I had Morpheus8 and it took my skin months go to back to normal
When I first heard about the Morpheus8, it was from a fellow journalist who raved about it from what looked like a preternaturally smooth face. The second time was when the press showed Judy Murray’s newly-juicy skin alongside captions claiming her transformation was down to many a Morpheus8 session. The third time was in a really reputable clinic, in which one of the founders espoused its virtues. After that, I noticed talk of it everywhere, and not just among the beauty crowd; Kim Kardashian called it a “game-changer”, and Lindsay Lohan said she’s “obsessed” with it.
As someone who’s had my fair share of acne throughout my life and has the scars to show for it, I was swept up in the the buzz around Morpheus8. It sounded very, well, sound, essentially involving stamping many fine needles into the skin to deliver radio frequency deep into the dermal layer of the skin.
The result? A big wound which sounds bad but is actually good when administered carefully and left to heal properly. With that healing comes an uptick in collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid, aka all the things that make skin look youthful and bouncy. It can be used anywhere on the body – Kardashian has it on her stomach – so it works as well on, say, saggy knees or stretch marks as it does on the face, and it’s designed to correct and undo the signs of ageing rather than prevent them, so it is billed as a good treatment for those from their 30s and up.
I booked in. I am aware that people’s pain thresholds vary so won’t go on about how much it hurt bar to say it is the most painful treatment I’ve had and that I was by the end dripping sweat despite having worn the numbing cream for an hour prior. But worth it, I thought, writhing under the needles, imagining my fresh, beautiful complexion post treatment.
It is standard to need some downtime after the treatment. The clinic in which I had it were incredibly responsible and told me about the potential few days to a week during which my skin might be a bit tight, a bit red, a bit raised where the needles had been. That, I was prepared for. What I wasn’t prepared for is that all those side effects just… remained in place.
When the practitioner messaged to ask how the healing process was going (I told you they were responsible), I sent pictures of it remaining raised and they suggested that if it didn’t subside, I should go back in for some calming LED treatments. I did this and, sure, they calmed things a little so after around ten days I felt like my skin looked ‘normal’ with make-up on – and, yes, my jawline did look more snatched, but I still booked in with my favourite Clinical Aesthetician Pam Marshall at Mortar and Milk to see if she could do anything to shift the final marks.
Pam’s advice was, as always, pretty sobering. After telling me that any treatment, however good the practitioner, however promising the tech, comes with potential pitfalls, she added that 'the problem with Morpheus8 is that it’s a massive wound – if you’ve got really robust skin, it might be fine, but there’ll always be someone like you with robust skin who has a reaction, so it’s always a risk.'
As she set about ridding my skin of the pinprick marks and what felt like tiny balls of semolina under the surface of my skin using a Byonik LED device and some mandelic acid when my skin could tolerate it, she warned me that she was concerned about the trend of ‘collagen banking’ in which young people have these intense treatments in the hope of effectively stashing ‘youth’ away to stave off ageing for longer: 'it’s not worth the money or the wound for someone who’s got pretty healthy, youthful skin. Micro-wounding is the best way to go to keep your skin healthy and robust.'
This advice is echoed by Dr Ash Soni of The Soni Clinic, who told me he doesn’t 'believe that patients who are young (in their 20s) with no skin issues typically need most device treatments or injectables for "preventative" reasons; every treatment has an associated risk and sometimes downtime.' Amen to that – and also please let that put to bed the idea that some influencers promote that you absolutely must partake in preventative measures.
Dr Soni adds that anyone administering treatments should 'be very careful with patients with sensitive skin, a history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring, dry skin, eczema or rosacea, as micro-needling can cause issues in these patients.' And he’s right – but my story proves that even if you choose to go to a really good practitioner, and even if you’re a perfect candidate for it, every single time you inject anything into your skin, you might just end up being that one unlucky person for whom it’s a bit of a disaster.
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