The teenage years can be troublesome in so many ways–the
fluctuating hormones, mood swings, and the many physiological changes in the
body. Stretch marks or striae is one such prominent change that you will notice
as you enter the teens.
According to dermatologist
in Dwarka, Delhi, children between the ages of 10 and 16 tend to
develop colored striae–red or purple in color that fade into a mesh of white
slivers. The general observation is that growing girls and obese children are
more prone to developing stretch marks than boys as they enter puberty. For
girls, stretch marks start appearing as they develop breasts, and hips take
form. In boys, it is mostly seen on shoulders and back.
How Do Stretch Marks
Occur?
Simply put, stretch marks happen when your body grows faster
than your skin can, and your skin’s normal elasticity gets affected. The
collagen–the protein structure under the skin–starts to break as you experience
a sudden spurt of growth. The regular collagen production process is unable to
keep up with the body’s natural growth rate, so the elastic fibers under the
skin get stretched, and you develop thin scars on the epidermis or the top
layer of your skin.
Other than weight gain and other physiological changes in
the body, conditions like Cushing’s syndrome (where body overproduces cortisol)
and Marfan syndrome (a condition where the skin loses its natural elasticity)
can result in stretch marks. Research shows that your genes play a big role in
its severity on the skin. So if your mother had them, it is most likely you
will have them, too.
How Do They Look And
Feel?
Stretch marks can appear red, purple or brown depending on
your natural skin color. These usually fade into silver, white or pale beige
stripes on your skin once the growth spurt has stopped, and your skin structure
has stabilized. You are most likely to get stretch marks on your breasts,
thighs, buttocks as you grow in height and size. For some, especially those
putting on weight, the marks can appear on the underside of the arms and
calves.
For girls with less elastic skin, the streaks can appear in
the wider section of the areas like buttocks or abdomen. These also take a
longer time to fade. Other than natural development in muscles, excessive
bodybuilding or weightlifting can lead to boys developing stretch marks, mostly
on their shoulders, buttocks, and arms.
As your skin starts to stretch, and the scars get formed,
you feel them as dents on your skin as you run your fingers over them. If you
have a lighter complexion, you are most likely to develop pinkish stretch
marks. Darker-skinned girls tend to get scars that are lighter than their skin
tone – beige or white colored.
As your body stabilizes once you cross your teens, the
colored streaks and dents are meant to fade and smooth out eventually.
Can You Erase Stretch
Marks?
Well, you cannot, really. They never go away but how they
finally look depends on your skin structure, especially the level of collagen
and fibrillin in your skin, genetic history, and the time when you had them.
The ones acquired during the teenage years do become barely noticeable and almost
fade away since your skin’s natural regeneration process during the growing
years is good. However, if the skin gets stretched due to obesity or pregnancy,
they may be tougher to deal with. You may end up with indented streaks or deep
lines on the skin.
According to skin
specialist in Dwarka, Delhi, there is no definitive treatment for stretch
mark removal in Delhi that can completely remove stretch marks.
Yes, there are medical procedures like laser stretch
mark removal in Delhi that can lighten the streaks and smoothen the
skin and almost make the scar invisible.
While weight loss or diet has proven to be ineffective, one
way of dealing with striae is to treat it when it is getting formed, before the
scarring is complete. Topical application of tretinoin at this stage is found
to be effective and the improvement may persist for almost a year after
discontinuation of therapy. Other topical treatments include a combination of
glycolic acid and tretinoin and glycolic acid and L-ascorbic acid, both found
to be effective.
