Are you looking to improve the appearance and feel of your skin? (Stupid question, right? Of course you are.) If you are seeking an easy way to get rid of those wrinkles or tough lines, Derma rolling is a quick and inexpensive way to solve your problems. With more intense treatments, it can also treat scars and stretch marks on your skin, and help with hair loss. Even if you’re basically happy with your complexion but just want to enhance it, Derma rolling is a pain-free and easy option, guaranteed to help your skin absorb your skin care products more effectively.

What Is Dermarolling?

What Is Dermarolling?

Micro-needling, also known as Derma rolling, is a procedure that can be done both at home and in the dermatologist’s office. A Derma roller is a plastic tool with a roller attached. This roller typically has either 192 or 540 tiny needles that when rolled over your skin’s surface, punctuate your skin and cause your body to think it is experiencing trauma. Because of this, your body reacts how it would to trauma – meaning, it starts trying to repair the skin it thinks has been damaged.

The body starts producing elastin and releases collagen, a protein that replaces dead skin cells and strengthens the skin. When you accidentally cut your finger, your body responds by releasing collagen, filling the wound with new tissue and eventually healing it altogether. When you use a Derma roller, the same thing happens – except that because you don’t actually have an injury, the extra collagen works to give your skin a plumper look and also eases wrinkles, lines and scars.

Anyone who has experienced acupuncture treatment can attest that needles being applied to the skin is not necessarily a painful experience.

What Are The Benefits Of Dermarolling?

Dermarolling For Clear Skin

Let’s take this one step at a time. I will address the benefits of Derma rolling on damaged skin, scars, and stretch marks later on in this article. For now, let’s start with the basics: even if you are not looking to address any specific scars, marks and the like, you still want your skin to be as smooth as possible.

Using a Derma roller with needles that are 0.25 mm in size is a great way to achieve the look you are after for your skin. Although this needle size does not cause the body to release collagen, it does thicken the top layer of your skin, which significantly enhances the effects of your skin-care products, like moisturizer or anti-ageing cream. Plus, there is no bleeding and it’s generally pain-free.

If you want to address wrinkles or lines on your skin, you’ll need a slightly bigger needle size. Generally, 0.5 mm is the recommended size, because there are less risks involved than there are with bigger needles, and it is just as effective at smoothing out wrinkles or lines. It also opens your pores which again helps with boosting the effectiveness of your skin-care products. Using this needle size can cause slight bleeding and will be mildly painful. You can choose to use numbing cream if this worries you.

Although repeated sessions are necessary to treat wrinkles, deep lines, scars and the like, even one session of Derma rolling will enhance your appearance notably.

How To Properly Dermaroll And Use A Dermaroller

How To Use A Dermaroller

If you’re doing the treatment at home, make sure you know how to do it completely safely so you don’t hurt yourself or damage your skin. If it’s your first time, it’s best to use one of the above needle sizes as they are the safest and have milder side effects.

Before you start, make sure that both your skin (including your hands), and the Derma roller are completely sterile. Wash your hands with disinfectant and wear gloves, wash the area you will be treating with antiseptic cleanser, and make sure you have sterilized your roller for at least 20 or 30 minutes beforehand. Isopropyl alcohol or a denture tablet are the recommended disinfectants for Derma rollers.

If you’re using numbing cream, this should be applied to your skin after the disinfectant. You should leave it for about 20 minutes to take effect, and then wipe away any remaining cream before you start rolling.

You’ll want to roll a few times in every direction over your skin. This ensures that you have totally covered every part of your skin, and every bit is being treated. Apply gentle to moderate pressure. Rolling too hard or too much can cause skin damage and slow down the healing process.

After you have finished rolling, make sure to sterilize your roller once more for about 20 to 30 minutes. You can then apply your regular skin care product. Make sure that you are not using any products with toxic or irritating ingredients, as this will irritate your skin. If you have used numbing cream, apply some antibacterial solution and leave it on for about an hour or two.

SO, WHAT IS DERMAROLLING?https://t.co/4Gh8aCBdCG pic.twitter.com/Es5nzgINQd

— Medicare Cosmetics (@MedicareCos) April 10, 2017

Dermaroller Tips

• Do not share your roller with anyone or use someone else’s roller. Doing so can spread germs and infection.
  As stated above, do not use skin care products with toxic or irritating ingredients, as they can react negatively to the treatment.
• Stick with the recommended amount of treatments. This is generally one per day. Doing more than one treatment per day does not give your skin the time it needs to heal and can damage your skin.
• Do not Derma roll over acne-infected areas, or if you have recently undergone Accutane treatment. It is also unsafe to use a Derma roller over skin in compromised condition, including eczema, skin conditions like psoriasis, sunburn or wounds.
• Applying makeup, sunblock or tanning lotion can cause inflammation because of their irritating ingredients, so you should wait at least 24 hours before applying any of these. Therefore, it’s best to Derma roll right before you go to bed, to give your skin time to heal.

