Your own platelets, driven into the skin
A microneedling pen makes thousands of tiny channels in the skin, and your own platelet-rich plasma goes into them. It’s what we often recommend for people in their 30s who come in asking about Morpheus8. It helps with acne scars, rough texture, large pores, fine lines, and sun damage, and it’s one of the few needle treatments safe for every skin type.
$499
per session
At a glance
Microneedling with PRP- Appointment
- 60 to 75 minutes, blood draw and numbing included
- Downtime
- Red for 24 to 48 hours, light flaking to day 5
- First results
- Brighter within a week
- Full results
- 3 months after the last session
- Sessions
- 3 to 4, about 4 weeks apart
- Cost
- From $499. About $125 per payment across 4
What to expect
What the appointment is like
Plan on 60 to 75 minutes, most of it spent letting the numbing cream work while the centrifuge runs. Your visit starts with a quick blood draw, just a few tubes from your arm. The needling itself is 20 to 30 minutes of vibration and a scratching feeling, which most people describe as comfortable under numbing.
Consult
We’ll look at your scars and texture in daylight and recommend whether PRP is worth adding or whether the hyaluronic acid version is enough. You’ll leave with a written plan.
Blood draw and numbing
A few tubes from your arm, then numbing cream on your face for 20 to 30 minutes while the tubes spin.
Treatment
The pen passes over each area at a depth set just for it, shallow on the forehead and deeper on scarred cheeks, with PRP applied as we go and again at the end.
Before you leave
The PRP stays on your skin overnight. We’ll apply sunscreen, give you written aftercare, and set your next date. You can drive yourself home.
Results
A predictable timeline
Brightness comes first, within about a week, as the surface renews. Pores and texture tighten over the next few weeks. Scars and lines take longer. Those changes likely won’t appear until you’ve had at least three treatments. Collagen keeps maturing for about three months after the last session.
Days 0 to 2
Red, then pink
Red and warm with the PRP left on overnight, then pink, dry, and slightly swollen. Most people return to normal activities.
Week 1
Brighter surface
A brighter, smoother surface as the skin renews.
Weeks 4 to 12
Scars soften
Sessions two through four. Pores and texture improve, and scars begin to soften.
Month 3+
Review and maintain
We review your result three months after the last session. Maintenance every 6 to 12 months from here.
What it costs
Clear pricing, planned by the visit
Your cost depends on the number of sessions (a series versus a single visit), face only versus face and neck or a body area, the PRP add-on itself (the draw, the kit, and the spin), and whether we inject PRP into deeper scars as well as applying it. We recommend a series because one session brightens the skin, while three or four are needed to improve scars.
- A series versus a single visit
- Face only versus face, neck, or a body area
- The PRP add-on: the draw, kit, and spin
- Whether PRP is injected into deeper scars
PRP series
Microneedling with PRP
$499
per session
- Recommended series
- 3 to 4 sessions, ~4 weeks apart
- Scar evidence
- PRP roughly triples the odds
- Consultation
- $50
- Financing
- Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna
We don’t offer a single session as a scar treatment. For a one-off glow, the hyaluronic acid version costs less.
Book your Microneedling with PRP appointmentSimilar purpose, different options
Microneedling with PRP or something else?
The choice comes down to the same needling with a different serum, or the same needling with heat added.
| Microneedling with hyaluronic acid | Microneedling with PRP | Morpheus8 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What goes in the channels | A sterile hyaluronic acid serum | Your own platelet-rich plasma | Radiofrequency heat |
| Best for | Glow, hydration, first-timers, single visits | Acne scars, texture, tone, a series | Laxity, jowls, neck, deep scars |
| Evidence | Hydration and texture at 14 and 28 days | Tripled odds of scar improvement | Tightening and scars in trials |
| Downtime | 1 to 2 days | 1 to 2 days | 2 to 5 days |
| Blood draw | No | Yes | No |
| Cost tier | Lowest | Middle | Highest |
What goes in the channels
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- A sterile hyaluronic acid serum
- Microneedling with PRP
- Your own platelet-rich plasma
- Morpheus8
- Radiofrequency heat
Best for
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- Glow, hydration, first-timers, single visits
- Microneedling with PRP
- Acne scars, texture, tone, a series
- Morpheus8
- Laxity, jowls, neck, deep scars
Evidence
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- Hydration and texture at 14 and 28 days
- Microneedling with PRP
- Tripled odds of scar improvement
- Morpheus8
- Tightening and scars in trials
Downtime
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- 1 to 2 days
- Microneedling with PRP
- 1 to 2 days
- Morpheus8
- 2 to 5 days
Blood draw
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- No
- Microneedling with PRP
- Yes
- Morpheus8
- No
Cost tier
- Microneedling with hyaluronic acid
- Lowest
- Microneedling with PRP
- Middle
- Morpheus8
- Highest
Microneedling with hyaluronic acid uses the same pen and the same channels, with a sterile hyaluronic acid serum as the glide instead of your platelets. There’s no blood draw, it costs less, and it has good evidence for hydration and surface texture. We usually recommend it for first-timers and before events, while PRP has the stronger scar data.
