Does Dermarolling and dermastamping get rid of wrinkles

The claim is if you dermaroll, the wrinkles will disappear. I can tell you from experience the dermaroller does not help with wrinkles. If it does, it's a VERY minor improvement. It is so minor that it's not even noticeable.  I have been dermarolling since 2011, but I haven't seen a difference in my wrinkles other than them getting deeper as I age.

The reason people claim dermarolling/dermastamping gets rid of wrinkles

I have read reviews from people claiming that dermarolling has help some people get rid of their wrinkles. What I have noticed from these reviews is that these people have only been dermarolling for a short period of time (less than 3 months). It takes up to 6 months or longer in most cases to see results. Are these people lying? I don't think so. I believe their wrinkles diminish in appearance but only for a short time.

Microswelling

What they are experiencing is micro swelling. This happens when the skin has been injured. The skin swells up. It's working hard to repair itself. What happens when the skin swells up? All the wrinkles fill in but this is only temporary. Microswelling lasts for up to a week but can last longer if you are dermarolling or dermastamping every single day. You don't want to dermastamp or roll everyday because you need to give your skin time to heal UNLESS you are using a short needle (.5mm) which is great for product penetration.

Have you been dermarolling or dermastamping once every 6-8 weeks for over 6 months? Have you seen results? I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Dermarolling #6 update

Just thought I'd give you all a quick update on my last dermarolling session.

Dermarolling progress

The holes that were left on my forehead have closed! YAY! I was so worried about that. I am going to see how things go these next 6 weeks and if I see even a teeny tiny change I may roll my forehead again. I would love to minimize the lines on my forehead but I can live with them if I have to. It's the acne scars I don't want to live with.

My nose is fine, Thankfully. It is flaking alot but I don't know if it's because I rolled that area or if it's because of the weather.  The area around my lips (on both sides) are also flaking (very minor flaking). I don't think that's happened before.

There's absolutely NO Microswelling going on around my nose area or forehead. :( But the area I normally roll (from below my nose to my chin)is nice and plump. My skin looks fabulous right now. I believe that if I didn't keep on getting new scars (Thanks to my cystic acne) that my skin would be scar free (or at least almost scar free since I know the dermaroller won't completely 100% get rid of the scars) but unfortunately I have new scars. New scars seem to be harder to get rid of. The old ones respond better to the dermaroller.

I will post pictures the next time I roll so that we can compare the changes. Happy Rolling! 

Dermarolling Session #6

I dermarolled for the 6th time yesterday (October 26,2012) but this time I added my nose and forehead. I am not recommending it because I can see little holes in my forehead now. I'm a little freaked out but there's nothing I can do about that except HOPE the holes close up. I'll keep you updated.

Why you shouldn't dermaroll your nose

I rolled my nose too but it's full of enlarged pores so I don't know if any extra holes were left behind like on my forehead. I really don't care...my nose looks horrible either way. I did, however, come across an article (didn't bookmark it so I don't have the link) that said NOT to dermaroll your nose because supposedly the skin on the nose doesn't heal well. Oops. I didn't read that until AFTER I rolled my nose but it doesn't look damaged. Microswelling doesn't seem to have worked on my nose either. The enlarged pores are still there...oh well. I'm more concerned about my scars. Looks like I have new ones and one of them is a line scar again. ugh. why does this happen to me? I hate this.
I worked really hard on the area around my lips and chin. I bled and the popping sound was horrendous. It was also very hard to roll the newly scarred areas...like I was rolling through mud. I know that's the scar tissue breaking up. I am looking forward to rolling these scars away. Most of the other ones I was working on before have filled it.
Can you all believe that it's been about 1 year 4 months since I started rolling! Amazing how time flies but I'm telling you, if you stick with it you won't regret it. Now if I can only figure out a way to prevent new zits from appearing....ugh

