Most people searching for a stem cell facial find marketing photos and very little footage of the actual procedure. This page has the procedure itself.

Dr. Sam Robbins came to our Puerto Vallarta clinic for stem cell treatment on his shoulders. While he was here, he decided to address his skin as well. He filmed the entire facial himself, and we did not edit it. Numbing cream, roughly 50 micro-injections across the face, and his reaction in real time, including the parts that were less comfortable than he expected.

Disclosure: Dr. Sam Robbins received treatment at RegenaMex and filmed this content under an agreement with our clinic. He produced and edited the video independently. His experience is his own and is not a claim about outcomes for anyone else.

What a stem cell facial is

A stem cell facial delivers regenerative cells into the skin through a series of shallow micro-injections placed across the face. It is not a topical treatment and it is not a peel. The cells are placed directly into the tissue, distributed across the areas the patient and physician identify during consultation.

The procedure in this video took two stages. First, a topical numbing agent applied across the face and left to take effect. Then approximately 50 injections, working systematically across the forehead, cheeks, under-eye area, and jawline.

That is the whole appointment. No general anesthesia, no incisions, no downtime protocol involving bandages or a recovery room.

Why Dr. Sam Robbins added a facial to his trip

His reasoning is one a lot of patients in his age range will recognize. He grew up in the 1980s, when sun exposure was not something anyone managed. As he describes it in the video, tanning at noon with baby oil at twelve years old was simply normal at the time. Decades of that accumulate.

Layered on top of the sun history: naturally occurring freckling and hyperpigmentation, genetic dark circles under the eyes, and the facial volume loss that comes with age, particularly for people who stay lean. Low body fat tends to show in the face first.

The TRT and hyperpigmentation point

There is a section of the video worth pausing on if you are on testosterone replacement therapy or considering it.

Hormonal shifts are a well-documented trigger for melasma and hyperpigmentation. This is established dermatology, not a fringe theory. It is most commonly discussed in the context of pregnancy and oral contraceptives, but hormone changes from TRT belong in the same conversation.

His point is that most men starting TRT are never told this in advance. They are counseled on bloodwork, on estrogen management, on injection frequency. Skin pigmentation rarely comes up. Then the discoloration appears and there is no obvious explanation for it.

If you are on TRT and have noticed pigmentation changes, that connection is worth raising with the physician managing your protocol.

What patients bring to a stem cell facial consultation

These are the concerns patients most often want evaluated when they ask about this procedure:

Sun damage and photoaging
Hyperpigmentation and melasma
Dark circles under the eyes
Loss of facial volume and collagen
Overall skin tone consistency

Whether any of these are appropriate to treat, and how, is determined during evaluation. Our specialists assess every patient before recommending anything. Some people are good candidates. Some are better served by a different approach, or by addressing an underlying cause first.

What it feels like

The video answers this better than a written description can, which is why we published it unedited.

The numbing agent handles most of it. What the patient reacts to is variable across the face. Certain areas are more sensitive than others, and the under-eye region tends to be the one people comment on. He narrates his own experience as it happens.

If you want a realistic sense of what you would be signing up for, the footage is more useful than any reassurance we could offer in text.

Timestamps

0:00 Numbing cream and what is in it
0:24 Why he is doing this
0:31 The sun damage story
0:50 Hyperpigmentation, melasma, and TRT
1:13 Dark circles and volume loss

What happens next

Changes to skin, when they occur, develop over time rather than immediately after the appointment. Nothing meaningful is visible walking out of the clinic.

Part two of this series documents his before and after. We are publishing it separately rather than compressing it into this video, because the procedure and the outcome are two different questions and they deserve to be shown honestly as two different things.