice Haney
The hot laser Mary Alice Haney will never forget - and why LYMA's cold Laser is the only one she trusts with her skin
Mary Alice speaks from experience when she talks about the alternatives to LYMA's cold Laser. At 45, she had her face treated with a CO2 laser, and she doesn't sugar-coat it.
"I got my face blasted off by a CO2 laser, and it worked. The downtime was horrendous, but it did - the fine lines went away."
She understood exactly what she signed up for.
"That's an example of me damaging my skin in order to have the collagen come and make me look youthful again."
That, in a sentence, is the trade-off of a hot laser. As Dr. A explains it from a clinical standpoint: "CO2 causes heat... heat damages your skin, and then when your skin wants to heal, it heals with new collagen." The visible improvement is real, but it comes at the cost of genuine injury, recovery and discomfort.
The LYMA Laser, Lucy explains, belongs to an entirely different category.
"This is a cold laser device. There's no heat from this. You'll feel that the handle gets a bit warm... but there's no heat by the time it reaches the skin."
In fact, it's so gentle as to be almost imperceptible.
"Because it's completely cold, you'd never know whether it was switched on or not."
Asked directly how it compares to the treatment Mary Alice endured, Lucy is succinct.
"This LYMA Laser will do similar things to a CO2 laser, but without the damage."
The practical difference is just as stark. There's no peeling, no recovery, no clearing of the calendar - just three minutes held over each section of skin.
"Do it in front of the TV." - Mary Alice Haney. She means it literally. It's the Laser she now reaches for every day.
Why the LYMA Laser is made for every skin tone
For Dr. A, this is where the conversation became personal. As a Persian woman with darker, melanin-rich skin, she has always kept her distance from light treatments - and with good reason.
"I have darker skin, I cannot do the CO2 laser that she does on her face. I got some form of laser, but it was so much milder than what she got, and the results are different, because you can't hit my skin as hard."
The heat-and-damage mechanism behind hot lasers is precisely what makes them riskier for deeper skin tones. What changes that calculus, Lucy explains, is the very thing that makes the LYMA Laser a cold laser. Because it doesn't depend on heat or controlled injury, the playing field shifts entirely.
"Someone like me can also use it with darker skin." - Dr. A
"You can use it on black skin, on melanin-rich skin, on white skin, on sunburnt skin - you can use it on any skin." - Lucy Goff
It's also FDA-cleared, a detail Dr. A, as a clinician, doesn't take lightly.
By the end of her conversation with Lucy, Dr. A sounded genuinely hopeful.
"For me, this is a game changer. For all the Middle Eastern women out there, for all the black women out there, it's hard."
The LYMA Laser is a device she felt has been built with her in mind, too - and she came away reassured she may finally have found something that could work for her.
Discover the LYMA Laser
An FDA-cleared cold Laser designed for every skin tone, with no downtime and no damage.
*Individual results may vary.
