Pros and Cons of Dermaplaning & Micro-needling, Professional vs DIY
It’s me again lovely Beautique Ladies and Gents, your ‘lady know it all’ is at it again, and boy do I have news for you, but first here’s a question for you my lovelies; what’s with the beating and bashing of hard, stump, unhygienic needles on your skin? Are you trying to uncover a new face under all the debris of dead skin cells and pigmented discoloration in the hopes of discovering a young Jennifer Aniston?
Listen Linda, Listen! It’s of the utmost importance for you to understand that if you treat your skin incorrectly with the use of the “fancy” home rollers you can, in actual fact, cause major damage to your skin and trigger an unsightly infection! Imagine the drama darling, what would your book club have to say? ‘oops I did it again’?
Leave it to the professionals darling, you didn’t study 3 years anatomy of the skin to just overnight be better than the Beaugician (TLB magical aesthetician).
My trusted aesthetic besties at The Laser Beautique have informed me on the correct protocols and things to consider when treating at home, as well as the results one can expect when going in to your nearest TLB clinic to experience the amazing Cinderella facial (and this one doesn’t just last till midnight)
Right, now I am aware that at this moment you could be reading this blog, after you have just home ploughed your skin and immediately regretting it, because you didn’t listen to ‘Lady Know it all.’
Let me add to your regret, below are the scary facts about your home rollers you have named Frederick.
Disadvantages of DIY Needling
– Hygiene is a big factor, if you don’t sterilise rollers correctly and you are working deeply you need to sterilise utilizing alcohol before and after a treatment. Otherwise bacteria will build up and can lead to unsightly skin problems. When using a Pen, cartridges need to be disposed of in a sharps box for incineration, these can’t be reused as there is no way to sterilise this due to it being made of plastic as well as the fact that the needles aren’t accessible.
– Your skin needs to be thoroughly cleaned. If there is any reminiscences of dirt or make-up you will push this into your skin and end up clogging your pores, thus suffering from congestion and possible infection.
– One needs to be very careful when applying topical products to the skin post treatment, as some may contain toxic ingredients that may cause irritation. One should rather wait 24 -48 hours before applying their usual homecare products. Examples are AHA’s, fragrance, preservatives (Phenoxyethanol) and Parabens (Benzoic acid)
– Avoid certain scars, such as keloid scarring. As with this type of scar there is already too much collagen that was produced during the healing period, if you microneedle over this you will aggravate the area and the scar will stretch out more and become more puffy and inflamed.
– The last thing that is a common misconception is that you should bleed when micro-needling, this is how you know it’s working. When treating with 0.25mm there should be no bleeding occurring, with 0.5mm – 1mm you might experience pin point bleeding, if you experience anything more than this you have over treated the skin. This can then lead to a prolonged recovery time, redness, swelling, irritation and possible skin infection.
– Also, aestheticians are trained on how deep they should treat a specific area, based on the skin texture, scarring, wrinkles etc. It is not advisable to keep to one needle depth for the entire face, as the skin laxity is different around the eyes than on the cheeks. Therefor the treatments are customised for each client.
Now here’s even more juicy news! What’s the difference between MICRONEEDLING and DERMAPLANNING?
Both micro-needling and dermaplanig treatments have various benefits, from improving the look of scars, cell regeneration as well as improving & reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Both these treatments are minimally invasive procedures that take on average 60 minutes and these treatments offer no real downtime and are painless. Clients are able to return to their normal routine within 24 hours of the treatment.
Below my Beautician has listed both advantages and disadvantages of Micro needling and Dermaplaning.
Let’s start with Micro needling shall we:
Micro-needling works best when performed in-clinic as aestheticians are able to treat the skin at a depth between 0.25 mm – 2mm. (Frederick, your home roller has a depth of 0.25mm, which won’t penetrate deeper than your epidermal layer, this is purely to maximise the effectiveness of your skincare products, as well as Retin-A. (please read our blog on Retin A – Mind Blowing stuff)
At The Laser Beautique the aestheticians use a micro needling pen to treat as they have found that the results they get from the pen are more advanced and an effective method for skin rejuvenation than that of a roller. Both Micro needling Pen and Micro needling Rollers are forms of micro needling used to stimulate the production of new collagen in the skin.
