Jenna: Hey guys, it's Jenna. With all the masks coming off in all the other provinces how it seems like soon these restrictions are going to be loosened up here too. I'm starting to think about things like micro-needling and lip blush tattooing again. For the longest time here I have been avoiding doing these treatments in the studio because of the possibility of contamination. Up to the area from mass squaring of bacteria that could lead to possible complications, post-treatments such as scarring, infection, etc. because obviously when you have these treatments, you need to keep that area where you would be wearing a mask three. So now that this is all settling down, it seems we are really excited to get back to these things in the studio. I have actually researched another workaround for this. So we will be launching this. So we can do these treatments safely without the possibility of cross-contamination in the studio. So instead of wearing a mask, there'll be a special breathing apparatus like a breathing sponge putting the nose to end the mouth remains shot through the whole tree admitted with gauze underneath so there is a safe way to press to proceed.

But I've just been really really cautious in the studio because above all I want all my customers and clients to be safe and my staff but I also want to do everything I can to make my staff feel safe economically through these hard times. It's really hard on a studio when you have to shut down for two weeks and it affects the whole team. So we've definitely just been extra safe because we do want to respect all members of the team and their ability to provide for their families basically. So really excited to get back into micro-needling and things like lip blushing. So today I wanted to go through and just kind of talk about microneedling because it's been a while so there is so much to cover on this topic. I'm so excited to get into it with you guys. micro-needling is amazing. It has been around for a while but it's not as commonly known and I'm not exactly sure why that is but it sometimes you'll hear it called collagen induction therapy or it can also be called inkless stretch mark removal because this treatment does a bunch of amazing things.

So basically what is micro-needling you might be asking micro-needling it uses special needles to puncture the skin in a specific depth. So it triggers pinpoint bleeding, which activates a wound healing process that creates the perfect climate for your skin to use its natural growth factors to regenerate the skin.

And so it instructs the body to develop new healthier younger looking skin because, in this controlled environment where we are doing a very specific puncture, we are creating the optimum results for perfect healing. So why sometimes does this not work like that like every time you get an injury in your skin? It does not always result in something awesome. There's scarring, there are stretch marks that happen. There are a lot of different things that can happen if you do get a wound or a puncture on your skin.

So why is this a different type of healing? And this is like where the magic really comes in and why it's so important for you to research and find someone who's been trained really well who uses a very good system that preferably Health Canada approved as a medical device and also absolutely be following your aftercare to the tee and not ignoring any of the red flags that would prevent you from being a good candidate for this treatment. So that's like heavy binge drinking lights before you're coming in for your treatment. So basically, we're creating the perfect healing environment for your skin so that when we do this tiny controlled puncture with this medical-grade equipment, very carefully controlled puncture, it is going to be a traumatic so instead of a trauma healing response, so like say you get a gash in your leg or you make a cut in your skin.

Those are all going to have trauma healing responses, because the body's having a response where it's like, Oh no, I have to heal this right away and when the body is in a trauma healing response, it creates scar tissue and a bunch of other stuff that can go wrong with it because it just wants to fix this problem as fast as it can. It doesn't want to take its time to rebuild. It wants to seal your skin so that bacteria can't get in there to prevent HIV infection, all that stuff. So because of micro-needling this specific puncture wound is basically healing and sealed super close to after the puncture happens. You don't get this trauma healing response. Instead, it's the perfect initiation for a healing process that will build out your skin naturally. So know if you follow the aftercare and you have the perfect equipment and stuff like that.

Then you're creating the perfect situation for that skin to be rebuilt it is one of the most tolerated anti-aging treatments available is proven to minimize scars and stretch marks promotes repair and reduce reduces the appearance of aging wrinkles, scars and stretch marks because just like if you're getting a hyaluronic filler, lots of people are injecting filler in their face to create fullness again, these fillers are crosslinked so it's different than the filler that is or like the hyaluronic acid collagen response that's naturally being rebuilt in your skin. But it also gives you a lot more of a natural look because filler can migrate like when it's injected a whole bunch of different things can happen. It's really expensive to get a filler that's injected dissolved.

But when you're creating your own natural filler in your skin, it's not going to look unnatural. You're just going to look younger, your skin's gonna look tighter. It's going to be the look that you're after every time there's no way that it can go wrong. There's no filler migration, having to spend tons of money getting it dissolved, you completely are eliminating that complication, which I think is fabulous. And so how does this work? You might be wondering, so we kind of covered that a little bit but so basically the treatment is using surgical grade micro-needles that reach beyond the epidermis into the dermis.

