the basics Follow the steps for your skin type or skin concern. What is happening? Allergic reactions occur when our skin encounters a particular ingredient or combina­tion of ingredients, and it could be any allergen, from dust to mites and plant pollen. At that point the immune system decides whether or not it should accept, […]

Severe and even mild acne can often lead to some form of scarring. A permanent scar is a defect in the skin caused by an injury to the area, such as an acne lesion. The key word here is “permanent.” Most of the acne lesions that people call scars are really not scars at all, […]

Mederma Skin Care for Scars ($35 for 1.76 ounces) is an overadvertised, overhyped cosmetic preparation claiming to improve the appearance of scarring. Onion extract is sup­posed to be the scar-changing ingredient in a formula that is as mundane and ordinary as you can get; it includes water, thickeners, onion extract, fragrance, and preservative. There is […]

Skin needling (also known as needle dermabrasion or percutaneous collagen induction) began in 1997 as a simple, fast, relatively inexpensive method for safely treating wrinkles. Subsequently it was found that for some types of scarring and acne scars you can have some amount of improvement (Source: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, April 2008, pages 1421-1429). This […]

Whether from pregnancy, weight loss, or growth spurts, the striated tracks, resembling a swatch of tire tread, that can show up on skin are frustrating to women (and lots of men, too, especially those who’ve lost a lot of weight). Despite cosmetics advertising to the contrary there are no solutions or preventive treatments for this […]

Aside from tretinoin, AHAs, BHA, and antioxidants, one way to consider treating raised scars is with a pliable sheet of silicone. Some examples of silicone sheets are ReJuveness ($39.50 to $95, depending on the size) and Syprex Scar Sheet ($20 to $40 depending on the size). It is not clear how these sheets of silicone […]

Keloids are raised, thick scars that tend to extend past the original wound. Hypertrophic scars match the area of the wound and are flat, red, and somewhat swollen. Both keloids and hypertrophic scars are an area of frustration for the people who have them as well as physi­cians because there is no universally accepted treatment […]

Let go of the long-held belief that vitamin E is a miracle ingredient for healing or scarring. If anything, the thick vitamin E in capsules or in heavy creams is occlusive and can be a problem. A report of research published in Dermatologic Surgery (April 1999, pages 311-315), in an article titled “The effects of […]

After the wound has healed you can use slightly more emollient products with antioxi­dants to keep free-radical damage to a minimum. Sunscreens in a light, moisturizing base are essential, not only to keep the skin moist but also to allow the skin to continue heal­ing. There is some evidence that AHAs, BHA, and tretinoins (such […]