27 Ways to Get Rid of Dark Circles and Bags Under EyesScars are a fact of life and an amazing example of our skin’s ability to heal, but did you know you have a lot of control over how a scar looks? Find out what you can do to minimize scars and fade those you’ve had for years. Whether from an injury, surgery, or a skin problem such as acne, scars are something almost everyone has to deal with at some point. Although they can be unsightly, they’re an amazing example of the miraculous way skin heals itself when injured. Scars may be flat or raised, practically invisible or obvious, but what you do to assist the skin as it heals—and how you treat the scarred area afterwards—makes a big difference in how the scar looks. Before you learn how to treat scars, you need to understand how they form, how to care for injured skin to minimize scarring, and what type of scar you’re dealing with. The scar that you see on the surface of the skin is the result of a complex process the skin goes through as it recovers from damage.
There are many factors that affect how a wound heals, and the way the wound heals affects how the scar will end up looking in the long run. How skin heals and scars varies from person to person, but it also depends on how you care for the wound before the scar is done forming. The skin goes through three stages of repair before you see a scar. In the first stage, there’s swelling, redness, and some tenderness or pain as a scab begins to form. During the next stage, new skin tissue forms underneath the scab. The final stage involves rebuilding and reforming the outer and inner layers of skin. What you do during the first days after getting a wound, what you do after the scab has formed, and what you do when the scab eventually falls off all affect the appearance of the final scar. There’s an easy-to-follow plan to minimize scarring. Although there’s a lot of anecdotal information about specific ingredients (such as aloe and vitamin E) to reduce scars, most of it is not supported by research.
In fact, using vitamin E on scars may be just a waste of time, time during which you could have used more effective remedies instead. Here’s how to care for a wound to minimize scar formation: Depending on your genetic makeup and the depth and type of tear in your skin, scarring can range from a slightly reddish discoloration to a thick, raised red or dark scar. There are three main types of scars, generally described as flat, indented, or raised. Flat scars are the most common, and usually occur from everyday injuries or minor burns. Depending on your skin color, flat scars may be pink to red (and eventually fade to very light pink or white) or tan to deep brown or black (eventually becoming lighter). Note: The flat, pink-to-red or tan-to-brown marks left from a breakout are technically not scars. These marks are known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Indented (atrophic) scars often result from cystic acne or a bout with the chickenpox virus. If you’ve ever had a deep, painful breakout or chickenpox, chances are you have at least one of these scars.
Other names for indented scars are pockmarks, ice pick scars, and depressed scars. These scars result from destruction of the skin’s underlying support structure, which is why they don’t heal as well as flat or raised scars. Raised (hypertrophic) scars result from overproduction of collagen in response to injured skin. This type of scarring can result from a slight tear in the skin or from a deep wound, and everything in between. Sometimes referred to as keloid scars, these are more common in persons with dark skin. Raised scars flatten over time, but can take years to resolve. We explain how you can help this process along in the next section: Scar Treatments. Stubborn or large/long raised scars may require medical or surgical treatment. Even when you take the proper steps to minimize scarring, once the wound has healed, you’ll likely want to keep treating the scar to make it even less noticeable. You’ll be happy to know there are products and medical procedures that can help—a lot!
Even if you choose to do nothing, a scar continues to heal and change (for the better) for up to two years after the fact. With ongoing gentle skin care, sun protection, and patience (that’s the hardest part), most scars get better, becoming less apparent over time. If you don’t want to wait it out, here are some things you can do to treat the scars you have now: What about Mederma for scars? Research on Mederma is conflicting; some research shows that it works and some shows that it doesn’t work, so the results are mixed. Yes, that’s confusing, but it’s what the science says. In short, Mederma is a product for which you must weigh the pros and cons yourself—and keep your expectations realistic. Watch out for scar gels that are little more than silicone, and there are a lot of them out there. Although pure silicone can help heal and reduce scars, silicone alone isn’t all that the skin needs to improve scars. A range of anti-inflammatory, skin-healing, and skin-repairing ingredients will get you much better results because they work with the skin’s natural repair process.
Though it’s not possible to avoid all scars, know that there are things you can do to keep them from being as noticeable as they might be without treatment! The key is to give your skin the gentlest possible care throughout the entire process, so it heals to the best of its ability.If my lips could talk! Oh, wait, they do. Well, they'd start with my first experience of makeup – I found my mum's concealer, and smothered my lips with a thick white tar and felt pretty fancy with it too. It's possible they'd mention my first snog on holiday in Italy, a 13-year-old clash of teeth.They'd tell tales of how I spent most of the 90s applying Miss Selfridge Sweet N Flower lipstick and liner in a way to enlarge my smoochers. They'd point out the tiny scar-bearing testament to my punk phase, when I pierced my bottom lip with a badge. They'd recall months of neglect, wind whipped or nibbled or sunburnt into skinny crispy bacon rashers. And they'd remember futile hours of trying to plump them up into a worthy pout.
How to achieve that just-smooched look without just smooching? How to give the impression that someone's just snogged your face off, without all the extras that come with someone just snogging your face off? (Yeah, you know I'm talking about Pash Rash. It's a real liability with all these hipster beards about.) Well, I may have found the answer. It involves two ingredients that are 100% natural and an easy, quick, non-invasive procedure.Hello, homemade Cinnamon and Vitamin E Scrub!Cinnamon is a spice originating from Sri Lanka that has been used for thousands of years for health and beauty. It is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial and stimulates blood circulation. For this reason it has been used as a hair growth ingredient, a skin revitaliser and a lip plumper. By scrubbing my lips with cinnamon I am hoping to slough off dead skin and get a rush of blood under my skin that will even out lines and make them rosy.In theory the cinnamon can be mixed with any good oil – almond oil, coconut oil and olive oil all have fantastic skin-loving properties.
But it was the longer-term impact of vitamin E oil that appealed to me. The book 'Healing with Vitamins: the Most Effective Vitamin and Mineral Treatments for Everyday Health Problems and Serious Disease' tells me that vitamin E oil can be a wrinkle buster by preventing radical damage and by boosting collagen production – the very thing that keeps skin elastic. Vitamin E oil also boosts skin cell growth and regeneration. Holy Smackerooni - my lips are absolutely gagging for it.It's pretty easy to get cracking with this experiment as I use cinnamon regularly in my kitchen, and have vitamin E oil on hand for my homemade facial creams. I simply mix half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon with a tiny drop to make a paste and then I spend 10 minutes massaging it into my lips.My lips begin to tingle after about 30 seconds and they don't stop tingling for about a day! Before I did this experiment I hadn't paid much attention to my lips for weeks. They were dry and pale. They hadn't been thinking about being particularly kissable for ages.