Dermarolling Session #5

My skin finally healed and I have not gotten another acne cyst lately so I was able to Dermaroll on Sunday, September 2nd, 2012.  I was so excited. It had been awhile since I last Dermarolled so there were quite a few new scars that needed to be worked on.
My scarred skin was really HARD so when I started rolling it started to pop. The popping sound always creeps me out but at the same time it feels good knowing I am breaking up the scar tissue. 
I ran out of my Vitamin A cream so I had to apply Vitamin E afterward. I prefer the Vitamin A cream better. I think it works better on the scars. I used Vitamin E when I started rolling but once I switched to Vitamin A I started to see (faster) results.
I took some pictures before I Dermarolled but I am going to wait to post them until 6 weeks so that I can post side by side before and after pictures to see if there are any changes in my new scars.
Right now, my skin looks amazing! I Love Microswelling!
I'll keep you all updated. Oh and I may have discovered what has been causing my cystic acne!!!!!! I am still doing some research but once I read more about the potential culprit, I'll share it with you.

Oxygen Facials and cystic acne

Recently, I met a lady who gives Oxygen Facials. Having never heard of an oxygen facial, I Googled it to see what it could do for my skin. Basically, from what I understand, pressurized oxygen is used to spray atomized moisturizers into your skin which will in turn hydrate your skin smoothing it out and plumping it up.
There is no evidence indicating that this truly works but I did a ton of research and people claim it helps to smooth out wrinkles, get rid of small scars, and (this next part is what caught my eye) helps with cystic acne!
Treatment is very expensive and can cost anywhere from $175 per session up to $500 per session. The lady who does it here charges $175 which is  too steep for me but I'm going to save up for a package. Supposedly, you need to have at least 3 treatments to see a difference. If I do it, I will post updates with pictures on my progress and hopefully it won't be a waste of money.Wish me luck!
If it helps with the cystic acne, then it will have been worth every cent!

*Update

I never got the oxygen facial. I had a few friends who tried a few sessions but there was no difference in acne scars. Wrinkles disappeared but for a very short time-a few days. Total waste of money, IMO

How to prevent Track Marks when you Dermaroll

Before I started Dermarolling, I did a lot of research and one the of things I kept coming across was people talking about track marks that had been left on their face after they had Dermarolled. Some people claimed to have had the track marks for months and months and feared the track marks were permanent. Nobody knew what caused the marks and if they did, they didn't mention it.
My biggest fear was scarring my face with track marks. I mean, the reason I was going to Dermaroll was to get rid of scars so what was the point of Dermarolling if it was going to leave even uglier scars on my skin? It actually took me a while to take the plunge.
I know exactly what causes the track marks after Dermarolling and I'm going to share it with you. It's all in the roll.

How to prevent track marks when dermarolling

This is what you need to do to prevent track marks:
 As you come to the end of a roll, LIFT the roller before rolling in the opposite direction. So, you Dermaroll up and at the end of that roll lift the Dermaroller before you roll down. Keep lifting the Dermaroller after every roll. If you leave the Dermaroller on your skin and start to roll the opposite direction, the needle are going to drag. The dragging of the needles are going to leave the track marks and possibly even scar your skin.
So there you go. You now know how track marks are made and how to prevent them. 

Dermarolling updates will be more consistent

I am sorry I haven't been updating this blog as often as I should. I've been really bummed about my skin. No matter what I do, I can't seem to control my cystic acne. Just when my skin is starting to look normal (thanks to my dermaroller), I start breaking out.
I can live with normal acne...it's the cysts that are driving me crazy! Not only are they ugly and painful, but they scar. Like I've said in previous posts, dermarolling seems to work best on old scars but it has helped a little bit with the new ones. It just takes longer for it to work on them (new scars).
I will be more consistent with updates and pictures. It's kinda hard to show the improvement when I keep getting new scars but I am going to share it all with you.
I am still a big fan of the dermaroller. It has done wonders to my skin. I can only imagine how terrible my skin would have looked like if I hadn't taken a chance on the dermaroller. 

