I've had my first dermaroller treatment. Unfortunately life seems to have got in the way of blogging lately, as it so often does and so I come to you just over a month after having the first treatment.
Firstly, let me start with all the details. Dermaroller is a treatment in which a roller covered in tiny needles is rolled all over your skin. The idea is that your skin is forced into trauma and therefore, your collagen is forced to reproduce, filling out any hole, lumps, bumps or fine lines that you might have. My main areas of concern are my cheeks, which have atrophic (indented) acne scarring, more so on my right cheek where the worst of my acne tends to flare up. There are various concerns that Dermaroller is recommended to treat for instance acne scarring as well as fine lines and I've even seen some amazing results on stretch marks. I am getting treatment with a 1.5mm needle at Transform's Liverpool clinic. It's recommended that you get it done by a practitioner however, you can buy a dermaroller yourself and do it at home. Warning though, it may be the cheaper option, but it's pretty gruesome - I honestly don't think I have the balls or the stomach to do it myself at home. My lovely nurse Paula talked me through the process and said that you have to make the skin bleed in order to get some kind of result. All the official dermaroller videos I've watched on YouTube support this, so if I'm being honest, I couldn't do this to myself no matter how much money I was saving.
Speaking of money. It's expensive. Not as expensive as fraxel laser, or something more extreme like that, but it's not just a day's wages. The first treatment is £290 and all the ones thereafter are £260. Expensive. The benefit of going somewhere like Transform is that there is an amazing amount of support but also you build up points on a loyalty card which can be used for anything you want. I've chosen to use it for microdermabrasion treatments between rolling.
So let me talk you through the process. Charlotte who works for transform is brilliant and knows her stuff about the treatment. She makes you feel really comfortable and like you have known her for years! She booked me in for a consultation with Paula, which due to car trouble, I couldn't attend. I was incredibly scared to get the treatment done (did I mention they roll needles across your face?) that I had almost decided not to do it. I remained however, really depressed about my skin and so I knew I had to do something about it. Charlotte was really kind, leaving me to have the Christmas break to think about it. I went into research overload and figured it really couldn't be that scary.
So I booked in with Paula for the treatment with a consultation beforehand. She explained everything so thoroughly and took my before pictures. The brilliant thing is that I wasn't conned into having a course, or even more than I needed. She explained to me that it takes 6 weeks for your collagen to reproduce after there has been stimulation such as micro needling (the medical term for dermaroller - dermaroller is the brand) and that one treatment is going to see minimal difference. Two was recommended however it was completely on me. She said that I can book as many, or as few as I wanted to, depending on how happy I was with the results that I was seeing. I've given myself a guideline of 3 and will see how I get on after that. I've seen some amazing results from the before and after pictures that she showed me.
So I was numbed with a strong numbing cream for about half an hour. During this time I found out that one of my best friends had been successful for a really amazing job and I was jumping around the waiting room in excitement, unable to move my face. Attractive. Needless to say, I felt numb. Not as numb as when you go to the dentist, but sufficiently numb that I couldn't feel my nail when I dug it into my own face (I was about to stick needles in it, I had lost all rationality). Paula cleansed my skin and then got going. It was unpleasant. It stung. It wasn't unbearable. There were place in which it hurt more, like he forehead which is extra bony. I was left with pin-prick needle marks all over my face, which stayed for about 5-6 days. They say there's no downtime but I definitely think there is. I left make up off for 3 days. The needle marks heal over in 4 hours though, and I was given a lovely mask to wear on that night which really helps with the hydration of the skin after trauma.
In the week or so after the treatment, my skin felt quite dry and tight and I was advised to avoid products with alcohol etc. I haven't noticed a massive difference in my skin, however, I have noticed that the redder marks have died down a lot - they used to look really angry but I don't even have to use much concealer on them anymore! I have my next one on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to it. I've communicated with a lot of people who've had it done and everybody seems to agree that the second treatment is definitely the one where you see the results start to come, and it only gets better from here. I have pictures on my instagram page - @hollywoodfaceliverpool
I would upload them on here but I'm a complete technaphobe and don't know how to do it!
I will definitely keep you all updated, I can't wait to see my before and after pics after 3 sessions, I'm hopefully going to see a positive difference!
