How Does Microneedling Work With Collagen?
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How does microneedling work? Our beginner's guide will explain how this popular anti-aging skin care treatment can help you to produce new collagen production and fight back the signs of aging.
Collagen, strong and flexible, is the most abundant protein in your body and it's especially concentrated in your skin.
As you approach your 30s, your body doesn't make as much new collagen protein, creating a deficit that grows year after year.
Hence, wrinkles, fine lines and sagging skin...
There are several ways to help your body create new collagen or help preserve what you already have.
One way is to add a collagen supplement to your day, drink bone broth or eat collagen-boosting foods to increase your collagen protein and amino acid intake.
Another way is to 'trick' your body into creating new collagen--that's where microneedling comes in.
Let's get started to learn more about how does microneedling work...
What's Microneedling and How Does it Work?
Well, how does microneedling actually work to help provide support and improve the tone of your skin?
At its core, microneedling is about tricking the body into thinking it needs to rush in new collagen to a wound.
Stepping back a bit, hypothetically, let's say you experienced a cut (wound) to your skin.
Once something like that happens, the body goes into 'work mode' and sends in a rush of naturally-made collagen to start the healing process.
How microneedling works is it intentionally punctures the skin on your face, neck, chest scalp, stomach or other parts of the body through a roller or electric pen device.
TIP: You’ll hear microneedling also referred to as derma rolling, skin-needling or collagen induction therapy.
With microneedling, because the tiny needles only puncture the epidermis (outermost layer of skin), the procedure is considered minimally-invasive, little to no side effects and generally safe.
Men can also use microneedling to help generate new collagen to grow a full, healthy beard
Can Microneedling Tighten Skin?
Does microneedling stimulate collagen?
As we explained above, the purpose of microneedling is to ‘trick’ the body to use the natural three-step healing process to improve the skin’s appearance, texture and tone.
Your body is so smart, once there's an 'wound' it knows to immediately start to stimulate collagen and elastin production.
The benefits of more collagen, elastin and blood rushing to the wounds include:
- Plumping up of the skin
- Tighter-looking skin
- Smooth out fine lines, wrinkles and scarring
- Add more hydration
- Improve hair growth and help stop hair loss
Actually, microneedling doesn't have to stop at the face.
In fact, you can use the same treatment on other areas of your body such as your:
Red light therapy and microneedling are a powerful duo to help reduce thinning hair and grow new hair.
Where Can Microneedling be Done?
First, you can search locally for a dermatologist, plastic surgeon or aesthecian that offers this service in their office.
These types of professionals will create a treatment plan for you and the cost will generally range from $100-750 per treatment, with an average of around $300 per treatment.
Because this is a cosmetic procedure, it's usually not covered by insurance.
Second, you can do home dermarolling (another term for microneedling). Microneedling or derma rolling supplies are widely available for purchase online for home use.
For your convenience, here's a list of supplies you’ll want to gather if you’re going to do at-home derma roller/microneedling treatments:
- A derma roller
- 70 percent isopropyl alcohol
- Face cleanser
- Numbing cream (optional)
- Topic products and collagen serum post microneedling (especially growth factor serum)
10 Easy Steps-Microneedling Session at Home
In general, here are the steps you’ll take during an at-home microneedling treatment. Of course, please also refer to any instructions provided with your roller:
- Sterilize your roller in 70 percent isopropyl alcohol for 10-15 minutes.
- Wash your face with a high-quality cleanser, twice. Then put the alcohol on your face.
- OPTIONAL: This is where you may want to add in a good numbing cream, especially if you’re using longer needles.
- Visually divide your face into 4 sections: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right.
- For each section, roll 2-3 times in one direction (lifting the roller when starting a new roll).
- Then roll in the opposite direction in that section the same amount of times.
- Finally, go diagonally.
- Rinse your face with a gentle face cleanser, we especially like La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Cleanser.
- Wash the roller in soap and water then let it sit in the alcohol again for another 10 minutes.
- Let the roller dry, then put back into the case.
- Apply a high-quality serum, see our recommendations here.
Either way, professionally or at home, you’ll see pinprick drops of blood after the treatment. This is a normal and expected part of the treatment--no need to panic.
Best At-Home Microneedling Devices
Actually, it's hard to say which microneedling device is best for a person since everyone is different in their skin sensitivity, age and other factors.
However, there are two general types of devices that are used for microneedling:
Click on the image for more information
1. Manual derma roller: It has a handle and a roller with needles.
Some manual rollers have replaceable heads and others don’t.
You'll have to be careful about keeping the manual derma roller sterile and replace the heads on a regular basis.
Click on the image for more information
2. Electric microneedling pen: These types of medical-grade microneedling pen devices are electric, can be cordless and are often used in spas.
The good news is you can get a spa-like microneedling treatment from the comfort of your home.
We believe Dr. Pen is the best microneedling pen for home use.
The pen is more sterile than a derma roller since the needle cartridges are disposed of after each treatment.
Another nice convenience is the needle length can be easily adjusted for your needs.
For example, Dr. Pen can adjust from 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2.0, 2.25 and up to 2.5 mm.
Finally, there's another big difference between the two devices:
The electric microneedling pen's needles penetrate the skin straight on which gives a consistent delivery and shorter recovery time.
The manual derma roller's needles enter the skin on more of an angle. The derma roller is safe and effective, just not as effective as the pen.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON HOW DOES MICRONEEDLING WORK
In this article, we introduced you to the minimally-invasive cosmetic procedure known as microneedling.
How does microneedling work?
The needles in a microneedling device penetrate the skin to create small 'wounds'.
Your body then starts the healing process, which includes sending new collagen to the site of the wounds.
The additional collagen plumps up the skin and helps to reduce wrinkles and fine lines, improve texture, lighten age spots, heal scars, reduce hair thinning and tighten saggy skin.
Microneedling can be done at spas, gyms and dermatologists' offices.
Or, you can do microneedling treatments at home.
Now you know the answer to 'how does microneedling work?'!