Stretch marks are fine lines in the skin that happen when quick growth or weight gain stretches the skin (like during puberty). Skin is usually fairly stretchy, but when it's overstretched, the normal production of collagen (the major protein that makes up the tissue in skin) is disrupted.
Anyone Can Get Them
It's also common for teen girls (breasts, thighs, hips, or buttocks) and boys (lower backs or hips) to get stretch marks during growth spurts.
Stretch marks usually fade over time but may not disappear completely.
Ideally, if you want to care for older stretch marks the place to start is with topical creams. But if that doesn't have the desired impact, Chemical Peeling, Microdermabrasion, FMR and Laser are options.
Oftentimes, we mistake stretch marks for cellulite and vice versa. In some cases, people may think that they're both the same thing. However, they are two different things as statistics reveal that about 90 per cent of women have cellulite while 80 per cent have stretch marks.
The most common Bartonella rash is from Cat Scratch Fever and looks like scratches or stretch marks. Its linear pattern is much different than that found with Lyme disease and other skin conditions. Bartonella rash presents with long reddish and purplish streaks that appear on the skin.
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).
Like any scar, stretch marks are permanent, but treatment may make them less noticeable. Treatment can also help alleviate the itch. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, check with your doctor before treating stretch marks.
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.
Striae distensae during adolescence are a common physiological change associated with rapid pubertal growth spurts. These pink-silver thin streaks are seen in up to 35% of girls and 15% of boys between 9–16 years of age. In females, the marks commonly occur on the breasts, thighs, shoulders, and buttocks.
Causes of Stretch Marks
Stretch marks can occur as a result of rapid weight gain when your skin stretches, causing tears in the inner layer of the skin. However, even though you may have already had them before the weight gain, the stretch marks may actually not be visible until you lose weight.
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.
Children at this age need to pay particular attention to stretching when participating in activity. Stretching needs to be done consistently in order to be effective. Generally, stretching once a day after a warm-up should be enough to help keep muscles loose.
Various tips can help prevent stretch marks. These include eating omega-3s, using moisturizer, avoiding anabolic steroid usage, wearing sunscreen, and more. Skin can stretch to accommodate size changes, including those due to weight fluctuations, puberty, muscle gain, and pregnancy.
Stretch marks form at a 90 degree angle to the direction in which the skin stretches. On the thighs, stretch marks often first appear as raised pink or purple linear streaks on the skin. Over the next few months or years, these marks change to white or silver scars.
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.
As much as we'd love VapoRub to be able to make stretch marks disappear, we're afraid that it's just not true! Stretch marks are fickle things, and nothing has currently been proven to get rid of them entirely.
Others think stretch marks will go away with more exercise. While exercise is good, it won't remove existing marks. Creams and oils don't always prevent stretch marks, but they can help keep skin healthy, which might allow healthy skin to stretch better without marking.
Stretch marks are a normal part of puberty for most people. People who are obese often have stretch marks. Bodybuilders can get stretch marks because of the quick body changes that can come with bodybuilding.
Stretch marks from gaining too much weight are not likely to go away, even if you lose the weight. That said, stretch marks can heal if they're still red (indicating new stretch marks). Older stretch marks that are translucent are the most difficult to address.
After your baby is born, the marks may gradually fade into paler scars and become less noticeable. They probably will not go away completely.
It isn't always about how much weight loss causes loose skin, but it's also about how long it takes to lose it. For example, if you lose 20lbs rapidly (say, in the space of a month), you may experience more excess skin than someone who's lost 50lbs over the course of a year or so.
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.
Red stretch marks, or striae rubrae, are breaks or lesions that happen when a person's skin stretches rapidly to keep up with underlying growth. According to a 2016 review of studies , red stretch marks occur during the acute phase of this stretching, while white stretch marks are characteristic of the chronic phase.