Of the thousands of new experiences that come with motherhood, stretch marks are the most annoying ones. After childbirth, your previously flawless skin might end up with marks because of the tremendous weight your stomach has carried for months. Stretch marks are almost an inevitable part of all pregnancy, but they aren’t necessarily bad or harmful for your skin.
Surprisingly, it’s not just pregnancy that causes stretch marks. Men may also get stretch marks, usually during their growth spurts in puberty; or, if you have suddenly lost or gained a lot of weight, stretch marks can appear. Actually, stretch marks are a result of abnormal and rapid growth in weight and size, be it puberty, weight gain or pregnancy.
Whatever the reason, stretch marks aren’t very welcome to anyone; but the good news is that you won’t have to bear with them. There are a lot of ways to get rid of your unwanted stretch marks, both natural and cosmetic help.
Getting Rid of Your Stretch Marks
There are two ways of dealing with stretch marks: either you prevent them from occurring on your body, or you remove them from your body. The following tips are for both situations.
- Stop Them in their Tracks
The perfect time to start fighting stretch marks is when they first start appearing. In pregnancy, this happens usually around the 5thmonth, when an expectant mother first starts showing. The signs are subtler in other cases, but they can still be treated from the beginning.
The best way to stop stretch marks from appearing is to keep your skin as hydrated as possible. Moisturizing creams and lotions can work wonder at keeping additional marks from appearing; the herbal ones work better than others, as does olive oil, wheat germ oil and coconut oil. Applying these in plenty will keep your skin moisturized and tight, and fewer marks would appear.
- Use Aloe Vera
Not lotions with Aloe Vera in them, but actual aloe Vera fresh from the garden! You can extract and make aloe Vera gel from the leaves yourself in a blender instead of having to depend on store-bought products. Massaging the gel on your stomach and problem areas at least twice a day will gradually fade any existing stretch marks on your body, and stop more from appearing. You can leave the gel on your body or use it as shower gel to wash away with warm water; it’s the massaging part that’s important.
- Apply Lemon Juice on the Marks
Cut a lemon into wedges and rub them along your stretch marks. Lemon juice contains acid and helps to reduce the severity of stretch marks, as well as any other skin problems you may have. The best part about this treatment is that you can do this anytime. There’s no need to make lemon juice into a paste; you’ll simply need to rub the juice on your marks.
- Apply Some Egg Whites
Another natural home remedy is to use egg whites on your marks. You need to separate the yolks from the whites, and then simply beat the egg whites for a few seconds. Use a brush to apply the beaten egg whites on your stretch marks and allow it to try. It is better to try this before taking a shower, otherwise the eggs might start to smell bad on your body.
- Use Potato Slices
Just like lemon juice, potato slices also work when you rub the cut pieces on your stretch marks. The juices from the potato slices will take around 15 to 20 minutes to dry, after which, you can take a bath and clean it off with lukewarm water. Potato juice will make your skin dry so it is important that you apply a good moisturizer afterwards.
- Apply some Onion Juice
Onion juice might be sticky, smelly and may even sting a little bit, but it is also an extremely effective natural treatment in curing stretch marks. You have to rub onion slices directly on your marks and wash them away with water. A better option is to blend onion pieces and apply them on your stretch marks, then cover them up with a piece of cloth for the night. This may not be the most convenient treatment, but it is an effective one.
- Exfoliate Regularly
Whatever you use a moisturizer on your skin, it is very important that you regularly exfoliate your skin during the shower. While store-bought shower gels and scrubs can be somewhat nourishing, there are some natural ingredients that you can use for exfoliation, i.e. white sugar mixed in almond oil or rice powder mixed with yogurt.
- Apply a Retinol Cream
There are a few retinol creams available in the market that are quite effective in treating stretch marks. Retinol is a special substance that can be found in Vitamin A, included in moisturizing creams and lotions to remove stretch marks. This kind of lotions has one limitation though, which is that is cannot be used during pregnancy.
- Use Red Light Treatment
When the natural and chemical treatments don’t work on stubborn stretch marks, it is time to use therapy, i.e. red light therapy to be exact. This is an infrared light that will penetrate your outer skin, improve your blood flow and make your skin healthier. Red light therapy should only be prescribed by a doctor or a dermatologist.
- Look into Laser Therapy
The last resort would have to be laser therapy, which is the fastest and the most effective treatment for stretch marks. However, laser therapy is only recommended when all the other treatments have failed and the marks are extremely deep, and not before that.
Laser therapy is a non-surgical procedure where a beam of light will be used to enhance the appearance of our skin and fade stretch marks. It might take up to 8 to 10 sessions to completely get rid of stretch marks permanently and should be only conducted by an expert.
Stretch marks may not be something harmful, but they are unwelcome and unwanted. The natural ways to get rid of stretch marks are quite effective, and very easy to accomplish by everyone. But even if you have deep marks that you are embarrassed or self-conscious about, there’s always something you can do about it.
