I am having my PRP treatments 4 weeks apart. I had them 2 weeks apart for the first 2 sessions but that gave me bruising and lots of pigmentation so I think its necessary to give your skin time to heal in between treatments.

1.5mm needling will require at least 4 weeks because your gonna mulch your skin up and it takes 28 dats to just replace this mulched skin.at 4 weeks you wont get much healing benefit as you want at least further 2 weeks for healing benefit.

ontop of that,microdermabrasion is too aggressive and basicly old therapy.

you would have benefited more from home needling,if a salon can do it why cant you and the needling devices are teady available to buy for a reason so why a salon?

also tca peels you can do yourself.

i think they are trying to sell you what they can do.

i would have needled and alternated with peels me for a year with 6 weeks between each for healing.

derminator device is readily available and a dermastamp costs £4.tca @ 100% is like £15,can be watered down,latex gloves and gauze.

15 hours ago, Ps07ha said:

Hello,
First post but long time lurker! I am from the UK and have acne scars (I think mainly boxcar and ice pick) and have finally decided to seek professional treatment after just about being able to keep my acne at bay.

I have just had a consultation with a salon (although they have a doctor onsite) who have recommended a course of six PRP treatments alongside IPL laser and a prep treatment including microdermabrasion and mesotherapy. What has confused me is that they have told me that I will need to have the PRP treatments on a weekly basis (1.5mm needle) - this contradicts advice I've read which suggests that needling treatments should be spaced at least 6 weeks apart for collagen formation. Any advice on this would be really appreciated before I make the decision whether to start this treatment - I really don't want my skin to become any worse than it already is! 

I have attached some pictures in case anyone can advise me further. Thank you! 

You should give your skin time to heal and space the treatments at least 4 weeks apart. You might end up damaging the skin otherwise. My doctor advised me to space them 2 weeks apart but I wasn't happy with that so I decided against it.

Thank you for confirming my suspicions! I have decided against this now based on thereplies. I am thinking about investing in the derminator and combining this with TCA peels (especially after the amazing results in one of the studies posted). I am also interested in subcision/TCA cross based on the information in @beautifulambitionfaq, but it is really difficult to find any clinics in the UK which offer this. If anyone can provide any further specific help or guidance based on the pictures of my scarring I have posted I would really appreciate it. Thank youfor your replies!

So buy a derminator,needle at the plain depth you think you require for the scars and do it moderately.give it 6 weeks at least for healing and then start tca peel,weak to start off with and work the strength up to 25%ish.do this for a year and look at the results,then you can evaluate your skin and if its worth subcision,it wont hurt as long as you follow the guidelines.

just dont go tca crossing scars that are not suited.

Hi there, you mainly have surface box cars. I would not be doing miconeedling, subcision only works if you have pitting a pencil rubber or deeper or a pencil eraser for those in the USA. Yours are mainly superficial. Peels will help you most. TCA Cross on your icepicks. Checkout the FAQ - which I see you read, goto the TCA section, click the link and read the first page about peels. The IPL could help you with the reds, but I don't see the microneedling helping you,. Skin boosters also called mesotherapy will help you if done in injections. If your not comfortable peeling at home, have a doctor do a deep peel to get under the scar pitting (sedated). If you treat at home it will take some time.

Thank you for the advice @beautifulambition. Am I right in thinking my scars will be particularly difficult to treat in that case? (I realise all scarring is difficult to treat and 100% improvement is basically impossible).

I have dermarolled a couple of time recently (spaced 6 weeks apart) and I think I have seen a tiny improvement, so I might still invest in the derminator as it is a relatively small cost (compared to the 1200 the salon was going to charge!) If there is no change to my scarring, hopefully the collagen production may at least help my overall tone and fine lines if nothing else.

I have just had a good read of the TCA advice in the FAQ. I had a 15% TCA peel done professionally a couple of years ago, which had some impact but it was difficult to see the results as I had a breakout shortly afterwards. I found the downtime really difficult though - I work with lots of new people on a daily basis and it was nearly impossible to leave the house when peeling! So I'm thinking perhaps one strong TCA peel (done professionally) may be the way forward, in conjunction with some microneedling and re-evaluate after that. It really is so difficult to know what approach to take, and I have been disillusioned by the differing advice given by professionals I have seen in the past.

Thanks again for the replies!

@Ps07haThe first part sounds like your giving up. Treatment takes work. I am NOT saying you cannot get improvement. I am saying your spending your money currently on things I feel will not get you there. Don't aim for 100%, aim for 50% and be surprised when you get more. This is a more healthy mindset. I do not know how you heal, etc... I give you the options if you do the work.

Sure get the derminator it's cheap. For 1200 I would not pay them that fortune, you can do that at home. You can do this at home for upkeep. If you do microneedling, you must do peels they work together. The microneedling alone won't work for your concern.

I would have instead (and still would do ) RF microneedling done (3 treatments) Infini, Vivance, Intracel, Intensif, Secret are all brands. Your med spa probably has this as well.

Sadly any treatment for acne scars have down time, ... if it does not, it does not work as well.

Peels, and laser which do resurfacing have down time. You really need the peels done. Your issue is textural and we need to get under the pitting. IF you don't have the down time, find someone (I think there is a DR Kahn who costs fortunes in the UK / London - he's big into laser) .

You need a erbium resurfacing where they go deep enough under your pitting to get improvement. Do not do it in fractional mode, instead you want to do ablative resurfacing. Even the erbium "peel" is not enough energy to get the resurfacing you need and the results you desire. I again normally suggest peels as they have less side effects. Are cheaper. In your case with the stipulation of down time I would do ablative erbium resurfacing or a sedated peel once and make sure they know you want to get under the surface pitting. Sounds like you don't have time to do progressive procedures, so that is a one shot treatment.

To recap: I would get RF microneedling (3 - treatments). Get a professional sedated TCA peel or ablative resurfacing to get under the pitting. You can dermastamp / derminator at home at any time once you have healed up.

I see color issues (reds) - continue to do the IPL lastly (Takes several) or vascular laser for this.

BA

@beautifulambitionNot giving up at all, just trying to be realistic and make sure my expectations aren't too high. I really appreciate the advice I have had on here - especially as I know there is absolutely no motive or sales pitch behind it! I just want to make sure if I'm investing my time and money, it's on treatments that have the best chance of being effective.

I agree with the peels, I would much rather go in that direction than lasers due to the potential risks and cost. From what I understand, the US seem to be a lot more up-to-date with treatments and they appear to be more widely available. In the UK (especially up north!) it is really difficult to find clinics which offer TCA cross, stronger peels or the rf microneedling you mentioned. The names you have given are really helpful though, I'll research these in more detail.

Thanks again (to everyone) for your help and advice, and for also saving me from a potentially costly mistake!