Advantages of Pen VS Roller:
– More precision as you are able to easily treat those hard to reach areas such as around the eyes, nose and upper lip whereas it is more difficult to reach these areas with traditional rollers.
– The treatment can be customised as we are able to adjust the needle depth, the benefit of adjusting needle depth allows us to cater to different areas of the face that require different penetration levels for the best results.
– There is less epidermal damage and downtime with the use of a micro needling pen as with this device the needles penetrate the skin vertically whereas with the rollers the needles penetrate the skin at an angle causing more chance of ‘tears’ occurring through the skin leading to more side effects and therefore longer recovery time.
In the above picture you can clearly see the in out vertical motion of the pen vs the roller which leaves triangular trenches.
When applied to the skin it creates “micro-injuries,” which stimulates the wound healing response and in doing so new collagen and elastin is produced, this is known as neocollagenesis. Another benefit is because we are able to treat dermally with our device, whatever topically products are applied within the treatment, their active ingredients penetrate directly into the skin, thus increasing the concentration and boosting the efficacies.
The most important disadvantage of treating yourself at home with a pen is that you would not know the correct needle depth on a specific part of the face or body.
Dermaplanning
Dermaplaning on the other hand is a method of mechanical exfoliation that consists of using a 10-gauge scalpel to gently scrape off the top layer of dulling dead skin cells in order to reveal a smoother, brighter complexion. The scalpel isn’t used to enter into the skin, but rather it is placed at a 45 degree angle to the skin and is brushed back and forth over the skin on the face to remove excess skin cells and any skin cell debris from your epidermis. This process will also remove vellus hairs from your face (the white peach fuzz).
The process of removing dead skin cells and scraping off the top portion of the epidermis is stimulating to the deeper layers of your skin (the dermis). Thus the procedure results in a stimulating effect which causes your skin to produce more collagen which increases skin tightness and skin texture. The treatment can be customised to each client needs, by preforming a peel and adding serums to enhance the results.
As we get older (yes it’s true) our natural exfoliation process slows down, when dermaplaning is performed the process of removing this excess skin stimulates new epidermal growth and this creates more growth factors and collagen that all boost the appearance of your skin. The promotion of new epidermal growth stimulates the even distribution of melanin to be produced, and this is how hyper-pigmentation can be reduced.
Exfoliating the skin also stimulates circulation and increases blood flow to the epidermal layers of the skin. The epidermis doesn’t contain blood vessels. By stimulating blood flow, essential nutrients are delivered to the epidermis and thereby supports anti-aging and radiant skin.
Dermaplaning won’t make the hair grow back thicker or darker, as it targets the vellus hair, which is fine and lighter in colour than terminal hair. The treatment doesn’t interact with the hair follicle itself and therefor can’t alter the growth pattern.
Dermaplaning in clinic procedure
Dermaplaning at Home
Disadvantages OF DIY Dermaplaning:
– Dermaplaning tools that are available to the public don’t give an as accurate result as an in-clinic procedure. As the dermaplaning tool has a blade, which is similar to that of a razor blade it’s not able to remove the dead skin cells and peach fuzz properly. Even though there is no blood present it needs to be sterilized thoroughly before its next use, but there still may be a risk or infection if you happen to have over active acne. With this being said, it’s advisable to rather dispose of the dermaplaning tool as the blade may become blunt after one treatment and may end up scratching the skin.
– Dermaplaning should only be performed once a month, as to mimic the natural cell turnover process. Preforming this treatment more than once a month could aggravate the skin and lead to possible unnecessary thickening of the skin.
– It’s important to make sure your face is clean. Otherwise, you can allow bacteria into the small cuts and that may cause an infection. Therefore, you should always use a new dermplaning hand tool.
– It’s also very important that the skin is pulled taut while preforming a treatment on yourself, and that is not always do-able when one hand needs to perform the treatment and the other to support especially on those trickier areas like the cheeks.