Stretch Marks!!

[americangirl]

I'm not sure if J will be coming back anytime soon or not. But we shouldn't let that discourage us to finding a cure or making improvements with our own marks.

What are other people trying? Are any of you guys out there seeing any marked improvement? How are the people with the Dermaroller moving along? Anyone just doing Castor Oil Treatments????

Let's just get the forum back alive and flowing with success/failures of various techniques. We can't just count on J to be our guinea pig. I would like to hear J's TCA stories just as much as the next person but the rest of the forum can't just be about wanting J to come back.

[AskingCure]

J can u pls post any forums you now use because i feel like we are going backwards here, we're just getting onto mention things that were mentioned some 150 pages ago

Come on, we're all have stretch marks here, don't get that emotional.
This forum will be useless if we're just complaining here and hoping for J to come back.
I was just asking if there's anyone else has the same experience as mine, I am not just to mentioning things or products. I am looking for an answer.
In fact, why do you only wait for J to do her core by herself?
She's not some kind of lab experiment to us, I hope.

Afaik, she has put a lot of her routines here and I can help you to find it if you want.
If you want to help this forum and if you believe that her routine works, then try it yourself, don't just wait. Share your experience here.

I did what J told me (I was asking her once, and she's very helpful answering my question, instead of complaining that she has written it many times already in this forum), unfortunately I'm not as brave as her. I stop after I injured my skin when I filed it, and also because I couldn't find the right mentioned creams etc in my country.
I do believe her foot file method works, but not for all people.

So as Americagirl said, let's share anything what we know about curing or at least minimising our stretchmarks.

[Guest]

It is really nice that so many people have posted nice things about me. I honestly do not know what to say. I won't be posting regularly on here but I will post an update occasionally just to let you lot know how I am getting on.

Ok well I am on my 5 or 6th peel on my lower legs. The skin has improved dramatically from when I started, but the marks are still there but now very faint. I am hopeful that with a few more peels I will have completely removed them and be able to post update pics. After they are removed I intend to continue doing a peel once per month for a few months to ensure that they have been completely removed from the dermis.

Elsewhere the improvements are equally dramatic, there are a few areas that are a bit more sluggish, but most are now very faint.

I do understand that tca does not work for everyone. I now believe that this is because some peoples skin cannot recognise scar tissue and so cannot replace it with healthy skin. For those people I am so sorry but for the rest of us I think something can definitely be done!

All I can suggest is that anyone who has not yet tried tca try it for themselves, sticking to a lower percentage peel (buy a higher percentage tca but water it down as per the instructions). Some it will not work for, but for a percentage it WILL work the same as it has on me. Also be prepared to be patient, I have done at least 5 peels on each area now and expect to do at least 5 more, so don't just do one peel then give up because it has not completely removed your marks.

Make sure to stop the skin from peeling for as long as possible, the longer you take to peel the better the improvement. The only way you can stop the peeling is to keep the skin very very moist using either emu oil or olive oil or baby oil. If you can stop it from peeling for around 7 days you will get better results. Also take supplements of vit c, zinc, vit b, vit k or whatever else you feel might aid repair.

As I have said, I know it does not work for everyone (RK being an example) but it will most certainly work for a fair few of you.

As always, do a test area first and stick to lower percentage peels do not whop on 50% as you may do permanent damage to your skin.

As to filing, forget it, tca will give better and faster improvements than filing ever could. I wish I had tried it right back when I started because I am absolutely positive that I would now have completely removed all of the marks if I had.

Hope this helps and good luck to you all.

J

[Guest]

Thanks J for your contribution. I'm very excited to hear that you have such success with tca. Since you say that there is definite improvementcan you post some pictures from your marks now?

I think it would be helpful to have some reference point for people to show the improvement and how long it took to reach that stage. We are not expecting flawless skin, but some signs of hope would be very appreciated.

[marta]

If you are using acid peels , buy a pH indicator /litmus-paper/ and try your peel´s pH. It should not be more than pH 3,5 /unless you leave it on your skin for a long time/. Acids that are 4 or 4,5 are useless for peeling purpose.

litmus paper can give you only approximate results but it is better then nothing.

I am not sure what happens when you dilute acid peels with for example tap water which has pH about 7. If acid peels behave as buffers then its pH stays unchanged with water but I am not sure if peels are buffered. They should be. does anybody know?
the best is to test it with litmus paper also when you dilute it.

the concentration / percentage/ of an acid is of course also very important but if you have acid with pH 2,5 versus pH 4 , the difference is huge. you have to be very careful with low pH acids as they are strong and especially if you also have high concentration.

