Skincare Expert – Needling Away the Years

5 Oct 2014 (Updated: 21 Jan 2019)

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‘Derma Rolling’, ‘Micro-Needling’, ‘Skin Needling’ – take your pick of terminology, they all produce the same effects, depending on the practitioner, quality of needles and technique.

Skin needling, is an ancient technique

It is used to induce collagen production, it can actually increase collagen up to 1000% with just one treatment.

By creating a ‘trauma’ on the skin, fibroblasts kick in making a new matrix of collagen, this thickens and tightens improving tone and texture dramatically. Skin needling also creates ‘channels’ that will allow active ingredients to penetrate deeper in the live skin tissue, this is called ‘Transdermal absorption” something I do a lot in my clinic with amazing results.

Home Derma Rolling?

Home derma rolling is becoming very popular, however I certainly do not recommend it.

Beware of cheap Derma Roller imitations or FDA listed that cannot guarantee sterility. Class I medical devices, which can legally display a CE marking have NOT had their manufacturing facilities inspected.

This means, unlike Class IIa medical devices, there is effectively no guarantee of quality or sterility. The needles may also be damaged and slightly bent, which can create tiny tears in the skin and if the rollers are not sterilised correctly you can get cross contamination.

The Rollers

The rollers can be from 0.2-3.0 mm depth, Aestheticians primarily use 0.5-1.5mm depth rollers, leaving the other depths to medical cosmetic practitioners where topical anaesthetics are used to avoid pain and discomfort.

Marie Reynolds Professional Treatments

For facial treatments I always use a 0.5mm depth, this gives great results and minimal downtime, needles that go deeper into the dermis interact with nerve and blood supply so therefore bleeding and discomfort may be experienced.

The Lotus Roller I use consists of 192, 0.30mm wide micro-needles, made of stainless steel. Having wider needles, in contrast to popular belief that the thinner the needle the better the design, means that The Lotus Roller’s micro-needles whilst sharp will not blunt quickly, ensuring repetitive pain free skin-needling. Each and every roller is wrapped in sterile packaging and is effective at treating fine lines and wrinkles, other signs of ageing, enlarged pores, sagging skin, dull & uneven complexions, scarring, stretch marks and cellulite.

The Benefits

The benefits of going to a skin needling expert using 0.5mm Lotus Roller are :

Do not bleed the skin, avoiding 6 weeks of recovery.
Pain free skin needling.
Scheduled 2- 4 weeks apart with no downtime.
Targeted serums & active ingredients to boost effects of micro-needling.
Treatments performed with the truly sterile Lotus Roller® for peace of mind.

How does it feel?

Well I can only speak personally and I can honestly say when I first experienced this I was petrified! Especially after watching Derma Rolling on youtube! I imagined I would have a face looking like I had been dragged along tarmac!

After the skin is cleansed and prepared for treatment the skin needling technique is a swift light brushing of needles over each area, the action is so quick you do not have time to register the sensation – I would say it is similar to plucking eyebrows.

After the treatment is complete, your skin feels taught with tingle sensation, it is important to remember that channels have been opened in the skin so application of make up etc is NOT a good idea, it is best to avoid anything after treatment for at least 8hrs.

The skin feels and looks amazing for days after! I recommended a course of six treatments with two week intervals for ultimate benefits and results.