Barry Keoghan sat down for his second needle-free skin tightening session last week, and his facialist filmed it. “I feel better about myself. I look better,” he says in the video. “I think it’s important to look after yourself inside and outside.”
Two sessions, about $6,000, according to the Daily Beast. The device is called Xerf. No needles, no numbing cream, no downtime. In March he had told a radio host, “There’s a lot of hate online. There’s a lot of abuse of how I look.”
It bought heat, carefully delivered
I have not examined him, and no doctor is named in the story. What I can say is what the money bought. Every RF device does the same thing in principle, from the gadget on a nightstand to the probe I use with liposuction, and the gadgets stay mild for one reason:
“The main reason being that these devices do not deliver the same energy as medical grade office devices, and do not heat the dermis up to the 40 to 45 degrees Celsius range, which is what actually remodels collagen. This is also the reason why the results are very mild.”
A needle-free office device like the one in his video does reach the dermis, from the surface, with cooling on the way in. NewBeauty describes Xerf as a dual-frequency device that heats at two depths. Real treatment. Also, by design, the gentlest real treatment there is.
It did not buy much more than that
Comfort is the pitch. For years the trade was real: more tightening, more pain. Morpheus8 Cool ended that at my practice. I was the first patient.
“When I tried it, it was night and day. The pain level I perceived was a one or two out of ten, without any topical anesthesia or medications on board. This made the treatment a lot faster. I noticed less swelling of the tissues because of the cooling technology. I did feel a little, almost needle-like sensation every so often, but very tolerable.”
“Morpheus8 Cool changes that dramatically. The treatments are the same, the depth of treatment is the same, the power is the same. It just makes the procedure so much more comfortable.”
“You will feel the cool head of the applicator on your face. You will feel some vibration, and every now and then you may feel a small needle prick, similar to when you get Botox.”
“In terms of recovery, you may have some redness depending on how aggressive the treatment is and the depth of the treatment, and you may feel some itchiness or mild burning on the skin. Depending on the depth and aggressiveness of the treatment, the recovery could be anywhere between 24 and 48 hours, at which time you’ll start noticing the results. You will see the skin is smoother and tighter, the pores are smaller, and the skin looks refreshed.”
So the gap between “no needles” and “tiny cooled needles” is now a one or two out of ten. The gap in results is not small.
And for the body, nothing from the surface competes with going underneath:
“QuantumRF treats the deep subcutaneous tissue and skin, creating contracture using higher delivery powers in a safe fashion. So far, we’ve seen far greater contracture with QuantumRF than with any other device.”
“If I had to pick just one, I would pick QuantumRF over all the other devices, mainly because it delivers more power, and does so much faster, in a safe and controlled fashion.”
“It is performed through a small incision, about four millimeters, the same incision we use for liposuction. The probe is inserted through the incision on a long cannula, and the radiofrequency treats the tissues under the skin.”
The paragraph the video leaves out
I say this to every RF patient, needle-free or not, before they pay for anything:
“Radiofrequency is going to give us mild to moderate improvement in skin laxity. It is important to note that every patient is going to react differently to the radiofrequency energy, and the amount of skin contracture can really not be predicted, but will tell itself over the following three months.”
“Radiofrequency energy is going to work well for mild to moderate cases where the skin is still good quality. By good quality, I mean that the skin has good elasticity and is usually absent of stretch marks. In more severe cases, or when the skin quality cannot give us predictable contracture, then surgical excision is indicated.”
“Massive weight loss patients will rarely respond to radiofrequency by itself, and although it can still be used, excisional surgery is necessary.”
Mild to moderate. Unpredictable. Three months to know. No jawline comes back from the surface.
What lasts, and what does not
“With some of the radiofrequency technologies, we can repeat the treatments for further tightening. And the results that you obtain really are permanent. We create contracture, and we keep going in that timeline from that result. So obviously, as time passes, the skin can begin to lax again, but the actual contracture obtained sets the clock back.”
His treatment set the clock back a little. The reporting says the effect is expected to show for a year or so, about what I would expect from the surface rung. Under the skin, the clock moves a lot further.
The social media problem
“I think the biggest misconception is that on social media, practitioners only show their best results. This gives patients a certain expectation which may not actually happen to them.”
A celebrity in a treatment chair is that misconception with a famous face on it.
The reason he gave
Months of abuse over his looks, then a chair and a handpiece. I hear that every week. Start with what the face needs, not with what strangers said. Low risk, yes. Low yield too, and no caption mentions that part.
Why choose Dr. Agullo
I am certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, completed my plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, and serve as Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Castle Connolly has listed me as a Top Doctor every year from 2014 through 2026. I run the whole RF ladder, from Morpheus8 Cool in the med spa to QuantumRF, BodyTite and Renuvion in the operating room, and I say no to the rung that will not reach the problem.
Ready to talk?
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com/appointments. #StayBeautiful
Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.