12 Mistakes of Dermarolling or Dermal Needling at Home with Derma Roller

5 Derma Roller Dangers You Must Avoid to Stop Micro Needling/Dermal Needling Side Effects - Part I

Dermal Needling aka micro-needling, derma-rolling or dermarolling can trigger your body’s wound healing mechanism, thus stimulating collagen and elastin production without the use of topical products. As a result, you experience many anti-aging benefits, including the reduction of fine lines, wrinkles and scars.

Since dermal needling is a non-invasive treatment, it will not damage your skin like chemical and laser treatments, and has very little down time (only 2 to 7 days).

Dermal Needling also creates thousands of micro channels into your skin. This allows all topical products to bypass the epidermis and directly enter your skin, thereby increasing their concentration and boosting their efficacies.

On the other hand, dermal needling can produce unwanted side effects if you don’t take the following precautions. I highly suggest that you read Part 1 and Part 2 of this article carefully before starting your treatment. You will definitely thank me for it!

For part 2 of this article, please click the link below.

>>> Click Here for Part 2 -- 11 Mistakes to Avoid <<<

Table of Contents

Dermal Needling with Dirty Roller	Clean Your Skin Before Treatment
Topical Products with Toxic Ingredients	Keloid Scarring
More than 1 Treatment Per Day	Using Your Derma Roller Everyday
Rolling Your Upper Eyelids	Base your Result on How Much You Bleed
Dermarolling with Defective Roller	Dropping Roller into a Container
Dirty Working Surface	Derma Rolling with Dirty Hands
Related Topics	Conclusion

Dermal Needling with Dirty Dermal Roller

You should never start a treatment without disinfecting your derma roller first. A dirty roller can introduce bacteria into your skin, thus causing inflammation or infection.

You should never skip this important step! It is highly recommended that you disinfect your roller with Isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or even denture tablet by soaking it for 20 to 30 minutes before and after your treatment.

Do not use boiling hot water to disinfect your roller. Since your roller is made of mostly plastic, doing so will damage your device. Do not use a spray bottle filled with disinfectant to clean your roller. Doing so will not clean your roller effectively.

Clean Your Skin Before Treatment

Since derma rolling produces 1000s of micro channels in your skin, you MUST clean your skin with a gentle antiseptic/antimicrobial cleanser or alcohol before treatment. This will remove dirt, oil and impurities, thus preventing them from entering into your skin through the micro channels and causing an infection.

Do Not Use Topical Products with Irritating or Toxic Ingredients

Since dermal needling treatment can drastically intensify the absorption and potency of all topical products, applying products with irritating or toxic ingredients can result in increased irritation or toxicity in your blood stream.

Using a topical product with derma rolling is completely optional. If you are unsure about the ingredients in your skin care product, please do not apply it on your skin immediately after a treatment. You should wait at least 24 hours before applying.

Below are several ingredients to avoid. For in-depth information, please read “The Concise Guide to Dermal Needling” by Dr Lance Setterfield.

Alpha Hydroxy Acids
Beta Hydroxy Acids
Comedogenic Ingredients
Fragrance
Glycolic Acid
Hydroquinone
Kojic Acid
Parabens (ex. Benzoic Acid)
Perservatives (ex. BHA, Phenoxyethanol)
Phenol
Salicylic Acid
Trichloroacetic acid (TCA)

Do Not Treat Keloid Scarring with Derma Rolling

Many people think that a derma roller can treat all types of scarring, but they are wrong. Keloid scars are an abnormal skin condition caused by an excessive amount of collagen growth during the healing process. Since dermal needling also triggers your body’s healing process, treating keloid scars with a derma roller will worsen your condition. DO NOT derma roll if you tend to get keloid scarring.

Do Not Peform More than 1 Treatment Per Day

Contrary to popular belief, more treatments will not get you better results. Having more than 1 treatment per day will increase redness, irritation and slow down recovery time. There is also a risk of getting infection and ugly temporary needle marks. You should avoid having more than 1 treatment per day.

Using Your Derma Roller Everyday

You can only use 0.25 or 0.3mm roller daily or every other day. Since 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5mm rollers can induce micro trauma and inflammation in your skin, this can lead to the production of collagenase, which is an enzyme responsible for breaking collagen apart.

Using these particular rollers (0.5 to 1.5mm) daily will result in prolonged inflammation. As a result, this will generate an excessive amount of collagenase, thus boosting the rate of collagen breakdown and resulting in the loss of collagen.

For this reason you should only use 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 every 4 to 6 weeks and 1.5mm every 6 to 8 weeks.

Rolling Your Upper EyeLids

The skin on your upper eyelids is extremely fragile, thin and sensitive. It can become irritated easily. Also, your eyelids sit on top of your eyeballs. Therefore, you should avoid rolling your upper eyelids. If you are trying to treat drooping/sagging eyelids, then dermarolling WILL NOT fix the problem. You need a surgeon for that. Do Not roll your upper eyelids!

Base Your Result on How Much You Bleed

You should never judge your result by the how much you bleed. Many people mistakenly believe that bleeding is a sign of good result, but this is completely untrue! If you are using 0.25mm roller, you will not going to see any blood at all! You will simply encounter minimal to mild bleeding with 0.5 to 1.0mm roller unless you roll your skin excessively.

Also, bleeding is rarely seen when treating areas of the body with high percentage of fatty tissues. Therefore it is normal to only notice several red marks with body treatment especially around the leg areas.

It is never a good idea to force your skin to bleed via excessive rolling because this can induce prolonged recovery time, redness, swelling, irritation, needle marks as well as mild infection.

Dermarolling with a Defective Roller

Dermarolling with a defective roller can harm your skin, and you should NEVER use it. Therefore, you MUST check your roller for defects before treatment. Your roller shouldn’t get stuck during a rolling session, and it should roll freely. Otherwise, it is a bad roller.

Examine your roller closely for irregular or bent protrusions. If you find them, then it is a defective roller. You should discard it immediately and NEVER use it.

Dropping Roller Into a Container

During the disinfection procedure, many people drop their derma rollers into their containers filled with alcohol, thus damaging their rollers. Never drop your roller! Instead, lower it slowly or gently into the container.

Dirty Working Surface

To avoid getting your roller dirty, never place it on top of an unclean surface (For example, newspaper). Your working area should be clean! You can place your roller on a soft clean towel.

Derma Rolling with Dirty Hands

Dirty hands can introduce bacteria, dirt and harmful chemical into your skin and roller, thus causing undesirable side effects. Washing your hands with an antibacterial hand soap before treatment is a must. Some users also prefer wearing medical exam gloves, but you still have to wash your hands before wearing them.