The Glow-Up That Hurt: What It’s Really Like to Get Skin Needling
Micro-needling promises glow and firmness, but timing can make all the difference.
4 min
In the glossy world of skincare and wellness, we often hear about the benefits of skin needling: tighter pores, improved texture, and that elusive post-treatment glow. What’s less discussed? Timing. More specifically, how the hormonal fluctuations of your menstrual cycle can impact the experience and your pain threshold, far more than the skincare forums let on.
I thought I had it all timed perfectly. I’ve done enough microneedling sessions to know that it’s not exactly a walk in the park – especially if you, like me, are the kind of person who winces at a deep tissue massage and cries a little during a bikini wax. So I planned carefully. I booked it during what I believed was a “safe” window, comfortably out of the PMS zone and well before Day One of my cycle.
Of course, my body had other plans. I woke up the morning of the appointment, cramps in tow, and immediately considered cancelling. That is, until I reread the clinic’s policy: 50% fee for rescheduling within 24 hours. And just like that, I found myself at the door, clutching my water bottle and whispering affirmations like I was about to sit an
Pain, Periods, and the Myth of the High Threshold
Let’s get one thing straight: we all have different pain thresholds. Some women breeze through labour with little more than a grimace. Others (hi, me) need to mentally prepare for eyebrow threading. But regardless of your usual threshold, during menstruation, everything changes.
As estrogen and progesterone levels drop in the days leading up to and during your period, the body becomes more inflamed, more sensitive, and, for many women, less tolerant of discomfort. You’re more prone to pain, your skin is more reactive, and even your emotional resilience takes a bit of a dip. These aren’t mood swings — they’re chemical fluctuations. And they affect everything.
That’s why, in hindsight, getting hundreds of tiny needles rolled into my face on the day my hormones hit rock bottom felt… intense.
But I wasn’t going to back out. I chose to stay. And to my own surprise, it became a moment of real resilience — not in a “push through the pain” way, but in a mindful, grounded, intentional way.
Breathing Through the Sting: A Masterclass in Mindfulness
As I lay back on the table, my therapist adjusted the pressure slightly and reminded me to breathe deeply, something I’ve heard in yoga studios a hundred times, but rarely applied to skincare.
At first, I distracted myself with light conversation – anything to keep my mind away from what was happening on my face. But when the more sensitive areas (cheeks, upper lip, forehead) were being treated, distraction didn’t quite cut it. That’s when I tapped into mindfulness.
I began to sync my breath with the pace of the roller: in for four counts, hold for two, out for four. I imagined breathing into the places that hurt, allowing the breath to soften the resistance. I reminded myself that pain is a wave — it rises, peaks, and passes.
And in that moment, I found something surprising: calm.
I wasn’t numbing myself or trying to “tough it out.” I was being incredibly present. Noticing the sensations, naming them (“sharp, hot, tingling”), and then letting them go. It felt like a meditation. One I hadn’t planned, but one I very much needed.
Wellness Beyond the Pretty
When we talk about wellness, we often imagine smooth transitions and well-curated rituals. But sometimes, wellness is uncomfortable. It’s showing up on a day you feel emotionally fragile and physically sore. It’s adjusting expectations, grounding into your body, and offering yourself compassion in real time.
That’s what this treatment became for me. Yes, I wanted clearer, more radiant skin – and I got that, eventually. But what I didn’t expect was to walk away with a deeper understanding of how connected my physical and emotional states really are. What we label as “low pain threshold” is often our body trying to communicate something important. And that there’s strength — a quiet, powerful kind — in choosing to stay present in discomfort.
So, Would I Recommend It?
Getting skin needling during your period isn’t ideal. Your skin is more sensitive, the inflammation response is heightened, and yes, it will likely hurt more. If you can reschedule without consequence, do it. But if you can’t, or if you choose to go ahead with it anyway, go in prepared.
Hydrate. Take paracetamol, not ibuprofen. Let your therapist know, so they can adjust their technique. And most importantly, take care of your emotional self as much as your physical one. Use breathwork to anchor you. Allow yourself to rest afterwards. And recognise that what you just did — despite the timing, despite the discomfort — was a form of self-care that goes beyond skincare.
Because wellness isn’t just about looking better. It’s about knowing yourself, trusting yourself, and supporting yourself through every phase — hormonal highs, lows, and everything in between.
Leticia Estrada Rahme is a writer, mother, and former TV journalist based in Bondi Beach. She explores beauty, mental health, and identity through the lens of storytelling and lived experience.
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Artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to build a business without building a team. As AI takes over coding, customer support, marketing, administration, and other day-to-day tasks, a growing number of solo founders are scaling startups to millions in revenue with few—or even no—employees. While the trend is lowering barriers to entrepreneurship, it is also reshaping hiring, raising questions about the future of work and how businesses will grow in the AI era.
5 min
Ben Broca launched a company last December that offers AI tools to entrepreneurs. He’s already added 10,000 paying customers and is on track to bring in $10 million in revenue this year.