This causes pinpoint bleeding and trigger the body's spontaneous healing response. This healing response is within minutes after the preparation channels close and then the healing cascade starts inviting the area to fill with collision promoting fibroblasts and growth-promoting properties. So that little microneedle is creating a traumatic wound that is pinpoint bleeding, but then within seconds, no more bleeding and it's closing and it is starting to regenerate itself into all those fabulous things because it is not trauma healing. It is rebuilding it doesn't need to speed or feel rushed to heal because it's the perfect little nudge to your skin. To just rebuild itself and start the regeneration process which otherwise would not happen because our body wants to spend its energy where it's most needed, right. So if we don't do these things, then our skin is not going to be encouraged to rebuild in the same way because it's busy doing other things. So creating this little micro wound is going to help trigger our body like kind of trick it into giving it some more attention in the skin and rebuilding those areas that we're treating.

So it's pretty fabulous that way, the younger-looking skin is new organized collagen and the last one that has formed after this treatment. So the epidermis becomes thicker and more supple medical-grade microneedles of the derma roller the treatment that we have specifically chosen at Elevate or atraumatic meaning non-traumatic or cone-shaped and it displaces the skin around the puncture process creating a micro wound that feels within minutes of the treatment. These micro-wounds gently trigger the generation of new tissue. What is so important about this I want to highlight to people and why we really went above and beyond in investing in our system is that there are a lot of knockoffs of these systems. There are even a lot of counterfeit needles out there so counterfeit pieces because it is one of the most expensive treatments that we do.

Anything that is a medical-grade device more has to be inspected. by Health Canada is going to be way more expensive than something made in China directly shipped here through some random online potentially even through Amazon. Oh, this is why you do have to do your due diligence when you're researching a studio and taking your practitioner because there are so many different things out there that are not going to be of high enough quality to guarantee that you are not creating damage by doing this service.

So the needles have to be so specific and have such a high grade they're guaranteed that they're not going to do damage to the skin because if you take a needle and there could be micro imperfections to this needle, then you're actually just creating more damage and scar tissue which you might not realize on the first treatment. But over time that's going to build up and it's going to be the wrong thing. You're not going to see the results that you want and you're going to be creating damage under the skin that you're going to be dealing with later on. So really important to for us to have a pick high-grade system because I just wanted to make sure that I had the top quality and it makes me feel really safe that the machine is a medical device approved by Health Canada, and that the components like the needles are inspected by Health Canada.

They're actually made in Germany, Germany makes some of the highest quality materials for this industry. And so even beyond that, the company has Health Canada come to that factory, inspect those needles and guarantee that they are of top quality. So this is the kind of assurance that I like when I'm bringing something into my studio. Our government does not do a good job of protecting us in this way. Often when problems happen in this industry. They're happening way after they are introduced. So some examples of this would be I don't know if you guys ever heard of the hyaluronic pen that was out there. There was a bunch of people are like they were just training people. It wasn't an injection. It was like a pen that you could push hyaluronic acid allegedly into the lips to create a fuller effect without actually injecting so anyone could do this.

They were saying and for quite a while they were actually training people. There was no legislation about this because this comes in less a company goes after the Health Canada medical device certification by themselves. It takes a long time for Health Canada to research these things, discover their problems, and then go through and start banning things or controlling things, or putting legislation in place that protects us, unfortunately, when it comes to cosmetic things like this, it is just not as regulated as like say a new drug or something like that. So there's this whole gray area that is a little bit self-policing. And so that's why for me it was really important to just go for the best that I knew was they were going above and beyond the standard. So they're not required to do this, but they have gone and gotten their medical device certification and their health candidate approval. And

that means that in the future, I'm not going to be having any private clients. I'm not going to be hearing about this later on. Because they've gone through and done that due diligence. So where are the hyaluronic acid or like the hyaluronic pens now? Well, there's been a whole thing about how it can create bruising and a whole bunch of other problems and so after I think I saw it on the market for like about a year until Health Canada pulled it off and they made the legislation that it's only medical professionals that can do injectables and they pulled that pen off the market in the Canadian market. I am sure you can still buy that pen off Amazon. I'm sure you can buy that pen. somewhere on the internet. You could do it someone could be offering that service.

So this is the unfortunate thing about being a consumer at this time in Canada. You do have to do your due diligence, especially about these services that are a little bit higher risk. I have to make sure that the studio is approved to do High-Risk Services of course but yeah, go above and beyond and if you know that something is approved by Health Canada, if they've gone above and beyond to do that, and something is inspected by Health Canada then that is the due diligence really that you want to see that that is going to be a safe product for you. Another example of this is a prison another thing that came out that was like it's actually a pretty okay treatment, plasma fiberglass skin tightening. I don't know if you guys ever heard of that.