Dermaroller For Acne Scar Benefits Explained

Dermarolling For Acne Scars

Besides for improving the general appearance of your skin, Derma rolling is known to be effective against scars caused by acne. Because Derma rolling causes your body to react to the trauma it thinks it is experiencing, your body starts to heal your skin by releasing collagen and elastin growth and thickening the top layer of your skin (epidermis), which effectively heals those scars.

Plus, Derma rolling tends to be cheaper than alternate acne scar treatments, and if you are taking any medication to treat your acne scars, Derma rolling will increase their effectiveness.

Dermaroller For Hair Loss: How Dermarolling Can Help Hair Growth

Dermarolling For Hair Loss

People who have used Derma rollers to encourage hair growth have also noted success. When your body reacts to the treatment by starting its natural healing process, it produces proteins that help develop new hair follicles. When people paired Derma rolling treatment with Minoxidil (a medication regularly used for common hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia), it worked especially well since it increased the effectiveness of the medication.

Derma rolling for hair loss should not be done at home, because longer needles are required; typically, between 1.5 – 2 mm in length. This is so that the needle is able to reach the follicle roots where hair growth starts.

Can Dermarolling Do Away With Stretch Marks?

Dermarolling For Stretch Marks

Derma rolling is also effective in getting rid of stretch marks. Because stretch marks are formed on the epidermis (top skin layer), and Derma rolling thickens this layer, the process makes the skin tougher and eventually heals these marks.

Stretch marks are generally caused by significant weight gain or loss in a short amount of time, pregnancy or puberty. These overwhelm your body’s natural elastin production, since it is trying to deal with more stretching than it can, leaving marks on your skin. As I mentioned previously, Derma rolling encourages elastin production – the opposite of what causes stretch marks. So, in essence, it’s as if Derma rolling is reversing the process that caused the stretch marks in the first place.

Generally, Derma rolling for stretch marks is done at a professional clinic, because, as with hair loss treatment, longer needles are used for the best results.

Where Can I Buy A Dermaroller?

If you’re one of those people who prefer to see a product before you actually buy it, you can buy a Derma roller kit at your local beauty shop. Otherwise, they can be purchased for a lot cheaper online. Make sure you are buying a legitimate brand because you do not want to be using inferior products on your skin, particularly in sensitive areas. I have seen them available on Amazon or eBay for really good prices. It’s a small price to pay for your happiness – literally!

Is Dermarolling Risky?

As with almost every medical procedure, there are risks associated with Derma rolling. Mostly, these can be avoided by using the roller properly and with the correct precautions (as listed above).

Using a Derma roller on ultra-sensitive areas such as your eyelids is not recommended. Depending on the size of the needles used, Derma rolling can be quite painful and cause significant bleeding. This is typically caused by larger needles (1.5 mm or larger), which should only be used by a skilled professional. If your treatment uses larger size needles, you should administer numbing cream prior to treatment.

Because you are opening your pores by Derma rolling, it’s important to be careful when applying creams or other skin care products after treatment. Make sure your products, if you choose to apply them, do not have toxic or irritating ingredients that can lead to inflammation and/or infection.

Side effects common to Derma rolling include irritation, redness and/or red spots. Although slightly uncomfortable, they disappear pretty quickly and aren’t dangerous.

Dermarolling Before And After: My Results

Dermarolling Before And After

Although my skin is thankfully, pretty clear on the whole, after reading up about Derma rolling I really wanted to give it a try. I’m actually quite a baby when it comes to pain, so I bought a good quality Derma roller on Amazon with 0.25 mm needles.

I used it every day on my face for four weeks, right before I went to bed. My skin is quite sensitive, so right away I saw my skin turn red. It was slightly alarming, but not painful, though a bit annoying. It kind of felt as though I was rubbing sandpaper over my face.

It worked great. Even though it wasn’t like I was using it for a scar or something, which would have been more noticeable, it really opened up my pores and my moisturizer worked way better than usual. My skin was smoother than before and felt amazing. I would really recommend Derma rolling to everyone, even if you don’t think you need it! You won’t regret it.

Conclusion

Although there are other products out there that claim to heal stretch marks, hair loss, and acne scars, many of them have not been proven to work, or have only seen limited success. Derma rolling, when done properly, has been wildly successful and has become the answer for many people struggling with these issues.

The potential risks can generally be easily avoided and are far outweighed by the inevitable benefits involved. Sounds good, but still scared of the pain? Try out the 0.25 mm needle. You’ll see that there’s no pain involved, and you’ll be amazed at the results. Be prepared to witness the new you!

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