In general, stretch marks take between six and 12 months to fade. With treatment, they often fade faster.
How long does it take stretch marks to fade? Usually between three and six months. As your stretch marks age, your body replaces temporary scar tissue with better-structured, lighter scar tissue.
Derived from vitamin A, retinoids — such as tretinoin (Retin-A, Renova, Avita) — that you apply to your skin may improve the appearance of stretch marks less than a few months old. Tretinoin, when it works, helps to rebuild a protein in the skin called collagen, making the stretch marks look more like your normal skin.
Stretch marks usually fade over time but may not disappear completely. Many creams and lotions claim to prevent, reduce or remove stretch marks. But there's very little evidence these work. There are some treatments that may help make stretch marks look better, but they will not get rid of them.
Stretch marks can look like purple, blue, black, pink or red streaks on your skin. New stretch marks will look slightly raised with a red or glossy colour. Over time, they eventually fade to white and start to look slightly depressed. Older stretch marks may look like scars.
Stretch marks are often caused by gaining weight rapidly over a short period of time. Avoiding rapid weight gain and weight loss can help prevent stretch marks. If you need to lose weight, you should do it slowly by: eating a healthy, balanced diet.
Radiofrequency Treatments
Allure reports that RF treatments use energy to heat the skin's deeper layers, stimulating collagen and elastin production. This process tightens the skin and reduces the appearance of stretch marks by improving skin elasticity and texture.
It's common for stretch marks to appear during teen years when rapid growth of weight gain occurs. Other factors that make teens predisposed to stretch marks appearing include a genetic risk or family history of stretch marks, pregnancy, being overweight or obese, or topical or oral steroids, like prednisone.
Can Vaseline remove stretch marks? While Vaseline can help to moisturise the skin and improve its overall appearance, it is unlikely to completely remove stretch marks. Using Vaseline in combination with other treatments can help to reduce the appearance of stretch marks over time.
You can't fade mature stretch marks. But if you start early, within a few months of developing stretch marks, you may be able to improve how they look. The sooner you start, the better. As soon as you see stretch marks starting to appear, try applying pressure and massaging them at least once a day.
Marfan Syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the body's connective tissue; causing the tissue in the body to not grow and develop properly, this can cause stretch marks to appear without any visible reason (i.e. weight gain/pregnancy).
This lowers the chance of developing both excess skin and the appearance of stretch marks. Losing weight won't make stretch marks go away. Instead, time is one of the best tools you have to reduce the appearance of stretch marks (along with some of the treatments we've rounded up below).
They Don't Go Away. Like any other scars, stretch marks are permanent. But in time, they usually fade and become a little lighter than the rest of your skin -- they may look white or silvery.
Stretch marks do not usually go away completely on their own when you lose weight. Weight loss can reduce the tension on the skin, which may help make stretch marks less noticeable, but it won't eliminate them entirely.
Exercise. One way to decrease the visibility of excess skin after pregnancy is to strengthen the muscle below it. In the case of the abdomen, strengthening your core through regular exercise can help to build the stomach muscles out and tighten the skin above as a result.
The skin is stretched as a consequence of underlying tissue expansion. There is an inflammatory reaction in the skin that is responsible for the characteristic red or purple colour. The inflammation eventually fades and is replaced by scar tissue.
Dermatologist Asfa Akhtar, DO, says most stretch marks are part of growing up and often fade with time. “If you really want to get rid of them, a board-certified dermatologist can discuss your options,” Dr. Akhtar says. “Treatments start with topical therapy and then move forward to laser and energy-based treatments.”
In two large studies, applying hyaluronic acid to early stretch marks made the stretch marks less noticeable. Tretinoin is a retinoid, which may also make early stretch marks less noticeable. In one study, people who applied this prescription cream every night for 24 weeks had less noticeable stretch marks.
The average cost of stretch marks removal treatment ranges from INR 3000 to INR 8,000. Chemical peels typically range from INR 2,500 to INR 4,000, while laser treatment for stretch marks can range from INR 5,000 to INR 8,000 per session.
The magazines that publish these photographs do significant editing and retouching to make their models appear to be perfect when they're anything but. Models, like regular people, struggle with blemishes, skin unevenness, and stretch marks, but with makeup and Photoshop, those imperfections can be easily covered up.
These marks are pink, red or purple at first, and then gradually fade until they appear silver or white. Topical retinol can help make stretch marks less noticeable but talk to your healthcare provider before using it during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.