Skin Needling, the wonder treatment!

Skin Needling is the treatment that is taking the skincare industry by storm! Everywhere you look it is being used to treat many concerns, from scarring on embarrassing bodies, to lines and wrinkles on anti-aging programs and most importantly available to you in skincare clinics.

This is definitely up there as one of the most popular skin treatments that we use in clinic and its the treatment of choice for most of our staff ;-) .

Why all the fuss?

Skin Needling stimulates natural collagen and cell renewal by increasing the production of growth factors (seeVampire Facelift). Growth factors work in response to trauma, the needles on the roller cause tiny puncture wounds in the skin.

 In a professional clinic treatment the size of the needles used are between 1mm and 3mm long, home rollers are usually 0.25mm long.

Professional clinic treatments

As the needles used are long enough to penetrate to the dermal layer of the skin a slight discomfort usually occurs during treatment. This discomfort is over come by using a topical anaesthetic around 40minutes prior to the treatment.

The end point in a professional treatment is pin point bleeding, it is the presence of blood that is responsible for the amazing results!

After the treatment your skin will appear very red, this can last for around 24hours.

As the results are a response to the wound healing process the skin will continue to improve for the following 40 days.

Skin needling successfully treats:

• lines & wrinkles
• thinning skin
• dull sallow skin
• acne scars
• uneven skin tone
• prevention of aging 

Although the results are amazing this treatment is not a quick fix. The treatment plan takes place over a 6 month period with one treatment at 4 weekly intervals. In order to enhance your results a skincare routine containing a RETINOL product will work wonders!

Glycolic Acid

Glycolic acid is one of the mostly widely used acids within skincare, as a derivative of sugar cane it has been around for many years. Glycolic Acid is the smallest AHA molecule, because of its small molecular size it has the ability to penetrate the skin.

Essentially Glycolic Acid is an exfoliator, however they way it works is much more advanced than your average scrub. Old dead skin cells that sit on the surface of the skin are held together by binding lipids, Glycolic Acid breaks the bond holding the skin cells and the lipids together in turn desquamating the old dead cells. Glycolic Acid is often described as a PAC man eating its way through the skin cells.

The removal of the epidermal cells forces the stimulation of new cells to be produced within the dermal layer, Glycolic Acid can be used in a variety of ways; from small percentages in products to high percentages in skin peels.

Daily use of Glycolic Acid products will help to keep the skin smooth and radiant by reducing the build up of old dead skin cells. In order for a product to be beneficial it is advised that they contain between 15 & 30 percent, it is normal to experience a tingling sensation once applied.

Glycolic Acid treatments are successful at treating fine lines and wrinkles, thickened skin, superficial scarring and dull sallow skin. It is also a suitable treatment for those people who want a ‘freshen up’ to their skin. Glycolic treatments come in many forms the most successful are peels containing between 30 and 70 percent Glycolic acid.

The Vampire Facelift

Ok so we all saw the beautiful Kim Kardashion looking like an extra from a hollywood horror movie, but the treatment that she had is far from as drastic as it looks.

The vampire facelift or Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) is not just some Hollywood gimmick, but a successful treatment not only used in aesthetics, but also used to treat sport injuries, the infamous tiger woods is a fan.

Why??

I understand the worries that people have when it comes to having traditional injectable treatments like Botox and fillers, after all we are putting a 'product' into our bodies. The beauty of PRP is that the product is YOURS, it's your blood! Think about what your blood does, without it you wouldn't be alive. Amongst many other duties your blood carries platelets, platelets once activated release growth factors, it is these growth factors that make this treatment so successful.

Growth factors are typically released when areas of tissue are damaged, they stimulate the healing process. This process consists of stimulating fibroblast cells along with collagen and elastin fibres which are responsible for giving the skin strength and elastic properties.

By introducing these platelets into the skin the healing process is stimulated with minimal trauma being caused. In short we are forcing the stimulation of collagen and elastin.

What happens??

A sample of your blood is taken which is then placed in a centrifuge, this process is to separate the different components of your blood, isolating the platelets into the plasma.

The platelets are then introduced to the skin through several modalities, superficial injections, deep transdermal injections, mesotherapy and micro needling.

The results begin to appear within a few weeks, which include:

Reducing fine lines & wrinkles
Strengthening thinning skin
Stimulating collagen production
Revitalising dull lifeless skin
Smoothing skin tone and texture