38 replies to this topic

[now.or.never]

Hi everybody! I just want to share the latest improvements in my scars.

The first four photos were taken a year and a half ago. They were fresh scars, developed just after I got rid of my cystic acne with retin-A.

The last four photos were taken a few days ago. I know the lighting is different, but I assure you that the lighting is worse, not better. I tried to find the worst possible lighting to take those.

Overall, my scars improved around 60%. (Although my confidence improved only 30%. Funny how they don't match up.)

The scars on the left side of my face are much worse than the right side.

I'll let them sit here for now and see if it generates any interest.

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Edited by now.or.never, 15 December 2010 - 04:10 PM.

[Mr.Don]

congratulations !

What treatment did you have ?

[Frida.k]

You have a wonderful skin tone.

Congratulations

[UghWtf]

This is amazing, please tell us what you did

[bXPLAyBoY7]

Congrats!! would love to know as well what treatments you did

[now.or.never]

Ok guys.. so here's what I did.

Right after I got rid of all my cystic acne, I had 3 sessions of IPL to get rid of redness. I'm not sure how effective this really was.

After that, I had a session of dermastamping. I did the first one at the clinic, but after that I bought my own 1.5 dermastamp and did it myself. I stamped once a month, and with each stamping session I became increasingly aggressive. I got better and better at it. This worked very well, but does require a lot of patience, as improvements were gradual and almost unnoticeable between sessions. I need a downtime of about 4 days everytime.

I also had two sessions of subcision. HOWEVER... I do not think they were of much help because the doctor kept on missing my scars. There was one scar that he did hit, and I heard a lot of popping. That particular scar did show noticeable improvement, so I do believe subcision works well. I am now looking to get subcision in Toronto... If anybody knows any good doctors.. tell me!

I was only 17-18 during this entire process, so I believe that my youth helped speed up my scar recovery.

Questions or Comments?

[hello50]

Ok guys.. so here's what I did.

Right after I got rid of all my cystic acne, I had 3 sessions of IPL to get rid of redness. I'm not sure how effective this really was.

After that, I had a session of dermastamping. I did the first one at the clinic, but after that I bought my own 1.5 dermastamp and did it myself. I stamped once a month, and with each stamping session I became increasingly aggressive. I got better and better at it. This worked very well, but does require a lot of patience, as improvements were gradual and almost unnoticeable between sessions. I need a downtime of about 4 days everytime.

I also had two sessions of subcision. HOWEVER... I do not think they were of much help because the doctor kept on missing my scars. There was one scar that he did hit, and I heard a lot of popping. That particular scar did show noticeable improvement, so I do believe subcision works well. I am now looking to get subcision in Toronto... If anybody knows any good doctors.. tell me!

I was only 17-18 during this entire process, so I believe that my youth helped speed up my scar recovery.

Questions or Comments?

Where did you buy your dermastamp?
Did you use any topicals?
Any advice on techniques using a dermastamp.

Thanks

[Liquid_Ocelot]

So glad to hear that dermastamping was your primary method as that's exactly what i've started using. How many treatments did you do altogether?

[now.or.never]

I had about 5 sessions of dermastamping. Again, I did it very thoroughly and aggressively. As for advice... try to stab a side of the needles in at an angle. You get a louder pop than usual.

No, I didn't use any topicals, but I continued using Retin-A every night as always. (Rested the night of the stamping, actually.)

Also, I bought my stamp on ebay. (1.5mm)

Edited by now.or.never, 17 December 2010 - 02:48 PM.

[Liquid_Ocelot]

I had about 5 sessions of dermastamping. Again, I did it very thoroughly and aggressively. As for advice... try to stab a side of the needles in at an angle. You get a louder pop than usual.

No, I didn't use any topicals, but I continued using Retin-A every night as always. (Rested the night of the stamping, actually.)

Also, I bought my stamp on ebay. (1.5mm)

Did you use it on your forehead aswell? 1.5mm seems to be too long for the forehead.

[now.or.never]

I have no scars on my forehead I only got cysts on my cheeks.

[PaulyD]

I'm planning on stamping too.

I'm going to take the approach of stamping twice a week but only lightly. I have researched and read and read and read and really am satisfied with the whitelotus approach to rolling and stamping. Ive read several accounts of people who worsened their scars and skin complexion by stamping and rolling too aggressively.

I mean, I understand why you would stamp once every 6 weeks and aggressively because conventional approach with lasers is high setting and infrequent treatment for scars. But that said, I now suffer from terrible skin complexion from that route. Obviously I couldnt afford 12 restore treatments on lower setting tot ry and avoid side effects.

[now.or.never]

I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences with lasers. I wouldn't jump in with too much aggression the first time. I became increasingly aggressive just because I became increasingly familiar with what my skin can take. Good luck!

[SLSL]

First of all, great improvement! Your skin looks really nice. It's threads like these that give me a little more hope in fixing my scars.

