Scars? How To Minimize & Heal Them

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝I had a surgery 7 months ago, and while everything is healed there’s more of a raised scar than I’d like, is there anything better than just moisturizes that will actually reduce it?❞

First of all: congratulations on your presumably successful surgery, and your good healing since!

Scar management/reduction is mostly a matter of helping your body to heal itself, except for the most extreme cases. We will assume yours is not one of the extreme cases, and as such we are discounting the possibility of a revisional surgery being on your to-do list, and will focus on gentler approaches.

With that in mind…

First, limit any further scarring

By this we don’t mean “avoid future surgeries and injuries”, though of course, also do that if reasonably possible. But we do mean:

Yes, moisturize first and moisturize often.

The reason this is important is because scar tissue loses water faster than normal tissue, and tissue that is not hydrated properly cannot function properly and certainly cannot heal properly.

As for what moisturizer is best for this: something that’s actually hydrating.

So, put aside the coconut oil, the castor oil, or anything else like that. Instead, opt for a moisturizer that has:

1. water as its main ingredient
2. glycerin and urea high on the list after water

As usual, we’re not just saying things; there has been research done about this, for example:

Commonly recommended moisturising products: effect on transepidermal water loss and hydration in a scar model

The top-scoring moisturizer in that study, by the way, was Eucerin Advanced Repair Cream ← you can get it on Amazon if you want some 😎

Next, encourage your body to heal itself

Your body is an incredibly efficient organism. It might not always feel like it, but it is!

However, this efficiency can sometimes manifest as a sort of thriftiness, that is to say, your body usually won’t voluntarily do more than it thinks necessary; it has its own idea of what is “good enough”, and after that point, it won’t “waste” further resources on it unless you give it a reason to.

We see this with muscle-building, for example. Your body will not put on more muscle in a given place unless you are exerting that muscle sufficiently that the body thinks “hmm, we need more muscle there”.

When it comes to scar healing, the same principle applies. So far as the body is concerned, “we’ve closed the wound, you’re not bleeding, there is no further chance of infection, it doesn’t hurt, what more do you want from me?”

So, it will be necessary to provoke the body into getting back into “healing things” mode.

So, paradoxically, it will be necessary to create a perceived threat for the body to respond to. Options include:

• Microneedling / dermarolling: these are basically the same thing, except that the former is automated and the latter is manual. It pokes many very tiny holes in the skin; the body detects this and shifts back into “healing this bit” mode. Here’s an example microneedling kit on Amazon, and here’s a dermaroller if you prefer a low-tech approach.
• Phototherapy: includes red light therapy (RLT), which there’s a lot of science for in terms of how it promotes wound healing and stimulates collagen production; we’ve written about it before, here. However, while previously we recommended a RLT mask, that’s probably not a good option unless the scar is on your face, so you might consider a red light therapy mat, instead. That link’s for quite a deluxe one; if you want something smaller and cheaper, then perhaps this one. Laser therapy may also be an option (works exactly the same way as RLT, but is more localized and more intense), but for safety reasons that’s more of an in-salon thing, so you might want to check with local salons to see what’s available. Honestly, unless you want to throw a lot of money at salon sessions, an at-home RLT kit (even if springing for an expensive one) is the more economic choice for most people, as a “buy it once and then it’s yours” option, rather than the more ongoing “pay every time” situation of “give a salon a financial incentive to never quite finish treating you”.
• Retinoids: these promote (to varying degrees, depending on which you opt for) localized inflammation, which in turn promotes more rapid skin cell turnover, and thus, more rapid skin repair. There are a variety of options here, so here’s a guide for choosing the one that’s best for you: Retinoids: Retinol vs Retinal vs Retinoic Acid vs..?
• Topical vitamin C: if you use this and a retinoid, it’s usually recommended to use vitamin C in the morning and the retinoid in the evening, as they don’t go well together, and since retinoids temporarily increase photosensitivity, it’s best to use that one at night. If you use it alone, you might want to do it at night, for reasons covered amongst the professional tips shared in: Is Vitamin C Worth The Hype?
• Collagen supplementation: assuming you’re not vegetarian/vegan, collagen supplementation may be worth considering. If you are vegetarian/vegan, don’t worry, your body can make its own collagen; you’ll just want to make sure you’re taking extra care to give your body plenty of the things it needs to do that, so check out: The Best Foods For Collagen Production

You may be wondering about silicon sheets, and topical collagen:

• Silicon sheets have drawbacks as mentioned in the study we linked in the first part
• As for topical collagen, we could find no strong science to support its use: Are Collagen Molecules Too Big To Be Absorbed?

Take care, and happy healing!