Dermarolling: Recent breakout has caused red marks

 I have had another bad breakout and now I've got red marks that are taking waaay too long to disappear. This past month I got 6 cysts. They aren't huge but they leave red marks and a couple look indented but the skin is fine. It's just red. Isn't it weird how sometimes redness makes the skin look indented?
As soon as these red marks clear up, I'll post more pictures of what my skin looks like now. I really love how the scarred areas are filling in. Like I said before, it works on the small scars the best and that's what I am full of.....A whole bunch of little clustered scars (on both sides of my lips). I've got a few med. sized ones too and those have healed a bit too but I am not expecting a miracle. I know scars can not vanish completely and that's fine with me.

Dermaroller Session #4 and What types of scars has it healed and what types of scars it did not work on

I finally rolled again on April 1st. Before I tell you how that went, I'd like to talk about my results from past rolls and what I've noticed.

Results

Dermarolling helps the small scars. I had a ton of tiny little ones on both side of my mouth. Yuck I know...when I stretch my skin it looked like cottage cheese. Most (but not all) of the little holes have filled in. I am happy with the results but I am going to continue rolling to see if more of the little holes fill in.

I've also noticed the older scars seems to react better to the rolling.

Bigger scars take longer to fill in. I have a big (kinda big but not huge) scar on one side of my mouth. It filled in halfway but there hasn't been any change in months. I don't know if it'll fill in more but I'll continue to roll to see if it does. You can't see it unless I stretch my skin. Before I started rolling, it was noticeable even without being stretched.

I have 2 icepick type scars that I got from squeezing a cyst. Those are the scars that create the line....well it's still there. :((( I really want that one gone but I don't think the roller works on those types of scars. 



April 1st 2012, I rolled. I rolled the whole area around my mouth and all the way down my chin. My skin was bleeding like it always does and it felt windburned for a few days but my skin looked awesome for the past two weeks. The microswelling has gone done and now it's time to wait to see what happens. I love rolling.

Dermarolling: Results! What do you think

I was finally able to roll yesterday. I was actually kinda nervous. It had been awhile (thanks to my breakouts) and I was hoping I wouldn't make a mistake and leave track marks.

Popping noises while dermarolling! 

The moment I started rolling, my skin started making this horrible popping noise. Worse than before. It was loud and it felt rough as I rolled the scarred area. It hurt too! Really badly. My eyes were watering but I kept on going. The area beside my lip was bleeding ALOT! Did I mention that it hurt? I must have pressed too hard. Fortunately, I am fine today and there's no butchered skin. It's fine, thank goodness.


I decided it do my chin area and my upper lip too and it HURT! OUCH! I didn't do a good job above my lip because it hurt so bad but I have next time to do better.
After it was done, I was as read a cherry! It was scary to look at. I took a shower and carefully washed off the blood. After my shower, I put on some vitamin E (cream form). It was soothing but I felt like I had a sunburn. I was happy though because I know this is working. The pain is totally worth it.
I woke up this morning and put on some Vitamin A. I will be putting on some Vitamin E, C and A before bed.

Update

My skin looks great. It's a bit red but it's all swelled up so I look like I have no scars. I love this. Microswelling is so awesome! I wish it could stay like this forever.


Here are some pictures:

1st pictures I took back in June.

Taken in June. Other side 

1 month after my first roll

Taken Nov. 4th, 2011 (most recent) Lighting is different because I could not recreate same lighting.

Dermaroller: Pictures of results

Here is the article I was talking about in a previous post: Skin needling for wrinkles and difficult scars

It's interesting and has some before and after pictures.

I rolled today! Yeahh! I bled ALOT! I don't know if that is a good thing or bad. We will see...my husband says I look like a clown right now. I don't care because I know the redness will fade and my skin will look better. I will blog tomorrow and post before, during and after pictures and will tell you a little more about what I did.

