Complaints & connections · borters.ch
The needle length decides everything — and whatever is applied afterwards gets in too, including what would otherwise stay out.
Also known as: dermaroller · dermapen · microneedling · collagen induction therapy · CIT
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Fine needles punch many small channels into the skin. Two things happen at once: the skin answers the tiny injuries with a repair process in which, among other things, collagen is laid down anew — hence the name collagen induction therapy. And the barrier stays open for some hours, so that substances applied afterwards get in many times better.
Needle length separates two entirely different uses. Up to 0.5 millimetres the needle barely passes the outer skin; these are the home devices, it does not bleed, and the purpose is essentially better absorption. From about one millimetre the dermis is reached, pinpoint bleeding appears, and only here does the remodelling begin that the studies on scars and wrinkles are about. Those lengths belong in practised hands; the same effect that stimulates collagen can, with too long a needle, too much pressure or too frequent repetition, leave scars and pigment shifts.
For the scalp there is a series of small studies, mostly in combination with minoxidil and mostly over twelve weeks. They show more hair than minoxidil alone; the groups are small, the assessment often not blinded, and microneedling on its own is barely studied. As a treatment for hair loss in its own right the data do not carry — as an amplifier of something that already works, it is a signal.
At home up to 0.5 millimetres, once or twice a week. In practice 1.0 to 1.5 millimetres every four to six weeks, because the skin needs that long to remodel. The scalp studies ran twelve weeks with a weekly session; a hair cycle is longer, so nothing shows before three to six months.
It opens the barrier and starts a repair. It does not touch the hormones and does not turn a follicle that responds to DHT into one that does not. Where the cause is hormonal it stays hormonal — microneedling then at most amplifies what something else is doing.
Device and head are single-use or belong to the one person using them. Rinse after use, let dry, store closed. A damp roller in the bathroom is a culture medium — and next time the needle carries it under the skin.
With hair loss it pays to look at iron stores, thyroid and the course before needling. If there is a cause that can be put right, that changes more than any device — and starting both at once makes it unreadable afterwards which one worked.
After needling, whatever lies on the skin goes in — not only the active but preservatives, fragrance and anything else sitting there. That is exactly where an otherwise harmless product triggers a reaction. Whatever is applied straight afterwards should carry as few additions as possible.
Expected, not unusual: the skin is red and tight as after mild sunburn — hours with short needles, one to three days with longer ones. Anything lasting more than a week should be looked at.
Over inflamed or infected skin, over cold sores, over active acne with pustules, over eczema and over moles. The same holds for a tendency to raised scars and for clotting disorders. The reason is always the same: needles spread what is there.
Needles blunt and carry skin residue; a shared device passes it on. Home rollers are blunt after a few uses — a blunt needle tears instead of piercing and makes exactly the injury one wanted to avoid.
The darker the skin type, the more often a dark mark remains after the inflammation. Shorter needles, longer intervals between sessions and sun protection afterwards are the adjustments.
The substance most often promoted alongside microneedling. Locally well tolerated as a rule; burning is described, rarely a copper allergy, and a blue-green tinge on the skin that washes off. Little studied in humans and poorly taken up through intact skin — which is exactly why it is offered together with needles. But then: what hardly got in before gets in afterwards.