Help with stretch marks?

September 3, 2010 12:57 PM

How do I rid myself of scars?

I've lost a large amount of weight in the past twelve months. Thankfully I don't have a huge amount of loose skin, but I am left with quite a few stretch marks. They're just a constant reminder of a time in my life when I was at my lowest point.

Is there truly any way that modern science has yet discovered how to make these go away? Time isn't a huge factor, but obviously the faster the better. Post any and all methods of fading and removing stretch marks. Surgical or otherwise. If you've had any experience yourself, I'd love to hear it! Be as detailed with your recommendations as you like.

For clarification, I have marks of different degrees. I have the light reddish ones and the more silvery/white, deeper ones. Most of them are on my stomach, arms and some on my décolletage.

Anonymous because this is a very sensitive and personal body issue. I don't think I could bear having it attached to my easily found username.

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (15 answers total)

I think what you are going for here is you want to put moisture/nutrients/emollients on to those stretch marks. Straight up Vitamin E oil. Palmer's Cocoa butter. Anything marketed to pregnant women to decrease stretch marks will probably be a good place to start but don't get hoodwinked into paying a ton of money -- check out the ingredient list.

Good luck!
posted by Medieval Maven at 1:08 PM on September 3, 2010

i googled, and it looks like you can get rid of them with laser treatments. there are surgical options as well, like a tummy tuck.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 1:18 PM on September 3, 2010

I've heard that shea butter and cocoa butter are both good for this.
posted by Quizicalcoatl at 1:19 PM on September 3, 2010

Strongly seconding Palmer's Cocoa Butter, and I have had a good experience with reduction of small surgical scars with Bio-Oil (both quite inexpensive and the bottles last a long time). Both are available at most drugstores.
posted by mireille at 1:21 PM on September 3, 2010

Seconding Vitamin E oil. A roommate of mine dramatically reduced the appearance of very old acne scars by popping open Vitamin E pills and rubbing the contents on her face twice a day. (Back then, that was the easiest and cheapest way to get Vitamin E oil. Now we have the internets and you can buy it online.) Use liberally.
posted by devinemissk at 1:31 PM on September 3, 2010

Vitamin E oil is good. As well, lavender and neroli oils are good for the elasticity of the skin. There's a product from Lush called Therapy that's supposed to help a lot with stretch marks.
posted by bubsy012 at 1:36 PM on September 3, 2010

All you can do with creams - shea, cocoa, AHA - is improve the look of the surface skin, the epidermis. They will do nothing for the scars, which are very deep and many skin layers down, in the dermis, and are different from the average injury scar. Exercise - perhaps strength exercises for the hips and butt, especially to fill that once-filled area with muscle - can firm and improve the appearance of the area as well.
The red ones will fade at least. The silvery ones are not deeper, but older. The red ones will fade to silver.
At least there are lasers, which seem to be modestly effective on the newer, red ones in fair skinned folks.

I'd love to read differently, but not much can be done to the actual scar tissue.
posted by mostlybecky at 1:39 PM on September 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

Back in high school I shadowed a plastic surgeon for a while, and she always recommended Vitamin A for scar healing.
posted by phunniemee at 1:50 PM on September 3, 2010

I asked my dermatologist about this. She said that laser treatment is possible, but expensive, painful, and not terribly effective. She recommended just giving it time. It's been about a year and a half since I first got mine, and they are usually and mostly invisible. I know they suck, but I don't think there's much more to do about it.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 1:57 PM on September 3, 2010

I have a few decade-old, faded (so very thin and lighter than the rest of my skin) stretch marks from a growth spurt as a teenager, and I've talked to my dermatologist about them. There's pretty much nothing you can do, other than try unpleasant laser treatment that only leads to "improvement", not removal, in ~20% of patients.
posted by halogen at 2:03 PM on September 3, 2010

Last I heard, Retin-A is supposed to work on the red ones. (I've never tried it, because you can't use Retin-A while pregnant or breastfeeding and by the time I'm done BFing, the red ones are all silver.)
posted by artychoke at 2:20 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Seconding topical retinoids - this is from Medscape:

Increased epidermal proliferation and new collagen formation contribute to the improvement of hypertrophic scars, keloids, and acne scars (Verschoore, 1993). In an open-label, multicenter, prospective study, topical tretinoin 0.1% significantly improved the clinical appearance of pregnancy-induced stretch marks (Rangel, Arias, Garcia, & Lopez-Padilla, 2001). Striae originating from weight gain or endocrine-related disorders could likewise benefit from the use of topical retinoid therapy. (my emphasis)

In this context I've seen Tazorac mentioned a lot on Makeupalley.com, where people also refer to it as Taz.

You should be able to get a prescription from your doctor, but failing that, there are internet pharmacies that will deliver without a prescription too. I've used alldaychemist.com for my Retin-A and been quite happy with their service and prices (ten times cheaper than in the US, but the medications are usually made in India, if you can live with that).

As artychoke mentions, retinoids work best on fresh stretch marks, the pink/purple ones.
posted by Dragonness at 2:42 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I gained and lost some weight quite a while ago (almost 10 years now), and the stretch marks I had from that have basically faded to almost nothing in probably less than a year. So take heart, if nothing else, they will fade eventually on their own (I never did anything at all to them).
posted by ch1x0r at 4:21 PM on September 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't have practical advice for the scars.

My spouse has a wide variety of stretch marks from over a hundred pounds ago. I have come to appreciate the work and dedication that went and still goes into improving overall health (physical, mental, emotional) and getting and keeping that weight off. Those stretch marks are beautiful to me.
posted by thatdawnperson at 6:30 AM on September 4, 2010 [2 favorites]

This may be one of those YMMV things, but I've had great success with a combo of Retin A and Bio Oil.
posted by dzaz at 5:02 PM on September 4, 2010