what is skin needling?

What is Skin-needling?

Skin-needling is the penetration of the skin by very small needles. This can be in the form of a stamp type tool with a long handle or a roller.

About Rollers:

• Can contain 50-500 needles.
• Quick and easy to do a treatment.
• Needles come in various lengths & gauges (width).
• Downsides are they can cause more trauma due to the way the needle enters and leaves the skin.

About Stamps:

• Contain up 50 needles. Smaller head means more control, and therefore you can work on smaller areas such as small scars.
• Great for working on more delicate areas of skin especially around the eyes.
• Great for scalp treatments.
• They are time consuming to use and manual tools cannot puncture the skin as much as needed to cause sufficient trauma.

Skin-needling is called by many different names. It can be more commonly known as Derma Roller, but this is trademarked in Australia and the USA by one company. Other names used to describe this treatment are Skin Needling, Percutaneous Collagen Induction (PCI), Collagen Induction Therapy (CIT) or Derma Rollering or Derma Needling.

About the Micro-Needle Roller

The number of needles on a roller vary, however we find the best ones to use for the face contain around 192-500. The needles need to be high quality and the sharper the needle is the less painful it can be for your client.

You can purchase two rollers with needles made from either Stainless steel or Titanium. Titanium are far more cost effective than stainless steel needles; however stainless steel have a lower risk of allergic reaction.

Needles also come in different thicknesses; this is referred to as the gauge. Needles will vary between a 0.15 and 0.3 in gauge. The thicker the gauge the better as thinner needles will blunt or split much faster.

Rollers or stamps should be hygiene sealed in the factory and gamma sterilised before purchase. A new roller or stamp should be opened up in front of your client at every appointment.

Rollers and stamps are one use disposable items and should not be sterilised or given to the client for home use.

History of Skin-Needling 

It is believed that skin needling originated from an old Traditional Chinese treatment. Acupuncture needles would be inserted beneath scar tissue with a view that this would stimulate the healing process and reduce the scar tissue.

The very first recorded use of needles was originally designed for product absorption back in 1998. It was discovered that inserting micro needles 0.15mm in length and left in the skin for ten seconds increased the products absorption into the skin by a 10,000-fold increase.

In 1996 Dr Fernandes a plastic surgeon, presented a paper to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) conference in Taiwan on the subject of Skin-Needling. Since then there has been a significant amount of research into skin needling for collagen induction and its popularity has grown since then.

How does it Work?

The micro-needle roller works in two ways. The first is that it assists transdermal absorption and the second by increasing collagen production.

Epidermis – This is composed of four layers except on the palms and soles of the feet where you will have the Stratum Lucidum.

Stratum Corneum – This is the surface layer of the epidermis. It is a layer of flattened keratinocytes. This layer is what provides the skins water proof barrier. This layer is 0.01-0.02mm thick so very short needles can be used to puncture it and increase transdermal absorption.

Stratum Granulosum – This section consists of 3-5 layers of flattened keratinocytes undergoing cell death.

Stratum Spinosa – This is the second deepest layer of the epidermis. It is made up of 8-10 layers of many-sided keratinocytes. There has been a dramatic increase in the thickening of this layer from Micro needling.

Stratum Basale – The deepest layer of the epidermis, this section contains some cells which are stem cells that continually produce keratinocytes.

Dermis – Lying beneath the epidermis the dermis comprises the majority of the skins thickness. Minor trauma to this area caused by needles causes the fibroblasts to induce collagen as part of the wound healing process.

Transdermal Absorption 

The first recorded use for skin needling was to aid better product penetration. When the roller is passed over the skin, they pierce the Stratum Corneum and creates tiny channels in the surface of the skin that allow products to bypass the water proof barrier of the skin. Once the products have penetrated through the Stratum Corneum they diffuse through the permeable capillaries found in the superficial dermis and then from here into the blood stream. These channels heal very rapidly restoring the skins natural barrier.

A study has found that a 0.5mm needle length is the best length to deliver products at the correct depth to be absorbed by the minor capillaries. However, product absorption can still be achieved with needle lengths 0.2 and 0.3mm in length and are ideal for clients to use at home.

One of the side effects of Skin Needling is dry skin. When you puncture the stratum corneum you are allowing for the loss or evaporation of the body’s fluids. This is called Trans Epidermal Water Loss (TEWL). Your client may want to book in for an exfoliation treatment such as a microdermabrasion a week after their treatments.