Stretch marks: Lines on the body, which is pointless to fight
If cellulite can be called the usual sign of a female phenotype, then most people have stretch marks regardless of gender. They do not hurt, do not cause physical discomfort, do not affect the size of clothes - and still cause many people to feel shame. A huge industry has formed around them: we are constantly trying to sell "innovative" procedures to eliminate the lines on the body, hinting that stretch marks are something bad. There are more than one hundred special prophylactic creams on the market - first of all, manufacturers rely on pregnant women who are given miracle products under the guise of "organic", "natural" and "completely safe." And while activists are calling to love stretch marks as part of themselves and see beauty in them, many women still have such "imperfections" to live in peace.
Where do the stretch marks come from
Imagine a tape made of elastic fabric, which is pasted on paper - if the tape is stretched, the paper will crack in several places. The same thing can happen with the middle layer of skin - the dermis - if the body dramatically increases in size: the dermis is not sufficiently elastic and does not stretch at the same speed as the underlying fatty tissue or the surface layer of the skin epidermis. The result is atrophic scars - the result of healing of injured tissue. Like any other scars, they are deprived of hair follicles, sebaceous and sweat glands, and in comparison with the surrounding skin less elastic. The word "atrophic" means that such a scar is flush with the skin, and the tissue under it is atrophied.
This most often occurs when hormones change, for example during pregnancy, puberty, or while taking certain medications; hormones also affect skin elasticity. And although the resulting stretch marks are noticeable immediately, close attention is usually paid to them later — when the pregnancy ended, the person lost in weight or the teenage “swelling” was replaced by a more stable physique. Most often stretch marks occur on the thighs, buttocks, chest, abdomen, upper arms or shoulders.
The first breaks appear, as a rule, in adolescence, when the body grows sharply in height and width. Stretch marks look like lines on the skin that differ from it in color and texture; at first they may be red or purple, but gradually turn pale and acquire a white or grayish tint. If there are a lot of stretch marks in one place, for example, on the stomach, then the skin may sag - but usually smooth lines are highlighted only in color or make the surface of the skin slightly ribbed.
How can you prevent stretch marks
Although most people have stretch marks, they tried to fight them back in Ancient Egypt: there are still artifacts in the form of small vessels for oil, which pregnant women smeared on the stomach. The ancient Roman poet Ovid in the "Love Elegies" mentions a woman who underwent an abortion in order to preserve her body and save her stomach from stretch marks (although, translated into Russian, these words were lost).
To prevent the appearance of stretch marks or at least reduce its likelihood, if you really want to, you can - it’s true, they usually remember this when it’s no use doing anything. We used to think that the first stretch marks appear during pregnancy, but this, of course, is not so: they make themselves felt in adolescence, when the whole body grows and changes.
The elasticity of the skin is largely determined by the action of hormones; for example, it is reduced by exposure to corticosteroids (these are adrenal hormones) or estrogen excess. Sometimes stretch marks appear with prolonged use of steroid creams. If you take two people whose levels of one hormone are within normal limits, but closer to the upper or lower limits of the norm, then the first one may have a higher tendency to form stretch marks. During periods of puberty and pregnancy hormones change rapidly, and at some point the balance may not be in favor of skin elasticity.
The essence of prevention is to maintain the elasticity of the skin, primarily due to its moisturizing. Of course, reasonable weight control also helps: if you do not gain weight too quickly, the probability that the skin will not withstand the load will be less. In this case, of course, you should not refuse to eat and ignore teenage appetite, just to keep the skin childishly smooth, you should not: in the first place should be a healthy development of the body, and not the service of conventional beauty. In addition, it is possible that genetics also play a role in susceptibility to stretch marks - that is, someone will not be able to avoid them by any means.
To moisturize, you can use any means you like, even if it is not written "from stretch marks" - this can be guided by teenagers, and even pregnant women. It is sometimes experienced that an excessively active cream penetrates the bloodstream or passes through the placenta, but such fears are in vain: the components usually work at the most superficial level, not even reaching the dermis. It is not necessary to buy special creams "for pregnant women" solely for reasons of caring for the future child - it is better to pay attention to the presence of specific components. Although a remedy guaranteed to prevent stretch marks has not been found, there is some evidence in favor of almond oil and hyaluronic acid.
It is important not to forget about enough liquid. Although an extra (over-normal) drink is unlikely to make dry skin more moisturized, dehydration accurately reduces its turgor. In a recent study in people who usually drink little water, with an increase in its volume in the diet, their skin became more moist and supple.
How to remove stretch marks
According to Yulia Shcherbatova, a dermatocosmetologist and chief physician at the Clinic of Modern Cosmetology Yulia Shcherbatova, it is impossible to turn scars into ordinary skin. One of the ways to influence them is to evaporate with the help of a laser a part of the altered cells and start the growth of fresh tissue that will look and function almost like unchanged derma. In addition to the laser, they use stimulators of collagen synthesis, which are administered by intradermal injections as part of mesotherapy. Even in the area of stretch marks inject means for biorevitalization, that is, deep moisture.
