Microneedling — what the first session is really like

Most people arrive for their first microneedling appointment having watched a video that either undersold it or terrified them. Here is what actually happens.

The appointment

We start by looking at your skin properly, under good light, and talking about what you want changed. This is not a formality — depth settings, how aggressive I go, and whether we treat at all get decided here.

Then numbing cream goes on for about twenty minutes. Use that time; it is the last quiet twenty minutes you get.

The treatment itself takes thirty to forty minutes. The sensation is pressure and vibration rather than sharp pain — most people describe it as a rough electric toothbrush being run across the skin. The forehead and the area above the upper lip are the most sensitive, because the bone is close to the surface there.

What you look like afterwards

Red. Properly red, like a sunburn, with some warmth and tightness. This peaks in the first few hours and settles substantially by the next morning.

A realistic timeline:

• Day 0 — bright red, warm, tight.
• Day 1 — pink, like mild windburn. Most people work from home or go out without makeup.
• Day 2–3 — light flaking or a sandpapery texture as the surface turns over.
• Day 4–5 — back to normal, usually looking better than baseline.

Do not book this for the day before an event. Do book it a week to ten days before one.

How many sessions

Three to six, spaced four to six weeks apart, depending on what we are treating.

Tone and texture usually shift noticeably after the second session. Acne scarring takes longer — it is structural damage, and rebuilding collagen in a depressed scar is slow work. Anyone promising you scar resolution in one appointment is selling something.

The spacing is not padding. Collagen remodelling continues for weeks after a session, and treating again too early interrupts the process you paid for.

Who should not have it

I will turn this treatment down for:

• Active, inflamed acne in the treatment area — needling through a pustule spreads bacteria across the face
• Active cold sores or any open lesion
• Recent isotretinoin use, generally within six months
• Keloid scarring history
• Pregnancy, as a precaution

If you are on a prescription retinoid, we pause it for about five days beforehand.

Aftercare, which is most of the result

For seventy-two hours: nothing active. No acids, no retinol, no vitamin C, no exfoliation, no makeup on day one, no gym on day one, no sun.

A bland moisturiser and SPF. That is the entire routine.

The single fastest way to waste a microneedling session is to go back to your full active routine on day two because your skin “feels fine”. The channels take time to close and your barrier is doing real work. Give it the three days.

Is it worth it?

For texture, early lines, pore size and scarring, it is the treatment I get the most consistent results from. But it is a series, not an event, and it rewards people who follow the aftercare.

If that sounds like a fit, call and we will look at your skin first.