If Angelina Jolie Dermarolls, So Shall I

In my laser-obsessed haze I totally forgot about my Dermaroller. I got it a while back from my estician extrodinare Tjaden at the Skin Studio here in Denver, but we waited to use it until my face had calmed down and gotten to a more peaceful state like it is now. Pigmentation issues aside, pregnancy really cleared up my skin – I hardly had a breakout the whole time and my skin is still in a good place now 11 days out from delievery (fingers crossed!)

Anyway, this little roller is covered in fine point needles designed to create micro punctures in the skin so it’s forced to heal itself which then brings new skin in that looks even better. It’s the same principle that’s behind laser treatments, just a different means of getting those results. It works for stretch marks, acne scars, pigmentation, and keloid scarring. I was Googling around getting more info about it when I saw THIS LA TImes piece about how well it works and how celebs like Angelina Jolie attribute their great skin to Dermarolling (a.k.a. microneedling) so I was excited to know that I already own a really effective treatment that I can use to start tackling my melasma right away.

I’ve totally oversimplified what it does, the article explains it better as does this vid from the show The Doctors below.

Here’s mine.

The box

The roller

The size

I’ll consult with Tjaden to get a specific regimen, but I’ve already used it a few times on my chest where i have some freckles (a nice way to say ‘sun damage’) but I only did one pass, not the back and forth like THIS article says to do. I also don’t know what to put on over it once I’ve rolled. If you use something like a straight vitamin c serum, it might be too acidic and burn my skin (!) since it’s all opened and vulnerable. Some say that the rolling is enough though and not to worry about products on top. I have some scary ‘before’ pics of my melasma from the delivery room with no makeup and my pigmentation in all of its glory, I’ll let the rolling begin and hopefully have some good ‘afters’ before long.

Do some research before getting one on the size of needles, construction, how to clean it, etc., HERE is a bunch of rollers on Amazon.com that start at around $20.