Does Tanning Help With Stretch Marks or Makes Them Worse?

Scars caused by skin stretching can be very troublesome and difficult to hide. They are often bright red and can occur in areas that many people find embarrassing such as on the stomach or the thighs. You may be tempted to try and change your skin tone through tanning to obscure stretch marks, but you should be aware that there are dangers to this approach. Your skin is made up of a number of layers. The topmost is the epidermal layer, with the thicker dermis just below it. Tanning darkens the epidermal layer, which is very thin and frequently sheds layers (which is why you “lose” your tan over time). However, stretch marks form on the lower, dermal layer of the skin which means that tanning does not have an effect on the stretch marks themselves. This layer is not affected by tanning, and scar tissue acts differently to normal skin tissue, meaning that your scars may actually be even more visible due to tanning!

We recommend that you study how skin with stretch marks works, and what tanning would do to obscure it or make it more visible. Stretch marks will transform colour as they mature. Young stretch marks will appear a quite distinct red, and as they age they gradually turn white. As they go through the spectrum they may appear more or less visible in contrast with your natural skin tone. In some cases, you may even be able to fine tune this with some careful tanning. However, we must warn you that it is extremely rare that tanning hides stretch marks, and may actually make them stand out even more.

There are laser treatments to work to change the color of the stretch marks to match the tone of the surrounding skin, but like tanning, even these treatments do not effect the stretch marks themselves nor do they often work as a suitable treatment.

What about when you are away on holiday to get some sun, or if you cannot avoid tanning naturally from where you live, or if you do wish to continue tanning some other way? We recommend following a few measures to tan safely, tips which should be followed whether you have stretch marks or not. Where possible, tan naturally (i.e. actually sunlight, not cream or at a salon), and tan in moderation. Too much tanning at once can cause extreme danger to your health and indoor tanning can actually cause further damage to your skin.

Make sure that you are using plenty of sunscreen with a suitably high protection factor. However, be aware that you cannot tan when using any stretch mark prevention cream, as your skin cannot absorb additional sunscreen properly.

Finally, if you have any other skin condition that you are worried about, be sure to consult your doctor before engaging in regular tanning. The final word: you can still tan if you are careful about it, but be aware that it may backfire and cause your stretch marks to become even more visible.

Does Exercise Make Stretch Marks Go Away?

Exercise is great for your overall well-being including having healthy skin. While exercise has many benefits, it can not eliminate stretch marks. This is because stretch marks are actually scar tissue. The size of stretch marks can take up a lot of skin. Even though most people develop stretch marks in problem areas like thighs, stomach, hips and arms, exercise in these areas will not reduce the appearance of stretch marks. However, stretch marks may be treated through other means.

Stretch marks are caused when the skin is forced to expand or shrink very quickly such as when someone undergoes rapid weight loss or weight gain during pregnancy or from body building. While skin can stretch to a certain point, sometimes these changes can occur so quickly that the skin is not able to grow as quickly as your body. When the skin is not able to grow as quickly as you do, this may lead to tearing damage in the second layer of skin and can lead to scar tissue developing in the area.

Despite exercise being an important part of a healthy lifestyle, it is not recommended as a course of treatment for reducing the appearance of stretch marks or for their removal. Exercise may help you change or reduce your body size and it may be used to slow changes body composition so that stretch marks are not so bad but it will not have an affect on stretch marks that currently exist on the body.

The best thing to do for stretch marks is to know what causes them so that you can prevent them when necessary. There are many factors that go into whether or not you will develop stretch marks but keeping your body healthy and hydrated is the best way to prevent many health and cosmetic problems in the body.

Drinking plenty of water both encourages the movement of minerals and vitamins in the body and helps keep your skin hydrated which helps it to keep its elastic properties. Using lotions or creams to provide daily moisture to the skin is another excellent way to keep your skin healthy. Exercise may help you maintain your current body shape and maintenance will prevent any of the serious changes that can often lead to the development of stretch marks on the body. Even though exercise does not act as a treatment for stretch marks, exercise is an important part of a healthy life style. However, it should be noted that exercise may contribute to new stretch marks depending on your body type, the frequency in which you exercise and your exercise goals.

People who are undergoing training for body building competitions often suffer from stretch marks all over their body especially if they train very intensely and grow their muscles very quickly. Similarly, people who are quite small who begin to train intensely and grow a lot of muscle very quickly may also find that they have stretch marks on their body. Crash dieting may have an affect on stretch marks and make them worse. If you are seeing a large amount of these bright red marks on your body, you may consider letting up on serious dietary restrictions as well as reducing the amount of exercise so that the body has time to adjust to its new shape.

