1413 replies to this topic

[Narcisses]

You are a good looking guy!

I'm just trying to upload some pics... not sure if these will work...

Hmm. They seem to have worked. They probably won't within a couple of hours, but I'll describe them anyway.

These are photos taken on the day of my needling. Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep up with the photographic progress while I'm at uni so I can't post any "one week on", "two weeks on" etc pics. I'll hopefully post some before and afters of my scarring once 3 months have passed after the needling, in order to assess whether there's been any improvement. It's been almost one month since the needling, and there does seem to have been a very good improvement, although it's still to early to tell, as residual swelling may be affecting the areas. I'll make a full update in a couple of months' time.

This is the left side about 3 hours following the needling. The water droplets you may be able to see is some amino-plex spray I had stupidly sprayed on before having the photo taken!


This is the left side from a different angle. This is about 6-7 hours after the needling, I think. The lighting is slightly different, but you still get an idea of the immediate look of the procedure.


This is the right side about 6 hours following the needling. There is less scarring on my right side, so not as much of it was needled. The brown-ish scar in the centre of the picture was needled seven days before this picture was taken as a test-patch, which gives you some idea of how quick the healing process is.



This is a close-up of the left side again. The red patches are mostly individual ice-pick scars, so you can see how accurate Julie was with the needling. You can see an ice pick scar higher up the cheek that was left un-needled as a comparison.


I hope these pictures give you some idea of my experiences with the procedure, and help you to get an idea of what you will look like after the procedure. The redness does fade extremely quickly, though. I was able to go out without feeling too self-conscious within about 3 days.

Best Wishes,

Rossignol.

[devushka]

Does anybody know who perform needling in Washington, DC or Maryland? I read somewhere that Denise did it in Washington, DC.

[unlucky314]

does anyone know who does needling in the los angeles area, or orange county, san diego county, heck i'll even drive up to san francisco. sos sos sos sos

[meme]

bump

any updates? anybody?

[jgroove]

if you have fillers in your skin, will they be affected if you have the needling done in the same areas? will the filler be destroyed, or will there be any problems? the filler i have is permanent- pmma done in mexico.

thank you

[semolina pilchard]

hey. just thought i'd put a bit of feedback in here, as i've done about 5 needling sessions myself over the past seven months or so. unfortunately, i haven't seen any improvement, and while i plan to continue in hopes that it will eventually show progress, i had hoped that by this time, based on others' experiences, there would have been some improvement. will mention if it ends up working at all.

[Rynn]

Hey all,

I had needling done back in March and I really don't see a difference. I am willing to give it another go, but I just may not be a responder. Good luck everyone.

Rynn

[Burn76]

Anyone know someone in Oklahoma that does this?

Thanks

[james112]

Hi unlucky, google Sharon at Esthetics Essentials in Las Vegas, I have had two sessions with her and she's great.

does anyone know who does needling in the los angeles area, or orange county, san diego county, heck i'll even drive up to san francisco. sos sos sos sos

[insecuritey]

Hello ALL

I wasted thousands of dollars ($4500 on microdermabrasions + IPL) and months at a time trying to overcome my pitted acne scars. mederma covered my face, 6 mons 24/7, etc etc. to no avail.

IPL didnt work on me b/c my skin is naturally golden ... so the tech had no choice but to use a low setting on me, which yielded no results-- a higher setting will only burn ethnic skin. But I also think IPL was designed only to make SMOOTH skin appear more youthful(fresh) + take away age spots(melasma) and NOT fix any PITTED scars.

Anyway, needless to say, nothing worked, thats why I'm on this here thread. I actually wanted to do fraxel pretty desperately, but then bad news broke my heart. I'm fitzpatricks skin type IV. that means laser will burn the bleep outta my skin yielding much less results than a fair skinned person. fair skinned people also have not reported to-die-for-good-results anyway, fraxelly speaking.

I went into needling with the knowledge that there is a chance for hyperpigmentation with this method as well. But I made the decision based on:

1- fraxel cannot be used at a high enough setting (will burn skin regardless)
+ 2- fraxel at a high setting still doesnt help light skinned pitted acne scar victims to an acceptable extent
+ 3- fraxel is sooooo expensive... if I'm going to PAY to BURN my SKIN and get little to NO RESULTS
= i might as well try an inexpensive method which'll hyperpigment my skin and possibly also produce no results

besides, the threads on needling (i have read them ALL) seem slightly promising + proven method compared to anything else

this mssg is too long.... i will soon post my experience of my first needling session ever, i have my scar pics up for a better visual of what skin needling is up against.

ciao!

[emily88]

Anyone know where I can get needling done in Seattle?

[petlover]

Emily-

Your post is timely. I just got needling done today on 100 or so small scars by a terrific lady - Lisa Lam of Biotouch Canada in Vancouver BC in the Fairmont Medical Building on West Broadway. If you are willing to make the drive there, it is well worth the trip. She is a former plastic surgeon and opthamologist. She does permanent makeup (20 years) and now accepts dry needling clients. I am pleased with her service, her attention to detail and hygiene.

I don't know if I can post her website, but you can google her.
- Christy

[emily88]

petlover, was the process painful? what kind of tool did she use for the needling? i've been off accutane for about 4 months now and my skin has gone back to producing oil/sweat normally...still, i wonder if i should just wait the full year before doing anything to it or if 6 months is ok.