That's another thing I thought about bringing to the studio for sure. I've seen so many good responses to it because they have since regulated that because I'm sure there's a bunch of horror stories. After all, basically what you're doing is doing controlled burns on the skin. There are about a million ways that could go wrong. Right? Especially if unregulated junky devices are coming off Amazon from China and other places. I'm not picking out China, I'm sure there are a million awesome products that come out of there. But more often than not, the regulations are just not as high as we see in other countries like Germany. Or in North America for the products for professional use. So another example of a product that came out without any medical device rating or Health Canada authorization, and that has since been pulled off the market retroactively and still I'm still I know for a fact you can sign up for training courses for this product.

They will sell you the device. They won't tell you that it's not you're not allowed to use it in Canada. I found that so, so sneaky but they just want to sell it they don't care and it's so loosely regulated. So please do your due diligence with this. Make sure that you are asking the right questions when you get a service like this and studio obviously so important. Just don't want you guys to end up regretting anything. So anyway back on that's why I chose why it was so important for me to choose the best device that is a medical device inspected by Health Canada to perform this treatment and get trained by this company that goes above and beyond and cares that much about its clients, the practitioners and the integrity of the name to go and voluntarily do that certification. So back to the treatment and wrap there. So the derma roller also is special because they have done so much research on the optimum number of needles to maximize effectiveness, safety, and comfort. I'm not going to bore you guys with needle fairy hair. But as a permanent makeup artist too. There are a lot of different theories to needle and basically like there's a lot to do with pressure and how much force is required to puncture into the skin. So if you think of it like say you stepped on one single needle, you see you're stepping on it with your foot, how easily without a needle going into your foot, it would be so easy because it's just one needle right? So that needle does not need that much force to puncture into the skin right because it's just one needle. It can go straight in there.

But see you're like some people walk on like beds and needles, right? There are hundreds of needles are like the more needles basically per square inch than you've put there, the higher the forces that have to happen for you to puncture all the way through. So why is this important for treatment like this because we do not want to be creating trauma we want that to go easily in but we do want to get as much coverage as we can because we don't want our client to be there forever? We want to cover the whole face evenly. And so they have done this research that has shown the optimum number of needles to do this and the thing is more is not better in this instance. So they have done that research exactly for the right amount of needles to maximize the effectiveness.

So that really important piece of information. They've gone ahead and done that research and they've been doing this also for the longest I believe derma roller is the first person who created this treatment and they also supply this treatment to burn units in the hospitals. This is on a bigger scale. It's not the same one that we're using on your face, obviously but for like really burned tissue. They actually have medical devices that are used in hospitals to be rehabilitating that tissue. And so that also speaks a lot to me about how trusted they are in the medical community to be able to do that and act in that role as well. How does micro-needling help with the reduction of acne scars, stretch marks, and wrinkles? Well, we've talked a lot about that. Already. Basically, it's a therapy that triggers the process of healing and so it forms new collagen and reorganizes the structure of the skin the way that it should be once you create a little controlled wound that skin is wanting to rebuild itself. And reformulate itself and because it's not a trauma healing response, it's not doing that with scar tissue. It's not creating any of the negative things that we are seeing when we're having a trauma-healing response.

The benefits of micro-needling are clear it's to improve the texture of the skin for a tighter, more youthful appearance. It reduces the parents of stretch marks wrinkling and scarring. The newer the stretch mark or scarring, the easier it is for it to morph but even old stretch marks and scarring can change a lot with micro-needling often it will just replicate the texture of the normal skin a lot more. It can also pump up the skin in areas, especially with like acne scarring and stuff like that. So that's amazing for people who have had a lot of acne scarring happening or women who have had pregnancies stretch marks and also for wrinkling of any sort. Of course, the people who will benefit most from micro-needling are those who have stretch marks scarring, for example, acne scars or fine lines and wrinkles. They want to address through a minimally invasive procedure with pretty much no downtime women who have given birth and want to improve the appearance of stretch marks or men who want to improve the look of stretch marks for women who have given birth. The recommended time to address your stretch marks is two weeks after giving birth. It is very tight. I'm sure there are a lot of other things that you would want to be doing more like snuggling your baby, but it's so important to get those stretch marks while they're still pink to get the best results.