I have more than a few questions, if you don't mind answering! I'm debating on whether I should dermastamp or not.
1) Which treatment do you think gave you the most improvement?
2) When you had subcision, did he get most of your scars? Or did he just do the bigger ones?
3) Did you dermastamp all over your face or just your scars?
4) Do you think the reason your scars look much better is because the redness is gone, or because they're actually less deep?
5) Do you take any vitamins/supplements or do you eat healthy? Like I want to know if something you're doing helped your skin heal so well

Thanks a bunch in advance!

[now.or.never]

Hey Sapphire Lily! I've seen a lot of your posts here over the past year when I was a silent lurker. Big fan.

1) I think that the redness would have faded without the IPL, so I don't think that helped much. Dermastamping helped a lot, but improvements came painfully gradually. I believe that subcision does exactly the same thing as stamping/rolling, except on a much larger and effective scale. In stamping, you are poking vertically at the scars to stimulate regeneration. In subcision, you are also trying to stimulate repair, but instead of just poking at the scars, you are going underground and cutting up the scars in a sweeping motion. It's just much more intense.

2) I was very disappointed with the way my doctor performed subcision on me. I went in not knowing what the procedure was, or how it is supposed to be done. He did about two jabs on either side of my face, and pretty missed three out of the four times. As I mentioned above, he did hit the scarred area once, and at that jab I actually felt and heard my scars popping and responding to the needle. That particular scar improved. I am now looking for a better doctor to perform the procedure on me. Don't want to waste downtime on a poorly done subcision session

3) I only stamped the scars. I actually tried stamping the unscarred areas of my face to see what the difference was. Turns out, only the scarred parts have the "popping" noises and remain red a few days after the stamping.

4) Both. The most noticeable improvement was the fading of the red marks, and this required a time span of half a year for each fresh scar. But the raising of the scars through stamping has helped my appearance drastically too. I would say that the shallow scars raised more significantly than the deep scars, all things being equal.

5) I do eat healthy (not because of choice, but because I am living off dorm food). In terms of skin care, I apply Retin-A everyday, moisturize every night, and sleep with a freshly washed towel on my pillow every night. Miss any one of these three components, and I find that my pimples start coming back. It's really a blessing that I've found this method through trial and error. My skin is 98% clear now.

Hope this helped.

[FeelsGood]

what strength of retin-a did you use and was it the cream or gel?

[now.or.never]

0.1% Retin-A Micro. Flaked a bit at the beginning, but no problems now.

[SLSL]

Hey Sapphire Lily! I've seen a lot of your posts here over the past year when I was a silent lurker. Big fan.

1) I think that the redness would have faded without the IPL, so I don't think that helped much. Dermastamping helped a lot, but improvements came painfully gradually. I believe that subcision does exactly the same thing as stamping/rolling, except on a much larger and effective scale. In stamping, you are poking vertically at the scars to stimulate regeneration. In subcision, you are also trying to stimulate repair, but instead of just poking at the scars, you are going underground and cutting up the scars in a sweeping motion. It's just much more intense.

2) I was very disappointed with the way my doctor performed subcision on me. I went in not knowing what the procedure was, or how it is supposed to be done. He did about two jabs on either side of my face, and pretty missed three out of the four times. As I mentioned above, he did hit the scarred area once, and at that jab I actually felt and heard my scars popping and responding to the needle. That particular scar improved. I am now looking for a better doctor to perform the procedure on me. Don't want to waste downtime on a poorly done subcision session

3) I only stamped the scars. I actually tried stamping the unscarred areas of my face to see what the difference was. Turns out, only the scarred parts have the "popping" noises and remain red a few days after the stamping.

4) Both. The most noticeable improvement was the fading of the red marks, and this required a time span of half a year for each fresh scar. But the raising of the scars through stamping has helped my appearance drastically too. I would say that the shallow scars raised more significantly than the deep scars, all things being equal.

5) I do eat healthy (not because of choice, but because I am living off dorm food). In terms of skin care, I apply Retin-A everyday, moisturize every night, and sleep with a freshly washed towel on my pillow every night. Miss any one of these three components, and I find that my pimples start coming back. It's really a blessing that I've found this method through trial and error. My skin is 98% clear now.

Hope this helped.

Awwh, I didn't know I had fans lol but thanks for answering my questions in detail! This did help, & good luck with the rest of your scar treatment journey!

[FeelsGood]

Do you still plan on stamping?

[Zaaap]

Hi Dude,

Congrats on the treatment for the scars, results looks amazing!

Im using Rose hip seed oil, its making a difference but its very very slow.

I never though that treatment can make that much of a difference, its ace!

At the moment im not using any physical treatments for my scars. I would like to know about the stamping treatment if you would not mind please.

Just how to use it and any risks, how long does the bleeding last and does it leave scabs (clots), does the equipment needs sterilizing and do you need to use any oils? The more information the better.

What other treatments have you tried?

Thanks

Zaaap

United Kingdom

Edited by Zaaap, 23 December 2010 - 04:18 AM.