I know there are a million needling threads already, but I have a few questions that hopefully a veteran can answer for me.
1. Do I need to lay off the Epiduo before and after a treatment?
2. Should I continue doing my 40% glycolic peels in between sessions? Say every 2 weeks can I alternate between peels and needling?
3. Do I need to put something on my skin immediately after a session? I have read about people using copper peptides or vitamin c right away.
4. Should I do my whole face or just where the scarring is? Like, should I go all the way down to the jaw line even though that area of my skin is healthy?
5. How deep should I do my first treatment, and should I go deeper on the cheeks (where scarring is the worst) than my forehead and temples?
Hopefully someone with more experience than myself can answer your questions, but:
3) Pretty unclear about this myself. I'd imagine there is a window of opportunity directly after needling to get deeper penetration though the micro-channels you have just created in the skin using the right topical... but what the right topical is I don't know. As far as OwnDoc's instructions go, they recommend applying Vit C up to 4 days in advance to a needling session - and then resume application a couple of days or more later on a daily basis. So, I guess - either go with this advice, apply what you feel is right or don't use anything for the first 24 hours or so post-needling.
4) Again, would like to hear other peoples views on this but to me it seems logical to concentrate on the affected areas rather than treating the whole face.
5) Don't think it matters which needle length you use first time around, as long as it isn't something silly. You are free to use a higher length on the cheeks but you need to be more conservative on the temple and forehead areas due to the skin being thinner. Bit of aconundrum if you scarring is worst/deepest in these areas but it's best to err on the side of caution, observe results and re-evaluate the situation later down the line.