Dermarolling put on hold... :(

My face is still breaking out. I got another cyst on the side of my lip. Ugh. I hate this. I had 2 above my lip recently and they left little indented scars. I poked at them...couldn't help it.
The good news is I truly believe in the dermaroller and the studies I have read (done by Dr. Fernandez...the man who created the dermaroller) say (and show...amazing pics. I will have to look for articles and post links)that the dermaroller works best on the upper lip area! And that is where I got the 2 new small scars. Studies also show it works best on old scars but I have faith that mine will go away!


Here is a terrible pic of what my skin looks like now and why I haven't been able to roll.

 Those were all cysts that I squeezed out. I have another one that I haven't squeezed on the other side. What a nightmare. Stay away from Minocycline. I used to only get one a month before I took that damn medication.  now I get them all over my chin, above my lips and the sides of my lips and I got one in between my eyes. P.S. If you look closely, you can see my line scar...the one I hate. Yes, I always have to point that out. Can't wait to dermaroll it the hell away! :)

I really hate the waiting....

Dermarolling: Scars improving!

I have noticed a HUGE difference in my scars. I was just looking at my scars in different lighting and the most noticable ones (except for the one I hate) are almost gone. You can't see them at all unless I stretch my skin!  whoohoo! I am so glad I tried the dermarolling and I cant' wait for my next session! I'll be getting microdermabrasion first and then will roll about 4 days later.

The next time I roll, I will be rolling the entire part of my lower face (from nose and below) because that's where my problem areas are. And I will be focusing on that line scar I hate so much. I had been focusing on the other big scars but I am satisfied with them now. Of course I would like perfect skin, but I know that isn't possible. I will continue with this for as long as I can...

Dermarolling: Amazing results!

I decided to count all my icepicks but when I stretched my skin to start counting I saw the most amazing thing! Some of them are filling in! I know because I could see a piece of skin inside (in the middle) of the hole and it's at least 90% filled in. This is for SEVERAL icepicks.  It looks a little bumpy in the area where all the ice picks are clustered and filling it...but I am hoping maybe microdermabrasion would smooth that out. or maybe it will smooth out on it's own once it's done repairing itself. I want to make it clear that the icepicks that are filling in are the smallest ones. The bigger ones are still there and there hasn't been any change in those. The scar I hate hasn't improved and the other one that was improving hasn't improved anymore. :( But at least those little ones are filling in! That's good news!

Okay, just wanted to pop in real quick to give you all an update! I got so excited that i forgot to count my icepicks....:)

Dermarolling Session #3

I rolled for the 3rd time on August 6th, 2011. I rolled hard but I felt as if I did something wrong. I'll explain later. First I'd like to show you some pics!

Before I rolled. that is my scar that is almost gone! I wish I knew how to put arrows. 

Before I rolled. You can see the line scar I hate  in this pic. ugh

Right after I rolled. You can see the blood spots

Other side.

One day after I rolled. See the redness. It was like this for 2 days

One day after rolling. Red 

Okay so what I did was I rolled on Saturday night before I went to bed. Right after I rolled, I took a quick shower (like a 10 min one to wash the blood spots) and immediately  applied my rentinol and it burned like crazy!! I was a bit worried. After about 20 minutes the burning feeling went away and I felt fine. I was a little worried about that because last time I rolled I feel asleep with a tingly/burnish feeling and this time it was gone! I felt as if maybe I didn't roll well enough but I was pretty red. For a few days after (reason why it took so long to update. I wanted to see what was going on before I posted), it looked like I had butchered my skin. Not what I experienced last time. I was totally freaking out. I thought I had scarred myself but the butchered meat look is gone and I think I am still microswelling. Either that or my scar (the one that has been improving) and some of the little ice picks have improved significantly. It's probably just microswelling. What I am going to do is count all my ice picks and see if any go away in a few months. I looks like some have filled in but since I didn't count before I am not sure so I can't say for sure.

