Now that I’m in my 50s, it’s time to step up the nonsense I’m doing to my face!

I use tretinoin, hydroquinone, an Omnilux red light mask, I’ve had 2 Sciton BBL laser sessions to remove dark spots in 2019 (highly recommend!), and of course, I’m religious about sunscreen every day. So I decided to try SkinPen medical microneedling at SkinSpirit in Noe Valley, which is subtle, but provides independently-tested results. Unlike treatments like fillers, it doesn’t provide immediate and dramatic changes, but it also won’t cause your face to look “weird” like fillers do (imho). This is always the tradeoff with cosmetic stuff: the more dramatic the changes, the more potential for it to go dramatically awry.

For those not in the know, medical microneedling is basically getting an ink-less tattoo all over your face and neck. Your skin is jabbed thousands of times with tiny needles to a depth of about 0.5mm, and I had Ariessence, a serum with platelet-derived growth factor, worked into the wounds. The net result is that your skin is stimulated to produce more collagen, improving the look of fine lines and overall texture. Most people get an initial course of 3-4 treatments, each at least a month apart, then continue to get maintenance treatments 2-4 times a year. A subtle effect can be seen within a couple weeks as the collagen begins to grow, with peak (still subtle) effects in 4-6 weeks. It’s also preventative, because we are continually losing collagen as we age. The one place where this treatment really works miracles is with deep acne scars, but I don’t have those. I chose to have it done by a medical professional (RN), but aestheticians are also allowed to performed microneedling to a smaller depth (0.3mm), which is usually cheaper ($700 RN versus $400 aesthetician at SkinSpirit).

The first step is applying a numbing gel, and you sit there for a 25-30 minutes waiting for your face and neck to get numb.

The numbing gel made it completely painless, just a couple slightly uncomfortable spots where the nurse made multiple passes with the device. Immediately after treatment — I was actually less red than I was expecting!

One thing I wish I had thought about was, I rode my bike to the appointment, but had to ride home without my wind-breaking glasses or helmet (because of the chin strap) since I couldn’t have anything touching the skin. Luckily it’s a short ride, but I’ll drive next time.

SkinSpirit sells the CO2Lift Pro Carboxy gel mask as an aftercare upsell, but I found it online for MUCH cheaper, so I applied that as soon as I got home. After 45 minutes it had dried and I peeled it off, and the redness had calmed down quite a bit. My microneedling appointment was at 10:30am, and this was taken around 2pm. If I had to go out and interact with people, I think it would look like I was healing from a sunburn.

Below is when I woke up the next morning. There was some more patchy redness as the wounds started to heal, but it felt fine. On the second day, you can wear makeup, so I could have covered up the redness a bit, but I didn’t care. I would obviously not recommend doing this right before a big event! You’re supposed to use mineral sunscreen and limit sun exposure as much as possible, which makes it optimal to do this treatment in the winter.

Today is the 2nd day after the treatment, and my skin looks mostly normal — if you zoom in you can see some scabby/irritated patches — but I don’t feel like people will be asking me what happened to my face.

For a few more days, I’ll keep using the small samples of insanely expensive products the nurse gave me, which are intended specifically to aid healing after treatments like this (Alastin Skin Nectar and Sente Dermal Repair Cream). I’ll also be using lots of mineral sunscreen and wearing hats. I’m told there may be some flakiness as the skin continues to heal, and she gave me some Jan Marini Skin Zyme mask to help with that. After a week, things should be 100% back to normal and I can resume using tretinoin and other active products. After I’ve had a couple treatments that have healed, I’ll update with some before and after photos.