Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am a 23 years old black female with horrendous 10 years old light brown stretch marks running all over my forearms. I have been dealing with them since the age of 13 and haven't worn a tank top in the past 10 years of my life. I have tried countless creams, oils (and the list goes on) to get rid of them as laser treatment was out of the question (Laser treatment for stretchies is not designed to work on black people's skin), I have waisted hundreds and hundreds of dollars with no significant improvement, the horrendous stretchies were still visible and ruining my life. Around the age of 19 I decided to stop wasting my money and my hopes and decided to get used to the fact that I may never be able to rock a tank top or the strapless wedding dress of my dreams "Sigh". Then in summer 2012 I moved to Africa to stay with my mum for a while, the sun is really hot here and long sleeves tops are out of the question but since I don't have much of a choice...I decided to stick to my long sleeved tops but then I realized that I couldn't possibly spend the rest of my life hiding my arms in long sleeved tops...I just couldn't give up so I embarked on a new stretch marks removal journey. I started using my own blend of shea butter and natural oils because I heard that it was amazingly good when it came to fading stretch marks up to 50 %. So I faithfully applied my mix twice a day for 4 months non-stop, the process was extremely slow but little new skin patches started building over my old stretch marks, they were very tiny skin filaments like, very thin and see through, It was not very noticeable unless I looked at them closely...4 months for that little progress I was really annoyed but I kept going until I remembered reading about skin needling. I heard about it back in 2012 but at that time the idea of using a roller covered with needles onto my skin felt like torture to me and it didn't help that I was sceptical from years of living with false hopes and believing the hype about stretch mark treatments, so I never gave it a second thought (BIG MISTAKE, I feel like slapping myself on this one) So I decided to do my homework and researched skin needling, cons and pros, how it works...Basically its sort of a collagen, elastin rebuilder and that's what's lacking in stretch marks, the collagen stopped being produced while the skin was stretching, hence the appearance of stretch marks. I ordered the 1.0 mm without the numbing cream ( I just wanted to get used to the pain of rolling without numbing the skin first in case I went to a place where I couldn't get any). The first time I used it, I could barely tolerate the pain, so I only rolled it over the skin a few time without applying too much pressure. My skin turned red after a few minutes, and it was stinging a bit but nothing to cry over (The redness went down after 30 minutes and the pain an hour later). I then applied my shea butter mix, because apparently it penetrates up to 80% better into the skin because of the micro channels created by the needles. (I then proceeded to socking the roller into alcohol in order to clean it). Apparently it takes 30 to 40 days for the skin to be fully regenerated/healed, so I only roll once every 30 days to give my skin a chance to regenerate (but I still apply my shea butter mix everyday, twice a day). After the first 30 days had passed I noticed thicker skin patches (the filaments were getting thicker), new filaments appeared over my dented stretch marks too, I was seeing progress but nothing to be euphoric about...I thought maybe because I hadn't rolled properly the first time, there wasn't enough collagen produced to build more skin, so I decided that on my next roll I would do better. On my second roll (Second Month), I did it properly, I rolled all over my skin in various directions (which I hadn't done the first time), I applied pressure evenly (even drew out a few drops of blood). The redness was way stronger than the first time and the pain was unbearable after the rolling, it was stinging badly, my forearms were painful, it all went down after 4 hours, I knew I had done a good job this time around. I also did not forget to clean my roller and apply my shea butter mix to my skin. 25 days later my skin had very thick skin patches building all over my stretchies, even on the dented one, I can't believe this, they are turning into fragmented stretch marks because various thick patches of skin are appearing over them, The skin is even looking, healthy, thick and strong...30 days later the skin was still building, the patches were still getting thicker and more obvious, it's a miracle...I don't even know how to explain how happy and thrilled I am about this treatment. I have hope that my stretch marks will fully be covered with new skin in maybe a year or less. I will keep you guys updated every 30 days on my progress. Maybe some day I will wear the wedding dress of my dreams lol I'm sold, I'm a believer...Dermarollers are a wonderful creation, if you have old stretch marks or even new, give it a try. But remember consistency and patience are key (also the cream you use will determine how efficient the dermaroller will be on your skin). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: 08-Aug-2013 - End of the 3rd Month - Beginning of the 4th Month It's been a month since I last rolled my skin, tomorrow I will be derma rolling once again. I'm very excited and happy to say that this is the month I have seen the most improvement on my stretch marks, for those of you who don't know, tomorrow will be be the fourth month on my derma rolling journey. The following day after derma rolling at the beginning of the month, my skin had already started the healing process, there was already some new filaments appearing over a few spots, and islets of skin appearing within my dented stretch marks. As the weeks went by, the islets appearing within my dented stretch marks started growing outward towards my surrounding healthy skin and eventually started connecting to them to form fuller skin patches. The skin filaments that were thin last month have increased in size and the thicker ones have completely blended in with my surrounding healthy skin. My stretch marks are still visible but not as much as earlier this month, the thicker and fuller the skin filaments and islets get the more my stretch marks seem to fade or blend better with the healthier skin. I would say I have re-built 25 to 30% of healthy skin tissues over my stretch marks so far, it may seem little to some but to me it's the improvement I have been waiting for, for the past 10 years of my life. This month I have seen the most improvement on my dented stretch marks, which is surprising because I was expecting the shallow ones to heal faster but they seem to heal at the same speed or maybe little bit faster (Which I'm not complaining about, on the contrary). I also believe that the use of my shea butter mix has played an important role in the skin healing process (it contains vitamin e and other good vitamins that are important for skin regeneration). Like I said and I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, the lotion you use along with the derma roller will determine how well your skin will heal and how efficient the derma roller will be. One last thing that may be of interest to some of you, I now have hair follicles appearing where the new skin has re-built itself which is a sign that my damaged follicles are being revived, there is new hair growing out of them too, a sign that the derma roller seems to really heal the skin from within. I'm very excited and I can't wait to see the results of this month skin needling. I will keep you guys updated. My next update should be next month October 6th, 2013. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE: 06-Oct-2013 - End of the 4th Month - Beginning of the 5th Month I know I'm a few days behind but I have been so busy with work and everything else that I didn't get a chance to sit down properly and write a review (I don't like rushing my reviews lol). Let's get to what we are here for. I derma rolled my skin on the 6th of October, rolled in various directions as usual (I stopped rolling really hard because just a slight pressure seems to do the trick). My stretch marks have improved by another 10%...so there is an improvement of I would say 40% overall. The way I would describe the way my stretch marks look now...it's like they are melting into my skin, they appear to be fading in, blending in...They have also really shrank in width which is unbelievable. I now feel less self-conscious about them because they are lot more discreet than they were when I fisrt started dermarolling. I think I'll need between 3 to 5 more sections before they are really gone. Not much to say, they are just filling in...I was so worried that the dermaroller might stop working after some time (like many people said) but it still works perfectly fine...my skin is still getting renewed. (See you on the 3rd of November for another update) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE: 03-Nov-2013 - End of the 5th Month - Beginning of the 6th Month I can't believe I forgot to dermaroll, thank God I remembered 2 days later...I have been too busy with work...There isn't much to report except that my stretch marks continue to fade...From now on I will be updating every 3 months until they have faded by at least 90 % otherwise I will feel like I'm repeating myself every time I update lol. At least 3 months is enough to see a huge difference...as of now my stretch marks have faded by at least 50%...My mother keeps saying your stretch marks are fading...she is so shocked, she can't believe it...I still feel like I'm in a dream, I would have never thought they would fade this much, I'm so glad I haven't given up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE: 26-Jan-2014 - End of the 8th Month - Beginning of the 9th Month