Microneedling Works Best as a Partner, Not a Treatment on Its Own

A technique in which very fine needles create controlled micro-injuries in the scalp. The intent is twofold: to provoke a wound-healing response in the tissue around the follicles, and to create temporary channels that allow topical treatment to reach deeper than it otherwise would.

The more interesting evidence is for microneedling used together with topical treatment rather than on its own, and that distinction matters. It is best understood as something that may improve how well an existing topical therapy performs, rather than as a treatment that regrows hair by itself.

That is our position, and it is why we will not sell it as one. If you have not been diagnosed, or you are not on treatment with evidence behind it, adding microneedling to nothing is unlikely to be the intervention that changes your outcome.

Mesotherapy injects a prepared solution into the scalp. Microneedling is mechanical — the needles create the injury and the channels, and any product is applied to the surface rather than injected. Different mechanisms, and different considerations.

The two are commonly used together, with platelet-rich plasma applied to a scalp immediately after needling so it can reach through the channels created. Whether that combination suits you is decided at assessment. See hair PRP treatment.

It is uncomfortable rather than painful for most people, and a numbing preparation is generally used. The scalp is typically red and tender afterwards for a day or so.

It is given as a course, with sessions spaced some weeks apart to allow the scalp to recover between them, and the response reviewed against baseline photographs. The number depends on your diagnosis and what else you are being treated with.

You can buy one, and this is where most of the harm in this area actually happens. Needle length matters, hygiene matters, rolling over an inflamed or infected scalp makes things worse, and using a device to drive in a topical that was never intended to go deeper can cause problems. If you are going to do it at home, ask first what length and what frequency, and what to apply and when.

Redness, tenderness and pinpoint bleeding at the time are expected. Infection is uncommon but possible with any procedure that breaks the skin. Irritation from products applied to freshly needled skin is a real risk, which is why what goes on afterwards is planned rather than improvised.

It is not appropriate over active scalp infection or inflammation, in active inflammatory or autoimmune scalp conditions, where there is a tendency to keloid or abnormal scarring, or where medication affecting bleeding or healing has not been reviewed.

No. If the underlying cause is iron deficiency, thyroid disease, a hormonal condition or an autoimmune process, needling the scalp does not address it. Diagnosis comes first, always.

Slowly, as with everything in hair. Reduced shedding is the earliest measurable sign where there is a response. Density changes are judged over months against baseline photographs, not week to week.

No. It does not alter the underlying process of pattern hair loss, so any benefit is maintained rather than fixed, and the treatment it supports continues alongside.

It is priced per session and depends on the course planned, so it is quoted after assessment. If your assessment points to something with better evidence behind it first, that is what will be recommended.