single needling, dermarolling, frequency, etc

[noel]

hi sarah,

i have been away from your forum for a while(i'm a lurker, though; this is my first post), and i have been using your 1.5 dermaroller since september 2010 for facial acne scars. i have some questions re: single needling and dermarolling. i'm sorry if this question has been asked before, but i couldn't find it anywhere in the forum. as well, i need some clarification about rolling frequency.

1. i have lots of scars. when i needle each one of them once per month(i don't like single needling many at once because i get too many red spots on my face. so, i only do a few at a time), some end up getting needled very close to the time i have to use the 1.5 dermaroller. how does dermarolling affect the collagen synthesis that's already happening in those scars that were needled late in time? does dermarolling conflict with needling in any way?

2. your dermarolling instructions re: 1.5 rollers and their frequency of use have changed since i bought mine in august 2010. if i'm not mistaken, the instructions now say one can use the 1.5 every 3-4 weeks; before it was every 4 weeks at most. what changed this? why did your recommendation change? do you still recommend spacing it's use 5-6 weeks apart?

thank you very much!

[SarahVaughter]

Yes - I have changed it from four weeks at most to three weeks at most. I still consider this frequency safe and I will not reduce it further.

   

  The reason I reduced it is because it is very difficult to recommend a general frequency that is suitable for every individual and every body part.

  Some of our customers get pinpoint bleeding when rolling their face with a 0.5 mm dermaroller. Some write me emails asking "what's wrong" because they do not get any pinpoint bleeding while rolling their face with a 2 mm dermaroller and applying quite some pressure. It shows that skin thickness is not the same in all individuals. Skin thickness also varies per body area. In general I would recommend rolling every 4 weeks with 1.5 mm. If you are male (men usually have thicker skin) or your skin is thick or you roll on thick skin areas such as the back and the bottom, then roll every three weeks. If your skin is thin or you are red for days after rolling then roll every five to six weeks.

   

  Concerning needling, do not needle the same scar, stretch marks or wrinkle more frequently than once a month.

   

  I agree that needling just a few acne scars at a time is a good idea to avoid being red all over the face. You can't avoid using the dermaroller after recently needling the last few acne scars but that's not a problem.

[FINLEY]

Is it OK to needle all of my individual scars on the same day I roll?  (That way I only have "the mess" one time per month.)

[SarahVaughter]

Yes it is OK.  Using a dermaroller on the entire area (scars + surrounding skin) and needling the scars only is the best approach for scars. You can perform it all the same day or needle just couple of scars/stretchmarks every day or so. Whatever suits you better. Patience is all you need.

[Miro]

I ordered Dermastamps and dermarollers

I was gonna do it like this :

I have 3 bigger scars ( atrophic ) and smaller rolling scars ( forehead and left side of my face )

So I wanted to dermastamp 20 times every scar, and then roll over my face but not those 3 scars.

 So if I understand correctly: I can dermastamp those 3 and then roll over my whole face again including those scars that I demrstamped  ?

[SarahVaughter]

Stamp the same scar six to eight times. You should get about 250 pricks per cm2 (our dermastamp has 35 needles).  If you heal OK you can stamp slightly more densely the next time, especially if you have seriously deep scars. You have to experiment a little.

    Pricking one acne scar twenty times is OK for the single needle method but a dermastamp has 35 needles and more than one needle will hit the scar so twenty times would be too much - at least to begin with.

Yes you can roll all over your face, including your stamped scars. However, do not roll over the scars if they have scabs from stamping. It would prematurely remove the scabs and that could cause scarring. Scabs have to fall off by themselves when they are ready. Not everybody gets scabs, but if you do, do not roll over them until they are gone.

[Miro]

I must say I am little bit confused, if I dermastamp and right after  that I am dermarolling (  right after means few minutes ) ,

could it be   there be already scabs after stamps ?

Maybe I dont quite understand what scab is , English is not my mother language :cool:

[SarahVaughter]

I was not completely sure that by "dermastamp those three and then roll over my whole face again" you mean rolling immediately afterwards so I wrote about scabs just in case that you might want to roll later.