posted 01-31-2003 12:27 AM            

Anyway, after reading on this website and others about skin needling, I just tried it on myself a little while ago. I have been thinking about trying it since I first heard about it, but I guess I was too chicken. I really don't have anywhere to go to have it done professionally, so I'm the type to take matters into my own hands. When you have acne scars, you'll do crazy things, I guess. I have some of the dented kind, some are kind of rolling, maybe some tiny ice picks too. They don't look horrible, but they give my skin a bad texture and non-smooth look. I've lived with them long enough.

I've tried glycolic acid peels and some microdermabrasion, but they don't give the results I want. Then I heard about this skin needling, and if I do it on myself, it's free, and I'm sick to death of the acne scars, so I just went for it.

I'll just describe what I did, but if you do the same, it's at your own risk !!!

I washed my face, sterilized a tiny needle. Held the area I was going to work on tightly and just started poking it with the needle. It was so weird to hear the popping of the scar tissue. Really weird. It actually didn't hurt too much, so I didn't need to use the topical pain cream I had. I just kept poking all over the scar with the needle until there was no more popping. The scar would fill with blood, but it's not like I had it running down my face. I probably did a total of 12 scars. I also poked around larger areas, but wasn't too precise with that. I plan to repeat this in a month. I dabbed the areas with alcohol and then spread on a thin layer of Vaseline. I'm supposed to keep the places covered with vaseline for a few days. The area is now quite pink and tingles a little. There are little scabs everywhere from the needling. I will have to cover these places up as well as I can or stay home a few days I guess. There is supposed to be swelling too, which isn't what the final result will be.

From what I've read, it works like this: the needling breaks up the scar tissue underneath the skin. The scar tissue has been bound down, and the needling releases it. New collagen will form after the needling, and thicken and raise the area.

posted 01-31-2003 05:26 PM            

Well, since I washed my face and applied Neosporin, most of the little scabs have come off. The skin underneath where the scars were is pink.

Oh, about the needle - I bought a pack of craft needles at Walmart - it has all kinds of needles and sizes. I used the quilting needle, I THINK. I know it was one of the smallest ones.

posted 03-28-2003 11:10 PM            

I had a friend of mine who is a tattoo artist do an "experiment" on one of my scars. He held the skin taught and needled the scar (indentation) only. There was some pinpoint bleeding, and not much pain. He told me to keep a very thin layer of A&D ointment on the scar for a few days. It took a while to see improvement.