Stick A Pin In It

Microneedling May Be The Internet’s Favourite New Clear-skin Cureall, But How Big Is The Gain In That Pain? Keziah Weir Gets Pricked

- Keziah Weir

In movies about a woman trying to get pregnant, there’s always that scene in which the protagonist looks around and sees nothing but infants in strollers, swollen bellies and signs advertising schools for toddlers. I have a similar obsessive streak, but in my movie, I’d be faced with a sea of Rihannas, Cate Blanchetts, Pharrells — flawless visage after flawless visage. I’d stroke my own imperfect cheek and weep.

My skin problems began in puberty with a case of cystic acne that haunted me right up until last year, at age 25. (Aczone, my friends: ask your doctor about it.) Even though I’ve now got my blemishes and pimples more or less under control, I’ve been left with enlarged pores and scars around my cheeks and mouth. For this, I’ve tried all manner of over-the counter peels, exfoliants and “miracle” witchy cures (apple cider vinegar shots, anyone?), to no avail.

Then, via Instagram, I caught wind of the microneedling craze. Microneedling is a process that’s exactly what it sounds like — tiny needles penetrating the skin hundreds of times, usually at the hands of a wand-wielding dermatologist or aesthetician. Popularised in the ’90s by a Canadian plastic surgeon after he found he could fade surgical scars with an inkless tattoo gun, it’s used to treat all kinds of textural woes, from acne scars to enlarged pores. According to Dr Mary Stevenson, an assistant professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health in New York, the process, also known as collagen-induction therapy, is thus: the needles create wounds that trigger an “inflammation cascade”, the same natural healing process that occurs when scar tissue is formed after, say, a scraped knee — rendering skin, to steal from Ernest Hemingway, “strong at the broken places”. But because the needles are so short (0.25mm to 4mm, tinier than a garden ant), the process is very controlled.