Morpheus8 adds radiofrequency heat through the needles, which is what tightens skin and reaches deeper scars, at the price of more downtime and the risks that come with heat. We’ve written up how to decide in Morpheus8 vs microneedling: which one you actually need. And if the area that bothers you is under the eyes, PRF injections treat that skin more directly than needling.
Is it right for me?
Who it’s for, and who it isn’t
This is a needle treatment we can offer to almost everyone. There’s no heat, so it’s safe in all skin types, including Fitzpatrick IV to VI, where lasers and IPL carry pigment risk. It’s a good fit if your concern is scars, texture, pores, tone, or fine lines, and you can commit to three or four visits about a month apart.
A good fit for
- Rolling and boxcar acne scars
- Rough texture, large pores, and uneven tone
- All skin types, including Fitzpatrick IV to VI
- Most people under 35 wanting skin quality, not tightening
Not recommended
- Jowls or a loose neck (no heat means no tightening)
- Hollow cheeks or deep folds (filler fits better)
- Active cystic acne, an infection, or a cold sore
- Blood thinners that can’t be paused, or during pregnancy
Because the PRP is your own blood, an allergy to it isn’t expected. Only sterile, needle-safe products belong on freshly needled skin, ordinary skincare pushed into open channels has caused granulomas.
In detail
What it treats
Scars, texture, and sun damage can show up at any age, so we plan treatment around the concern.
Acne scars. Rolling and boxcar scars, the soft depressions left after breakouts, are where microneedling with PRP has its best evidence. Deep ice-pick scars respond less, and we’ll point out which of your scars are that type at your consult.
Texture and pores. This is the uneven, orange-peel texture across the cheeks and nose, and it tends to improve within a few sessions.
Fine lines around the eyes and mouth. These are softened, not erased. For lines that only show when you move, Botox is the better match.
Sun damage and uneven tone. This includes blotchiness and the fine crinkling that comes from cumulative sun exposure, and we see the most of it in late summer and early fall.
Melasma. We approach it cautiously, as an add-on to the topical treatment you’re already using, and never in summer. A 12-study meta-analysis of 459 patients found microneedling improved melasma severity at 12 weeks when paired with topicals, with no serious adverse events, per Bailey and colleagues in JAAD.
Surgical and traumatic scars, once they’ve fully healed and settled.
Men. Common concerns include scarring from razor bumps along the jaw, acne scars, and sun damage. If you’re also having PRP hair restoration, the blood draw is the same one.
How it works
There are two parts. The microneedling pen is a motorized handpiece with a sterile, single-use cartridge of fine needles that makes thousands of controlled micro-injuries in the dermis. The surface stays mostly intact, and the wound-healing response builds new collagen over the following weeks, per Alster and Graham in Dermatologic Surgery. The FDA has cleared microneedling pens “to improve the appearance of facial acne scars, facial wrinkles, and abdominal scars in patients aged 22 years or older,” and it requires that cartridges be single-patient and single-use, per its microneedling devices page. We can tell you which pen we use.
The second part is PRP, platelet-rich plasma. Your blood is spun in a centrifuge kit so the platelet-rich layer separates, and that layer is applied during and after needling, so the growth factors platelets carry go straight into the open channels. PRP is made from your own blood. It’s not a drug, and there is no FDA-approved PRP product. The kits are cleared to prepare platelet concentrate, and using it on the face is off-label. We can also tell you which kit we use.
Is the PRP worth the added cost? For acne scars, yes. A meta-analysis of 14 controlled studies and 472 patients found microneedling plus PRP roughly tripled the odds of a better-than-50-percent improvement compared with microneedling alone, with no difference in severe redness or swelling, per Kang and Lu. A 2024 network analysis of 24 randomized trials found every combination beat plain microneedling, with a chemical peel add-on ranking highest, per Li and colleagues, which is why we sometimes pair the two.
Afterwards
Downtime and aftercare
Day 0: expect to be red and warm, like a sunburn. There’s pinpoint bleeding during the treatment, and it stops before you leave the room. You’ll look flushed when you leave.
Days 1 to 2: the redness fades to pink, with mild swelling and dryness. Patient reports put the red phase at about 24 to 48 hours, longer with aggressive settings, per RealSelf. Most people are fine at work on day 2 with no makeup and a plain moisturizer.
