Micro-Needling, and how it can give you your best skin yet.
Hey guys, I'm back with another blog post straight from training for work, training for Micro-Needling a super exciting treatment to help bring you your best skin yet. If you are thinking, Hayley, c'mon-- what does that even mean, well let me tell you! Micro-Needling: "Skin needling is also called micro-needling therapy or collagen induction therapy. It is a minimally-invasive non-surgical and nonablative procedure for facial rejuvenation that involves the use of a micro-needling device to create controlled skin injury" -- DermaNet New Zealand What this means in laymans terms is, it is a treatment which uses teeny tiny needles to make fine channels in your skin to cause controlled damage, so your skin has to heal itself by producing more collagen and elastin, those essential building blocks our skin needs to stay strong, healthy (and wrinkle free hehe) These channels can help the skin carry more than 80% more topical nutrients, and get them deeper into the skin which will feed the cells deep down into the bottom layers of the skin.
Needling can be used to treat the appearance of: Ageing skin Vertical lip lines Hyper-pigmentation Skin tightening and rejuvenation Enlarged pores Stretch marks Acne, surgical or burn scars
As crazy as this treatment sounds it is relatively painless, I am a big baby when it comes to pain and even I could handle this. If you've had microdermabrasion before you will know the scratchy slightly uncomfortable way it feels, needling feels like this, intensified but it isn't "painful" as such. The needles can go from a 0.0 to a 2.5mm needle so obviously the longer the needle the more uncomfortable this treatment will be. For me, I had a .5 & .8mm needle at training and it was defintely something I could cope with as well as giving me brilliant results (these results would be even better the deeper you go depending on what you are trying to achieve) The way that the technology has changed with dermal needling means you no longer have to numb the face like you used to with dermal rolling and stamping. The Dermapen (which is what I have been trained in) oscillates at 108hz (hz meaning 1 cycle per second) meaning that 1300 micro channels (tiny little holes) are punctured into your skin per seond (I know it sounds terrifying but bear with me here) because the Dermapen is oscillating so fast it doesn't end up hitting the pain receptor in your skin, rather it hits the touch receptor which means it is far less painful than rolling/stamping.
(The blood on this client is totally normal before you freak out... in fact depending on the kind of skin concerns you are trying to help, blood spotting is exactly what you want ie when you are doing collagen induction therapy!)
Frequently Asked Questions: How many treatments are recommended for rejuvanation & acne scarring? For Rejuvanation of the skin, your skin technician would recommend 4-6 treatments at 4 weeks apart, this allows the collagen and elastin to make itself and strengthen before the next treatment. For acne scarring, recommendations are for 6 treatments at 6 weeks apart, because we are trying to break down the scarring we would have to go deep with the needles meaning more time between treatments. How should I prepare my skin? This is incredibly important as Dermal Needling is not a treatment you can just walk into your beauty salon and get, your skin has to be strengthened and maintained so your skin technican knows that no adverse effects are going to come out of treating you. As a beauty therapist myself, I would recommend homecare such as a good active vitamin A,B and C serum as well as a moisturiser that is strenghtening and very moisturising for the skin as well as an antioxidant. I love the Aspect Dr range as you have seen on my blog and instagram before.
How long will it take before I see results? You should see some sort of results after your first treatment, the skin is far more luminous and smooth straight after the treatment and for a few days afterwards. You will see more long lasting results after 4-6 weeks with your treatments spaced 4-6 weeks apart. As you continue on with treatments and good homecare your skin will continously improve! Is there any downtime? Generally no, but your face can feel quite red and tender straight after the treatment and for 12-48 hours afterwards. Most people are able to keep doing their normal activities immediately after the treatment. (I went back to work the next day and had a full face of makeup on, though it was mineral makeup which needs to be said) Although there is hardly any downtime there are a few things you need to be careful about after the treatment such as: Avoiding-- Sun exposure Intensive cardio/exercise In clinic treatments such as microdermabrasion, chemical peels, dermal fillers, botox, cosmetic tattoing Applying high doses of actives such as retinol, AHA/BHAs Excessively hot showers, bathing, spas and saunas Spray/self tanning Swimming in chlorinated pools
I hope you have learnt something about this new treatment and how exciting it can be for you and your skin. I'm super super excited to be able to perform this treatment in clinic and see the amazing results for myself. Once I start getting my own before and after pictures I will try to share them on my Facebook page for you to see! (If you also keep an eye on Mint Beauty Therapy's facebook page or instagram @mint_beauty_therapy they will be showing more of the treatment on there) If you have any questions about needling feel free to ask me via instagram or facebook, I would be more than happy to answer anything you want to know. Lots of love, Hayley x
*Pictures are taken from the Dermapen website and Mint Beauty Therapy