So for people who have suffered from acne to really important to note you cannot undergo micro-needling if you've had Accutane within the last year or have current active breakouts So with all this you might also be wondering who is not a good candidate for microneedling because we definitely want to make that clear to the worst thing is for someone who is not a candidate to go in for this procedure because you will be creating more damage. So pregnant women are not a candidate for this breastfeeding women will want to clear it with their doctor. Anyone who has the cardiac disease, chemotherapy, skin cancer keloid scarring, or has had Accutane in the last 12 months or HIV is not also a good candidate for this treatment. Lots of those things are preventing you from having the best atraumatic healing response. So you really want to make sure your body is not being taxed with anything else.

So that isn't the optimum condition to slowly heal the skin. And so it can really take its time and if you are suffering from something else, or if you have a condition that is going to affect your healing. Instead of getting the awesome benefits of this treatment, you'll get the trauma healing, which is not something we want to ever do for our clients. So there are those conditions that I've just talked about, but then there are also the following active skin conditions that would also make you not a good candidate. So that could be acne because when we're puncturing there's definitely bacteria in pores of pimples and we don't want to be spreading that and creating the environment for an infection throughout. The rest of the skin which can cause scarring or trauma healing. Clients with acne rosacea are also not a very good candidates for this. Any type of infection or eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, fresh sunburn, you really don't want to have actually any sun on your skin, if possible because Sun is a form of trauma already. So you want to start with your skin being healthy and ready to do its job through this treatment.

You don't want to start a negative spot or where the skin is already trying to heal itself. From any kind of UV damage so especially fresh sunburn that's absolutely a no-go recent chemical peels are also no goes to the your skin's already healing from that and it needs time to refresh itself before you undergo another treatment. You would have to consult with whoever you have the chemical appeal with before becoming a good candidate for that micro-needling. It's also important to consult your physician if you have or could have any of the following hormone replacement therapy collagen vascular disease where the immune system causes inflammation in the collagen and nearby joints.

So rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, there might be a couple of other things under that category. In that case, you are going to want to clear yourself with your doctor bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, for sure, obviously, because we're causing pinpoint bleeding.

This condition impairs the body's ability to make blood clots. We don't want to be dealing with any situations like that when we're trying to not trigger trauma healing, uncontrolled diabetes keloid, or hypertrophic scarring. So keloid scarring is when it's raised scar obviously we don't want to trigger a cuboid healing response. Ever. And the same thing with hypertrophic scarring blood thinner medication is another no no. If you are ever questioning whether you would be a good candidate if you have something that you know is unique to you, medically, I 100% think you should go talk to a doctor first. It is so important. We are not medical professionals and so we cannot give out health care. So when it comes to any medical condition, or your medications and how they could interact, you have to consult with your doctor if you do have anything that's not listed on this that you think might interact.

What can you expect right after a micro-needling session, your fresh microneedles skin will experience a few mild side effects, including redness, tightness, and probably itchiness clients compare this to the feeling of a sunburn after about 24 to 48 hours the swelling, and redness should subside. Everyone is different. I know after I've had mine done I actually like was out and about right away afterward. It wasn't a sunny hot day though. So keep that in mind. And then the next day I was at work and absolutely no one noticed so but other clients might get a little bit of bruising or something like that. So it's usually not very noticeable and most clients say that they're okay doing what going on with their daily routine and no one really notices the next day so very low downtime but this is to prepare for a treatment. You must stop using skin thinners.

So think vitamin A glycolic acids, any kind of exfoliation for two weeks before your appointment, do not consume alcohol have to repeat that because lots of people are like, Oh, what about one or two drinks? Well, no, it's like you it really does mess with the way your skin is gonna heal. And you want to prepare yourself to have the most benefits from this treatment. So when you are coming in hungover for a treatment or something like that, you're just not going to get the benefits. You're going to have a trauma healing response in your body because you already feel like it's dying and so it's not a good idea and it's absolutely the best idea to refrain for a week or even two if you can before your treatment so your skin is fully hydrated and just ready to rock also a great idea to avoid caffeine or blood thinners. So aspirin, ibuprofen, fish oil, niacin, etc. 48 hours before your procedure, caffeine is going to put you on edge and can create more of bruising potentially and the same thing with blood thinners.

So we absolutely don't want to have those things happening. So it's just not worth it, skip those to avoid suntanning and any kind of UV exposure for 30 days before and after your procedure. So you might be wondering why after well really good reasons if you have dark skin with you can hyper pigment and if you have lights in you can get melasma so we don't want to be creating any more problems for you.