Is Micro Needling Safe Enough To Use On Stretch Marks? | SkinOverhaul

Once you have developed stretch marks, you might despair about whether you will ever get rid of them again. While it is true that they will fade gradually, this process can take many years, and the scars may not completely fade. However, there are solutions to this problem, and when you examine how your skin works and how stretch marks are formed you will see that not all is lost. One such solution is known as micro-needling or derma-rolling. Read on to learn more about this.

To understand why you need to make use of micro-needling, you must first understand how stretch marks occur in the first place. By closely examining the structure of your skin, you will see why stretch scarring occurs, and how it can be easily treated.  Your skin is made up of a number of layers. The topmost is the epidermal layer, with the thicker dermis just below it. Skin has a protein called collagen, which provides robust scaffolding that gives the skin its strength. When damage extends to the dermal layer of the skin and there is not enough collagen for the skin to regain its former shape it is repaired with generic cells that leave behind a scar.

Micro-needling makes use of the natural production of collagen in the skin to encourage stretch marks to heal faster. They do this with a small, round roller that contains dozens of tiny needles.

When gently rolled across the skin, these needles create tiny perforations to the dermal layer. Your skin reacts by producing more collagen to cure the damage, which extends to heal the scarred area at an accelerated rate. After a period of time regularly using this roller, along with a healthy diet and lifestyle, you will find your stretch marks fading away until they eventually disappear.

There are huge advantages to micro-needling; you can encourage your stretch marks to disappear much faster than normal, and it is a pain-free and cheap procedure. However, you must be careful as micro-needling can be more complicated than alternative stretch mark cures. As with any needle, there is the potential for them to cause infections when mishandled. They are especially risky when using dirty needles, so always make sure to thoroughly disinfect your roller before and after each use. The needles can obviously cause great discomfort to sensitive areas of the body, so keep the roller far away from your face, armpits, groin and nipples.

Unfortunately, like all stretch mark treatments there is never a 100% guarantee that micro-needling will completely get rid of your stretch marks. The roller effectively stimulates the skin to create more healing proteins, but is most effective when used in combination with other stretch mark treatments, such as creams. When used safely and carefully, they can speed up the healing of scar tissue and decrease visible striae. If you are worried about any other skin conditions that you experience, be sure to consult your doctor, as using the roller may cause further harmful effects.

What Makes Certain Skin Types Prone to Stretch Marks?

There are some people who suffer from stretch marks in the skin more than others. It seems that some of us can put on two pounds and see tearing in their skin while others can go through a whole pregnancy without gaining any of these bright red stripes. This is probably due to factors that are our of our control. Ages, genes and pregnancies  can all determine if you get stretch marks or not and how deep or plentiful they might be. However, there are things you can do to decrease the intensity of these marks on your body.

Eating a stable diet is one of the best ways to ensure that you don’t develop stretch marks unnecessarily. if you gain weight or lose weight often, your might be more prone to the tears caused by the constant shifting and stretching. Healthy skin has elastin and collagen in it which is designed to help your skin’s tissues stay strong and elastic. When your connective tissue is forced to grow very quickly, the production of elastin and collagen and other essential proteins may be stunted and this can cause stretch marks. Maintaining a steady weight or making slow changes is the best way to stop your skin from making abrupt or sudden changes that can cause stretch marks.

Your skin’s condition is another essential feature in the development of stretch marks. Keeping your skin moisturized and hydrated will go a long way to keeping your skin healthy and elastic which will allow it to grow with you without being over stretched.

If your skin is hydrated properly, your skin is able to adapt to the changes in your body with fewer problems. Keeping it moisturized is especially important if your skin is more prone to these stretch marks as this can help them heal or help with stretch mark treatments.

Your diet is an equally important factor in keeping your skin healthy and a balanced diet full of nutrients like antioxidants will help to keep your skin hydrated and healthy.

Age is not a factor that we can help but as we age our skin looses its elasticity because collagen production slows. As we grow older, skin struggles to retain its shape and this can actually mean that older people are less likely to develop stretch marks than young ones.

However, it is also true that young skin is able to heal faster and more easily than an older person’s skin. So if you are young and you have stretch marks, they should be treated while you are young, ideally as soon as possible.

Genetics also plays a part in your skin just as in the rest of your body. Your skin color and family genetic history may both be factors in how prone your skin is to conditions like stretch marks. For some reason, women who have darker complexions seem to be more prone to getting stretch marks than women who have fair complexions. Also, if your mother or grandmother dealt with stretch marks, it is quite likely that her children will as well. Most women who say that they have stretch marks also noted that their mothers had these bright red lines as well.