Badass Skincare
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH MICRONEEDLING…
First off, let me say I am so so excited! I’ve been noticing areas of my face that have been feeling the neglect of my regular facial acupuncture routine. But I wanted to see the effects of microneedling so I’ve been holding off. More lines have been forming, there’s been a frustrating downturn around my mouth. I could cover them but they have been becoming more and more obvious. At this point, let me just say that neither of these occurrences are indicative of how I feel about who I am or how I feel about who that is. I’ve just been a little surprised and still felt pretty great about how I show up in the world overall…wrinkles and sagging skin be damned! And I also know that some folks don’t want to do anything about the wrinkles and sagging skin. Totally cool. But for me, I want to look the way I feel! So I’ve decided to try microneedling.
Microneedling is the creation of teeny tiny wounds via an oscillating pen that allows for the response of collagen production and new skin cells. This can offer cell rejuvenation that improves the appearance of wrinkles and the sagging of skin via the improvement of elasticity. It also aids in the improvement of the appearance of scars and stretch marks, and also encourages hair regrowth.
Since I’m a Doctor of Acupuncure, microneedling is in my scope of practice. This means that it’s legal for me to perform microneedling. Only MDs, nurses, and LAc’s (licensed acupuncturists=me!) are legally permitted to perform microneedling. So, with the intention of offering this treatment to our patients, Fox Acupuncture and Wellness provided the microneedling pen and serums and off I go.
I’ve had a busy couple of weeks, what with the move and all, and so I’ve been pretty excited to finally get to it. I’ve been certified in Facial Cosmetic Acupuncture for years now and am certified in microneedling, as well. So I have finally been able to set aside an afternoon to get started. I washed my face and applied the numbing agent. (At one point, I was nervous that if I got it on my hands I wouldn’t be able to feel the knife I was using to chop veggies while waiting for my face to get numb! But no worries! Quick wash and no issue.) After 30 minutes, I removed the numbing cream and, veggies roasting, went to work.
I started by using hyaluronic acid on my face. Hyaluronic acid does NOT feel like acid. It is a chemical produced by the body that infuses the skin with moisture. When I first heard the term years ago I was so confused. How could a substance that sounded so drying and toxic be involved with moisturization of the skin? And yet, it is! Hyaluronic acid is a substance found naturally in our skin that holds 1000 times its weight to retain moisture. It’s found in many skin care products and also is able to actually be an envoy into the skin via microneedling. So I put this “acid” on my skin and it felt so cool and lovely and…moisturizing. Who knew?
Anyway, I put it on the area that I was going to treat first, my cheek. I had a couple, two/three, false starts and then went for it. The microneedling pen is held like an actual pen. It has 12 teeny tiny needles that move on an oscillating end. I wasn’t sure how it would feel but it just felt like a light massaging touch on the skin. I did the protocol, 4 passes down and 4 passes across my cheek. Then moved it across my face, various areas calling for different protocols, all easily performed, crosshatch, circling, erasing, etc. I might have done the erasing one once too often…I blame the name. Still.
In the end, I felt zero pain with application of the microneedling pen. Weird? Maybe. Pain? Nope. As per protocol, I reapplied the soothing hyaluronic acid throughout the treatment along with the apple stem cell serum when prescribed. Apple stem cells from a specific source in Switzerland stimulate human stem cells by 80%! As predicted, the only thing I felt was a drying sensation because the hyaluronic acid was being so rapidly absorbed into my skin.
After treatment, I did feel some stinging for an hour or so as if I had a sunburn. I used a lovely cooling mask (TEAM herbs in a beautiful creamy substance created by Omad TCM Skincare) post treatment which instantly relieved the stinging. I’m excited we have discovered this company which uses Traditional East Asian herbs to calm and soothe the skin. Through out the evening, I mostly felt like my skin was a little dry. I just alternated the rest of the hyaluronic acid, a bit of the apple stem cell cocktail, and a little aloe and felt perfectly fine.
At the end of the evening, most of the redness from the treatment was gone. I kind of rubbed off any remaining flaking serum and applied my usual moisturizing night cream. And bonus! My face also felt really smooth.
Stay tuned for the ultimate results!! Excited to see where this leads!