In Moscow clinics, laser treatment of one square centimeter of skin costs 1000–2000 rubles, the effect on stretch marks on the entire surface of the abdomen costs 15–20 thousand, and mesotherapy is calculated based on the volume of the injected drug — about 5000 per five milliliters. These are prices for one session - and on the websites of clinics it is said that they usually need from three to ten. It turns out that trying to get rid of stretch marks on one stomach can spend a couple of thousand euros - despite the fact that, as Yulia Shcherbatova explained, they will not disappear completely.
As a means to combat stretch marks, both active ingredients like retinol derivatives, natural oils (cocoa or olive), and acid peels are offered. Moreover, their effectiveness has often not been studied at all. As the authors of a recent publication note, in order to effectively eliminate stretch marks, the tool should stimulate the production of collagen to increase blood flow, accelerate cell proliferation, moisturize the skin, increase its elasticity, and also have anti-inflammatory properties. After analyzing the information about creams and ointments, presented as eliminating stretch marks, the researchers came to the conclusion that there is little evidence of their effectiveness, and those that exist are chaotic and do not indicate that some tool can be more effective than others.
In another, last year’s, publications consider the means that are most often used for the prevention or “treatment” of stretch marks: tretinoin can be effective when stretch marks have just appeared and are still red, but it causes irritation and is prohibited during pregnancy; Silicone-based gel research data is difficult to interpret unambiguously; on the use of OTC cosmetics "stretch marks" money and effort are spent, but their effectiveness has not been confirmed by anyone. It is clear that if there were creams that can eliminate stretch marks, and even devoid of side effects, they would be actively prescribed for applying to the scars to people who have had serious injuries or surgeries. But there are no such remedies even among drugs with truly active ingredients - so expecting a serious effect from conventional cosmetics is simply pointless.
How to love stretch marks
The proportion of people who have stretch marks reaches 88% - and among the respondents to a small survey on the GirlsAskGuys website, 90% of women and 70% of men told about stretch marks. In fact, there are more people with stretch marks than, for example, people who drink coffee every day. At the same time, by the age of 12-13, many girls develop attitude to stretch marks as something bad - simply because they stumbled upon an advertisement for a cream that promises to eliminate them, or when searching the Internet for an answer to another question, the system offered a popular option " how to get rid of stretch marks. "
On request in English, Google offers two million pages, in Russian - 848 thousand. On the iHerb website, 116 tools that promise to get rid of stretch marks or prevent their appearance, there are more than three thousand of them on the American Amazon. To mask the stretch marks, some choose to cover them with a tattoo to match their skin color.
Nevertheless, although the Internet is full of posts in the spirit of "I hate my stretch marks, they bring me to tears," more and more people call for a calm attitude to the features of the body. In one of the discussions on Reddit, most commentators expressed that stretching is perfectly normal, and you should not buy expensive money in the hope of getting rid of them (they still don’t help). The best thing you can do for your peace of mind is not to perceive stretch marks as a defect or illness, stop shy and believe that this is a normal body element like moles or hair.
The famous photograph of a pregnant Demi Moore, published in 1991, shows no stretch marks, but now celebrities are tired of having to meet the glossy standards - from Salma Hayek to Scarlett Johanson or Reese Weiverspoon - more and more often appear on photos where the stretch marks are not retouched, and they talk about them calmly or with laughter. Jessica Alba says she loves her stretch marks because they remind you of the beautiful gestation period; in glossy magazines appear stories of women who call stretching part of their own stories.
In October 2016, in the shooting of Victoria's Secret, Jasmine Tux appeared in a bra for three million dollars - and with unretched stretch marks on her hips. The event was called unprecedented, and Cosmopolitan doubted that publishing a raw photo was intentional at all. Now there are more and more brands that do not photoshop stretch marks: ASOS, Target, Aerie and Missguided are among them. In classical painting, it is difficult to find an image of the female body with stretch marks on the skin - this is probably due to the cult of chastity: the lines on the body, most often associated with pregnancy or childbirth, did not fit into such an idealization of the female body. But there are exceptions - for example, "Three Ages of a Woman and Death" by Hans Baldung. In modern art, the situation is changing: stretch marks are painted in different colors or covered with glitter, turning into an art object — in the projects of Sarah Shakil, they resemble stripes on a tiger's skin.
The human body is constantly changing, and stretch marks are only a small visible change; It is hardly worth giving special importance to them, given that they do not carry danger and do not cause pain. This is not contrary to skin care - but it is much more pleasant to apply cream for pleasure than in endless and unsuccessful attempts to get rid of thin scars.
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