[petlover]

Emily-

She applied a high quality medical grade numbing cream. There was practically no pain at all. In most of the scars, the sensation was as if I got an itchy spot and I was being scratched with a sharp object - it kind of felt good in a relieving sort of way. I was pleased about this. There were only 3 or 4 scars where it felt on the border of being painful, but nothing unmanageable.

She used a rotary machine with disposable needles and performed the procedure under a magnifying light. She penetrated to approximately 1/3 of the dermis depth (enough to bleed a little).

Some people wait 6 months, preferably a year after Accutane to undergo treatment (invasive treatments require the longer wait period). Somebody on this forum waited less than the recommended period and had no adverse effect, but everyone is different. Whenever you decide to do it, I would recommend a spot test first on a couple different areas on your face and observing how well it heals.

- Christy

[emily88]

So I woke up this morning and decided I will test out needling on a tiny scar just to see how it responds. I ended up doing two scars on my right cheek that are extremely close together. I bought the 30 g ultra fine needles, cleansed the area with alcohol and went at them. I know some people recommended the "jackhammer approach", but seriously it was so hard for me to pierce my skin. I had a tough time getting the needle to go in, and I was scared of pushing it too deep so I definitely don't think I went in deep enough. There was a bit of blood, and now the area sorta stings. Besides from the redness, it is really nice to see how swelling has made my scars shrink/disappear. I'll prolly be depressed when they appear again as the swelling goes down. I slathered on Neosporin right afterwards. Oh well, let's see how they turn out.

[notgivinup]

Hi everyone,

just wanted to let you know that I went kung-ho on my scars yesterday. I must have needled about hundred with the 30g lancets I bought the other day. I needled almost every scar atleast 20times each. So it took awhile to do my whole face. Now my face is full of bloody scabs, mind you all of them haven't scabbed, some just look a red bruised color.

After reading alot of your messages and info given about self needling, I figured that I have time off work why not needle myself. Once I had my face needled with a needle gun by a professional more than year ago and I had seen 25% improvement, my scars were now more shallower than before. After the swelling has gone down I will be doing a TCA peel on my face like I had done last year after getting needled. I had used 35% TCA and my skin looked pretty good afterwards. I'd say I had about overall 35% improvement. This time around I will be using 40% to 45% TCA. I know I won't be able to acheive a perfect 100% in my skin, but even upto 80% improvement I'll be happy camper and that will probably come from future sessions of tca and needling combo and of course maintenance like vitamin A cream that I've been using.

I'll keep you all posted on my results, unfortunately I couldn't take pics of my progress, cos my new camera doesn't work..haha..i'm bad with tech stuff !!

I'd like to wish everyone good luck with their scars........I believe perseverence always pays off..so never give up!!!

[joefromdusk]

hi, can somebody tell me brand name of the needles which you use (or a link)? thanks, and sorry for my english!

[emily88]

notgivinup,
I really hope that you'll see excellent results with this round of needling. Perseverence really does pay off, I've got plenty of that...I'm just lacking in the patience department. Did you have an easy time getting the lancet to pierce through? If you saw improvements with a professional needling session, why not continue getting it professionally done? I'd imagine they'd do a more thorough job considering they have better tools for it and everything.

[petlover]

Notgivinup - WOW, that was quite an undertaking needling 100 scars yourself! I was wondering the same thing as Emily as to why not go back to your needler since you had great results. Before I went to Lisa, I tested a few of my scars at home after reading this 65 page thread twice. I could not needle any of them evenly, and one became quite discolored - I am almost certain I needled that one too deeply (maybe popping a blood vessel) and I'm sure I am not the first to experience that. It wasn't a big deal though, as it was only a small test scar and not my whole face, thank goodness. I believe our upper dermis layer on our facial skin is an average of 2mm for most people, so there isn't a large margin of error for selfers. Please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to be self righteous by any means, but I have seen people on this forum who follow suit and dive into full blown self treatments, then come back here afterwards to post a problem they are having. Anyhow, I truly wish you all the best and hope that you will get great results like you had last year from your needler.

Emily - on the test scars you needled, as long as you stopped when you drew blood, you went deep enough. Good luck with them!

- Christy

[notgivinup]

Emily
to answer your questions, piercing the skin with the lancet for the first time was difficult, it felt as if I wasn't pressing hard enough or my skin was too tough. Instead I decided to hold the skin taught between my finger and thumb and then using my right hand, cos i'm right handed, I started to pierce the skin. That made it so much easier, then I made sure not to poke the needle all the way, just want to pierce the upper level of the skin.

Answer to the second question, the reason why I never returned to the professional needler, because I don't live in the same city anymore and I don't know of a professional needler currently where I reside.

Petlover- As myself, I did jump into it full blown because I knew what the risks were and I was ready to accept the end results whether it being good or bad. I also knew that I wasn't going to injure myself with a prick of a needle. Mind you there are more dangerous things out there that can harm us and a lancet isn't one of them. The lancet has a very short needle on the front of a plastic casing, so there is no possible way to push the needle further into your skin to do any harm.

About my progress, the discolored spots on my face are slowly starting to fade and the swelling is reducing. I believe the swelling should be gone in about 2- 3 weeks, thats when I can get a idea of my progress on my scars. As for the TCA, I think I'm going to hold off on that, but I will continue to use Vitamin A cream which helped to even out my skin tone and decrease the look of my scars.
Thanks guys for the encouragement!!