Five reasons we’re not fans of at home micro-needling on Black skin

The use of home use micro-needling is on the rise, BSD founder and award winning aesthetician Dija Ayodele shares her thoughts.

Micro-needling is a fantastic skin treatment for stimulating collagen in the skin.  It does this through a process of controlled wounding of the skin. When the skin is wounded, it sets of a cascade of healing which stimulates new collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid. Under controlled conditions with the right device in professional hands, this controlled wounding is a good thing - the skin is plumper and firmer, scarring is reduced, texture is smoother, complexion is more even and the overall skin health gets a major boost.

‘Controlled’ is the operative word and this control comes from the hands of an experienced skin practitioner. In a clinical setting, micro-needling is performed in a sterile environment - the skin has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Micro-needles are housed in individual sterile packs with a protective cover that is only removed at point of use and most professional practitioners use a electrical pen like device to deliver micro-needling with precision depth and speed in a specified treatment pattern and calibrated pressure that protects the skin from uncontrolled damage.

This risk of uncontrolled damage is why we’re not fans of at home micro-needling.

• Home use devices, often called derma-rollers tend to be hand rolled across the skin (this action can create tears in the skin) and the pressure cannot be controlled. This means that users tend to be heavy handed and unknowingly cause injury to deeper layers of the skin. On Black and brown skin, this opens up the risk of post inflammatory hyperpigmentation at best and keloid scarring at worst if the skin overproduces collagen.

• The face has different thickness in different areas - the forehead is very different to cheeks and this means needle depth and pressure must be adjusted. Home hand held devices don’t make allowances for this and again, this leads to injury and damage to the skin.

• Another concern is that of cross contamination. Micro-needling can cause blood spots on the surface of the skin. In a clinic environment, blood is absolutely fine, as it is a managed and controlled. The needles are single use and immediately disposed in a clinical sharps bin after use. At home this isn’t the case and no amount of cleaning can guarantee 100% sterilisation. Derma-rollers can also develop rust spots. Therefore the risk of blood contamination and causing a skin infection/irritation is very high.

How are you keeping your device scrupulously clean? How are you storing your device?

• Additionally in my experience, users with at home devices tend to overuse them. Micro-needling is a treatment that should be performed a minimum of 4 weeks apart (closer to 6 - 8 weeks, the older the skin). This is because it takes a number of weeks for collagen to develop and safely remodel in a controlled manner. Increasing this frequency can again lead to uncontrolled skin damage which can leave your skin extremely sensitised - both to skincare products but also UV, cue hyperpigmentaion like melasma worsening.

The wounds created by micro-needling will never fully heal either if the skin is being over-needled. Think of that scar you constantly fiddled with as a child and how long it took to finally heal. The skin’s natural barrier function will also be compromised and good bacteria that lives on the surface of the skin can quickly become bad bacteria.

• Like any professional treatment for best results, skin must also be prepped adequately so that it can safely withstand advanced treatments like micro-needling. Prepping can involving using certain ingredients like retinol to start gently stimulating the skin and increasing the use of sunscreen. This is especially important for Black and brown skin which is prone to more pronounced hyperpigmentation.

Additionally, what you apply after micro-needling is important. Tiny micro channels are created in the skin and you can easily unknowingly apply lotions and serums that can cause irritation. And we know by now that irritation leads to inflammation which creates hyperpigmentation.

So for us, it’s plain and simple, we champion safety above all else so for the best micro-needling results, speak to a BSD professional.