I will update soon!Sometimes I feel like it's working and other times I am not so sure. My husband says my scars are less visible but can I really believe him? He's my husband...he might be saying that to make me feel better.

Dermarolling: Getting ready to roll tomorrow

Tomorrow will be my 3rd session of dermarolling. It's more like my 2nd since I don't think I rolled correctly the first time.
I will be taking before, during (so you can see what the blood spots look like), and after pictures and will post them on Sunday. I like to roll right before bedtime so I won't be posting anything tomorrow.

My Thoughts:

I want to share my thoughts about dermarolling. I can see why people get discouraged...it takes time to see results but most of us are impatient (me) and when there are no results or minor results, we give up. I have felt like giving up a couple of times. I want to see BIG changes and I want to see them now!  I haven't seen much of a change except in one scar. The scar I want fixed hasn't changed a bit...I feel so discourage and can't help but wonder if I am going to be stuck with this ugly thing for the rest of my life. It looks like a big wrinkle! ugh.
I have read several blogs were people START to blog about their dermarolling journey and they promise to keep posting but then they stop with no warning. It is so discouraging! I dont like that. I don't want to do that to you. I am going to share my experience with you whether it's good or bad. I am going to be open and honest with you.  I don't want to mislead you. I know I don't like it when someone claims that some miracle product works only to find out that it was all a scam.
I have heard that dermarolling works for some people and it doesn't for others. I am hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that it will work for me and hopefully it will work for you(or has worked for you) and I hope that you'll share your story with us. We all need hope...
Like I said before, It has helped one scar (by 50%) so maybe it will help the other scars or maybe it won't. I will keep you updated. Please feel free to post comments or ask questions.

Dermarolling: Update with pictures

Here are some new pictures taken today.

Stretched skin:That little red mark is where my skin filled in about 50%.

Excuse the ugly red mark on my chin. I was poking at my skin (and I wonder why I scar!). There is some redness in the scar I have been working on (where my lips meet) but the indentation is slight. There still is a hole but it's not as obvious.

Do you see that big red mark where my smile line should be? That's the ugly scar that won't go away.


The next pictures I take will be exactly like the first ones I took when I started this journey. Pictures were taken in my guest bathroom but we have guests so I have not had access to it. I will try to recreate the same lighting, position, etc so that you can see if there have been any changes. I have see the change but it's so hard to show in pictures.
I will be rolling in about 2 weeks from now.  I am hoping to get microdermabrasion done before I roll. I had 6 sessions done before I started this but it did nothing for the scars. It did, however, make my skin so beautiful and healthy looking.
I was also on Minocycline for about 4 months to help with the cysts. It helped and they went away but now that I am no longer taking the meds the cysts have come back (hence the big scab on my chin). And I have been getting 2 at time instead of one...ugh. So if I have cysts in a couple of weeks, I will not be getting micro done. :((((((

Dermarolling: Changes I've seen in my scars

The microswelling has gone down. The ice pick scars are still there but I noticed that the ones on the right side of my mouth have blended together and have now formed a big one (not huge...about the same size as the one on my right side). There are other icepick scars in that area that did not blend with the now big one. I hear ice pick scars are the hardest to get rid of so I take this (that some of them blended and are now a big scar) as a good thing because it may be easier to work on a big one than a whole bunch of little ones.
The scar in my smile line is still there. :( It is a new one and I hear new scars are harder to get rid of and if I stretch my skin you can see 2 ice pick scars. :( :((( I haven't seen any change in this scar. It looked a little better when my skin was swelled up but it's back to be ugly again. The scar next to it (small round one) has definitely filled in about 50%! You can almost not see it! It's like a little indent but I can see that new skin has filled in the hole! I am hoping this is real and that it's not temporary. I also have some icepick scars on the right side of my mouth but honestly I can't tell if there's been any change.