Days 3 to 5: some light flaking as the skin finishes healing.
For aftercare, leave the PRP on for as long as your provider advises, skip makeup for 24 hours, pause retinoids, acids, and vitamin C for 3 to 5 days, wear sunscreen every day, avoid heavy sweating, pools, and saunas for 24 to 48 hours, and use a clean pillowcase and clean hands. One rule matters more than the others. Only sterile, needle-safe products belong on freshly needled skin, because ordinary skincare pushed into open channels has caused granulomas, per Alster and Graham. For the first few days, please use only what we send you home with.
Why here
Why Arlington Heights
Treated skin needs strict sun protection for the whole series, so at our Arlington Heights office we start most series in October, when sun exposure is lower. Four sessions a month apart finish in January, and the collagen matures through April, ahead of summer. A January start works the same way and finishes in spring. Summer is better suited to maintenance sessions than to starting a series, because consistent sun avoidance is harder in the warmer months.
If you’re coming to our Arlington Heights office for PRP hair restoration, you can ask about your skin at the same visit. We cover the hair side in PRP hair restoration for Arlington Heights men. Parking is free in the lot outside Suite C at 3375 N Arlington Heights Rd, just south of Dundee Road. Appointments take about an hour, and you can drive yourself home afterward. Our medical esthetician does the treatment.
Questions
Common questions, answered
PRP microneedling is standard microneedling with your own platelet-rich plasma applied into the channels. A few tubes of blood are drawn and spun so the platelet-rich layer separates, then a motorized pen makes thousands of micro-channels in the skin and the PRP goes on during and after. The platelets’ growth factors are meant to boost the collagen response. It’s used for acne scars, texture, pores, fine lines, and tone.
For acne scars, yes. A meta-analysis of 14 controlled studies found microneedling plus PRP roughly tripled the odds of a greater than 50 percent scar improvement compared with microneedling alone, with no extra redness or swelling. For a single glow session, the difference is small, and the hyaluronic acid version costs less.
About every four weeks during a series of three to four sessions, up to six for deep scarring. After the series, one maintenance session every 6 to 12 months helps hold the result. There’s no benefit to spacing sessions closer than four weeks, because your skin needs that time to build collagen.
About 60 to 75 minutes at Skinovatio Arlington Heights. The blood draw takes a few minutes, the numbing cream sits for 20 to 30 minutes while the centrifuge spins, and the needling itself is 20 to 30 minutes. You’re fine to drive yourself home afterward.
For rolling and boxcar scars, microneedling with PRP has strong trial evidence, works on every skin type, and recovers faster than laser resurfacing. We don’t offer ablative lasers at Skinovatio Arlington Heights, but deep scars and laxity may do better with Morpheus8, which adds radiofrequency heat, and a randomized trial found it matched fractional CO2 laser with fewer pigment problems.
The skin is red for 24 to 48 hours, then pink and dry for a day or two, with light flaking by day 3 to 5. Most people are back at work on day 2 without makeup. Keep sunscreen on and skip actives for 3 to 5 days.
It’s a standard draw from the arm, a few tubes, the same as a lab visit. You’ll feel a quick pinch. If blood draws make you nervous or lightheaded, let us know, and we’ll have you lie back for it.
You can, but we usually suggest waiting for fall. Freshly needled skin needs strict sunscreen and shade for the whole series, which is harder to manage in summer. A single maintenance session in summer is fine if you’ll keep the area covered. For melasma, we’ll wait for winter.
The blood draw is the same. Whether we can do both in one visit depends on the day’s schedule and how much blood we draw, so ask when you book.
Yes. “PRP facial” and “vampire facial” are marketing names for microneedling with platelet-rich plasma. Some places use the name for PRP simply spread on the skin after a light treatment, which does far less, because without the channels the platelets stay on the surface. It’s worth asking what a PRP facial includes before you book.
There’s nothing to undo. It’s your own blood and your own skin healing. If the result isn’t enough, we’ll adjust the plan rather than reverse anything.
Keep exploring
Related treatments
Related priorities
Microneedling
From $347 / sessionEntry-level microneedling with a hyaluronic acid serum for texture, pores, fine lines, and dull skin.
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Morpheus8
From $799 / sessionRadiofrequency microneedling that firms mild to moderate jawline laxity, crepey neck skin, and acne scars.
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Under-eye PRF
$550 / sessionYour own platelet-rich fibrin, injected under the eyes over three sessions for crepey skin, dark circles, and mild hollowing.
Learn more
Start with a consult
Tell us what you’d like to work on. We’ll assess your skin and goals, walk you through your Microneedling with PRP options, and give you a clear plan and price before anything begins.
Afterpay and Klarna available at checkout for eligible treatments.