How many microneedling sessions do you actually need?
Six, four to six weeks apart. Why one won't do much, what the course costs, and why I don't use numbing cream.
The short version
I recommend a course of six, spaced four to six weeks apart. One session is a taster and won't change anything you can still see in three months. At £115 a session that's a real commitment, and I'd rather you knew the number of sessions before you book the first one than after. It helps with fine lines, pigmentation, open pores, scarring and stretch marks.
Six, four to six weeks apart. That's the answer, and it's a bigger commitment than most places will tell you before you've paid.
That's £115 a session, spread across about seven months. Work out what that comes to before you book the first one rather than on session three. If a course price is something you'd want, ask me.
Why one session doesn't do it
Microneedling is a pen with very fine needles that makes thousands of tiny channels in the top layer of skin. None of that's the treatment. The treatment is what your skin does about it afterwards, which is to start laying down new collagen to close them.
That process takes weeks, and it's cumulative. Each session builds on the one before. Stopping after one is like doing a single session at the gym and asking why nothing looks different.
The four to six week gap isn't arbitrary either. It's roughly how long your skin takes to finish what the last session started. Go sooner and you're interrupting it.
What it's good for
Fine lines, pigmentation, open pores, scarring and stretch marks. That's the honest list.
It's very good on texture, the kind you notice with your fingertips before you notice it in the mirror. It works on pigmentation faster than on anything else, because you're turning over marked cells rather than rebuilding structure underneath.
It doesn't do anything for loose skin along the jaw or for deep folds. If someone tells you microneedling will lift a jawline, they're selling.
What I ask before I touch your face
I'll ask about your skin concerns before we start. What it normally does, what you've been putting on it, anything you're taking for it, and anything you'd rather I avoided.
Saying yes to something doesn't always mean no. It often just means we wait, or go gentler on one area. I ask every time rather than only the first time, because skin changes between appointments and so do the things people are putting on it.
Afterwards you'll be red for the rest of the day, and I'll give you the aftercare then, because it depends on your skin and what we did.
The one thing that isn't negotiable is sun protection. The NHS says at least factor 30 for everyday use, and on skin that has just been needled I'd rather you were above the minimum. Every day, not only when it's sunny. New skin burns fast and burnt skin pigments, which undoes the thing you just paid for.
Questions I get asked
- Can I just have one and see?
- You can and people do, and I'll happily take your £115, but I'd rather you knew what one gets you. One session gives you a few days of very good skin and starts something your body then doesn't get asked to continue. If you only want to spend once, spend it on a Hydro Facial before an event instead. You'll be happier with it.
- Do you use numbing cream?
- No. It's uncomfortable rather than painful, and most people describe it as a hot scratchy feeling that stops the second the pen lifts. The forehead and the jaw are the sharpest bits because the bone is close to the surface.
- Does it work on stretch marks?
- Stretch marks are on the list of things it helps. Message me about the area you've in mind before you book anything and we'll talk about whether it's the right treatment for it.
- How long before I see anything?
- The visible bit lasts about three days and the useful bit takes about three months. New collagen turns up quietly over the weeks after each session, which is why the photo worth taking is the one at the end of the course rather than the one you take that week.
Where this comes from
Anything here about the body, a symptom or a safe way to work is checked against a named source. The rest is what I've found doing the job.
I'm a beauty therapist of over ten years and a certified Dermalogica Skin Specialist, and I work as a mobile therapist across Sutton. Client stories here are shared with permission and identifying details are changed. More about me.