Like a lot of us, Tilly Whitfield, a contestant for Australian Big Brother, tried experimenting with TikTok beauty hacks this year. Unfortunately, it went like this.
Whitfield had a history of appearing on the show with her skin covered in a clay mask or heavy makeup. After viewers started asking why, she took to Instagram to explain, posting a series of photos showing her skin broken, red, and inflamed with angry welts across her cheekbones. The damage was the result of an “at-home beauty procedure,” she explained, adding that she actually wound up in the hospital due to swelling in her eye and became “very sick from the infection.”
So what did she do, exactly? “I literally shoved needles deep into my skin,” Whitfield explained, which sounds like microneedling. Also known as dermarolling, microneedling is the process of using needles to cause small injuries to the skin to activate collagen. Dermatologists agree that it’s an effective way to help with acne scarring or hyperpigmentation, but it can be risky to do at home. Keeping the implements sterile and doing the procedure properly are big challenges. Still, it is immensely popular on TikTok, where the #microneedling hashtag currently has 177 million views.
But there’s TikTok and then there’s reality. As Whitfield says, “Leave it to the professionals.”