One thing he hasn’t added: any other employees.
The 40-year-old is part of a class of entrepreneurs who are launching, and then often running, new companies on their own. Artificial intelligence tools answer Broca’s emails, help write and debug code, field requests from customers, sign up new subscribers and grant refunds when issues arise.
Broca relishes his ability to make whatever decisions he wants on his own, often from his sun-drenched Sausalito, Calif., living room. “I think compromises make lukewarm results,” he said.
Once upon a time, running a business of a certain size required a team. AI is turning that assumption upside down, and more aspiring entrepreneurs are going it alone.
An analysis by the payments company Stripe shows there are thousands of solo operators on the company’s platform that are generating over $1 million in revenue, with their ranks doubling between 2023 and 2025. The number of solo operators crossing the $10 million threshold nearly tripled in that same span.
In the past, people without business contacts or particular savvy might not have known how to get their ideas off the ground, said Ernie Tedeschi, Stripe’s chief economist. “Now, AI can be a built-in business partner,” he said.
AI’s ability to handle various administrative tasks makes it potentially useful for launching solo businesses in many fields. But the technology’s ability to also handle key tasks in tech, like coding, make that field a particular hot spot.
Analyzing Census Bureau data, Bank of America Institute economist Taylor Bowley found that among all industries, new business applications in the information sector have seen the biggest percentage increase—nearly 45%—over the past year. At the same time, the rate of information-sector applicants saying they plan to hire workers has experienced the sharpest decline of any measured industry.
This Census dataset doesn’t track solo-operated businesses. But the numbers broadly show—in tech and beyond—that applications are flat among businesses likely to hire workers, but generally rising elsewhere. Economists say that’s a strong sign that solo operators are on the upswing.
“The bar for getting started has never been lower,” said Julian Weisser, who runs a San Francisco-based accelerator for solo founders working in tech. The accelerator—which offers founders seed money and mentorship in exchange for an equity stake—attracted 4,500 applicants for 10 slots made available in its most recent cycle, nearly five times the number it drew when it launched last May.
Going it alone with AI can still be surprisingly expensive. Broca said he was losing money on many customers’ accounts while paying to access Anthropic’s Claude to run his clients’ requests—that AI company, as well as others, charges based on usage. He has since switched to free open-source AI models from China.
Broca said he has raised $30 million from investors and, at the same time, has saved millions in salary since he hasn’t needed a team of software engineers.
Another risk: If it’s easy for one entrepreneur to launch an AI-assisted business, copying them can be easy, too. This creates anxiety for founders like Troy Johnston, who runs an AI-assisted business alone in Orlando, Fla.
“Everybody has the sword and we all have the ability to unsheathe Excalibur now,” said Johnston, 40, who used AI to code an app that helps people get the most out of credit card benefits. The company makes around $3,000 a month in profit, with no employees, and is continuing to grow.
What one-person businesses will mean for the labor market remains to be seen. Polling has shown Americans are worried that AI will replace jobs, and top economists are wrestling with that possibility, too. But AI is also creating lots of new jobs, and the go-it-alone entrepreneurs show how the technology can both open doors and limit employment opportunities.
“If everyone’s hiring less, but you get four times more firms, what does that do to head count?” said Rembrand Koning, an associate professor at Harvard Business School who studies entrepreneurship. He co-authored a recent study that found that among 50,000 startups the researchers examined, those focused on AI tended to operate with 25% fewer employees.
Koning also believes a soft hiring environment that’s left some people mired in long job searches has encouraged more to try their hand at launching businesses.
Some founders cite different motives. “It’s a perfect storm of post-pandemic burnout and a re-evaluation of one’s priorities, and also booming AI and a sense of what’s possible,” said Samir Ahmad, 39, who lives in Breinigsville, Pa.
Two years ago, Ahmad decided to leave the corporate job he had worked at Verizon for almost two decades to start a solo coaching and consulting business. He had been seeing social-media posts touting the ease and virtues of AI, which he used to chart a business plan and help with marketing. “It was like my chief of staff, a second in command,” he said.
The business ultimately petered out within months, though, and Ahmad is now back to a full-time corporate role with a utility company.
For Claire Vo, 41, AI helped her turn a passing impulse into a business. She was working full-time as a tech executive when she tapped AI in late 2023 to help code an app that would help her manage documentation and design for new products, with customers ranging from financial services to healthcare firms.
“I was copying and pasting from ChatGPT,” said Vo, who lives in San Francisco.
She put the app online for $1 a month, and within weeks people downloaded it thousands of times. Nearly three years later, Vo’s company—which she ran solo for nine months before hiring an engineer—now has 100,000 users and is on track to make seven figures in profit this year. AI handles the company’s marketing, sales and customer support.
While AI is a shortcut, Vo said her network and credibility in the industry were key. “I think people over-index on how easy AI is and under-index on how much I did to get to this point,” she said.
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