We want to make sure that that skin has a perfect healing environment that does not include any more trauma. So avoid the UV exposure which is going to add more trauma to your already healing skin. We want to really be it 30 days before and after. Just to prepare you for the best treatment possible. Some other cosmetic procedures should be completed proprietary series of facial microneedling appointments if desired. And if you want to go more in-depth with that if you have any questions about specific procedures, feel free to DM me at Elevate last shot ca and I would love to walk you through that. You can also ask your say you're getting talks or other injections. Ask your doctor they're the best resource for you. Given whatever other treatment you are getting potentially if it's something like a brow wax or brow tint or something like that you definitely want so waxing is not a good idea right before waxing is going to be the same thing as like kind of exfoliating right where you're thinning the skin because it's going to be peeling off the skin with a wax so make sure that you're not waxing two weeks before your appointment. And also after your appointment. You don't want to be waxing right away. So you kind of have to plan that right and the same thing like brow tans, henna brows you don't want to be doing that right after your procedure because your skin is gonna be so much more sensitive, but you don't want to cause a reaction because that can really affect your healing.

So probably depending on everyone's healing, you might be different. I would definitely say solid 14 days for anything. So how can you take care of your skin after the procedure? So obviously you're going to want to avoid touching the treated area with unwashed hands or like sleeping in your bed. You want to make sure all your sheets are clean. We live out in the country rural areas so lots of us have well water or we're on like a shared water system of some sort. It's not city water that's like treated and controlled. So we want to make sure that we don't have that water going on our face because there could be bacteria in there that's going to affect that area or minerals also that are going to affect that healing skin. You must also avoid excessive sun exposure for one to two weeks after the microneedling appointment. So the least amount of UV the better.

Do not apply sunscreen for 48 hours put post-treatment so you also want to make sure that after the skin has calmed down, you wear daily mineral SPF with at least a sun protection factor of 15. And up I recommend an SPF 50 and a facial moisturizer. We have a really good one from Kula that's an organic facial. It's a BB cream that has a moisturizer. It's a bit of a serum with a BB cream because it's like a mineral-based BB cream right that is you know protects you from the sun too. It's an SPF 30 So that's one of my favorite choices but we also have a matte mineral sunscreen that is so great for all those girls with oily skin in the summer especially and that one is an SPF 30 It comes in attended as well. And then the SPF 50 which is like amazing especially for permanent makeup to make sure that you're you don't have any drifting in the color of your brows.

The SPF 50 is amazing and it's so fabulous to put on which I cannot say about any other mineral SPF 50 So yeah, definitely check those out if you require some skincare. They also make an amazing spray. There's an unscented SPF 50 And like so 30 I've never had an organic spray that is not greasy, it feels amazing to wear and absolutely protects. It's so great. So also you're gonna definitely want to avoid picking and peeling of the skin during the healing period. And this can be a little tricky, because I'll be honest with you, your skin when it's regenerating. It's a little bit like it's not as bad as when your brows are shedding, but it's definitely like shedding skin and you can just see how it's really focusing on regeneration and the nice new skin is coming up underneath and then the oldest skin is just like slowly like not flaking off. It's usually well it's different for everybody. I'm not gonna say one thing or another because I've I've seen different things for other people but my experience personally was it just was like little flakes and so you feel like you really want to exfoliate that off but you have to give it a little bit of time because you don't want to be aggravating it.

You want to give it time to fully heal and make sure you're not aggravating the areas so we can fully repair that skin and so before exfoliating and definitely would wait two weeks and then you're definitely going to be good to go then but yeah, that's not worth causing that trauma. So if you aren't needing to do something about the flakes you can add on the moisturizing sunscreen that's gonna help you just not feel so rough but definitely hold off on the exfoliant for a little while there. So a little bit of a longer episode there but there's so much content about this and so if you're having trouble navigating through this episode and go through and look at the timestamps made it really easy for you to jump to whatever whatever part of this episode is really going to give you the most value really because I want you to spend the least amount of time find the most amount of answers so that you can get the best results in your self-care routines.

Also, feel free to reach out to me through Instagram, especially that's my favorite way to keep in touch at Elevate lash.ca Ask me any questions that you want about micro-needling even if you're not from a lake around our studio, if you have questions about it, I'd love to talk and I would totally love to connect and answer those questions for you or direct you to someone who I think in your area would be awesome for you to connect with that could help you with that as well. So thanks so much for joining me for another episode of elevating yourself Podcast. I'm looking forward to next week's episode and we'll see you then