I am not a native speaker but I hope that my postings make sense English-wise.

[Guest]

how well do derma rollers work

i want to buy one and apply trilastin sr onto my skin after using the roller. will this work at all? im new to the whole roller thing (and peels) as you can tell

[Guest]

If you are using acid peels , buy a pH indicator /litmus-paper/ and try your peel´s pH. It should not be more than pH 3,5 /unless you leave it on your skin for a long time/. Acids that are 4 or 4,5 are useless for peeling purpose.

litmus paper can give you only approximate results but it is better then nothing.

I am not sure what happens when you dilute acid peels with for example tap water which has pH about 7. If acid peels behave as buffers then its pH stays unchanged with water but I am not sure if peels are buffered. They should be. does anybody know?
the best is to test it with litmus paper also when you dilute it.

the concentration / percentage/ of an acid is of course also very important but if you have acid with pH 2,5 versus pH 4 , the difference is huge. you have to be very careful with low pH acids as they are strong and especially if you also have high concentration.

I am not a native speaker but I hope that my postings make sense English-wise.

marta your postings make perfect sense. that is a great questions as to if peels are ph buffered or not. not sure if anyone will know though

thanks

[Guest]

how well do derma rollers work

i want to buy one and apply trilastin sr onto my skin after using the roller. will this work at all? im new to the whole roller thing (and peels) as you can tell

i have been doing the dermaroller for a little over a month now with the trilastin sr... i am doing this while i wait to get my supplies for the tca peel i alreadly purchased the trilastin so might as well use it. i bought my roller off ebay its 1mm.

[Guest]

Just a quick question for Shoo and anyone else really, i'm looking to start on a glycolic acid regime, you've said that you use 30% every night then wash it off in the morning - however is every night too much, does not the skin need time to heal? would not twice a week be better if this is the case? or is glycolic so weak that its ok to do every night. I'm just asking because I really have no idea, and it just seemed that the skin would need time to heal for it to be effective but I really don't know!
Thank you

PS. I believe that for exfoliation to work, you need to take vitamins and minierals ie. daily supplement, vit c, zinc, omega-3, even silicea (the Murad skin solution book details this thoroughly) and it's important that you don't have things in your life like smoking regularly or an addiction to large amounts of coffee or in my case diet coke because I truely believe that hinders skin repair and can be the difference between it working and not.

[Guest]

Just a quick question for Shoo and anyone else really, i'm looking to start on a glycolic acid regime, you've said that you use 30% every night then wash it off in the morning - however is every night too much, does not the skin need time to heal? would not twice a week be better if this is the case? or is glycolic so weak that its ok to do every night. I'm just asking because I really have no idea, and it just seemed that the skin would need time to heal for it to be effective but I really don't know!
Thank you

PS. I believe that for exfoliation to work, you need to take vitamins and minierals ie. daily supplement, vit c, zinc, omega-3, even silicea (the Murad skin solution book details this thoroughly) and it's important that you don't have things in your life like smoking regularly or an addiction to large amounts of coffee or in my case diet coke because I truely believe that hinders skin repair and can be the difference between it working and not.

I think the most important thing is to watch your skin and see how it responds to your routine. The reason I use GA every night is because I was following a routine someone posted on another site and said it removed her sm's within three months. I also was following J's posts on this site and found her believeable. She used GA, but at a higher percentage. I figured 30% wasn't too high and a good place to start. Also I watched to see how my skin reacted. When I didn't have problems I started doing it every night in hopes it would accelerate the process. Sometimes I throw in my dermaroller to shake things up a bit but I really don't have much faith in the roller anymore. I also do the castor oil "method" a couple times a week. If it doesn't do anything but soften my skin, well, at least I tried!

After three months it seems my skin has slowed in responding or the peel just isn't strong enough. After I see my derm in September I'm moving onto TCA. I feel I've prepped my skin with the GA enough that a 20% TCA would be fine.

I also take a boat load of vitamins. I'm a big believer in healing from the inside out. I'm a non smoker/drinker but I do indulge in eating out. It's my downfall! I'm a thin person but I know that has nothing to do with how healthy I am. I really need to concentrate on a healthier diet.

Shoo

[Guest]

http://video.nbc10.com/player/?id=251683
amazing!!!!!

[Guest]

im a little discouraged at that video

the docs words were "the skin will NEVER be 100% like it used to be before you got stretch marks,but with some of this treatment you can expect 50%"

50% ? thats very discouraging...if this is supposedly THE BEST treatment ever seen thus far like they say it is, then wow...i might as will kill myself now..

[Guest]

im a little discouraged at that video

the docs words were "the skin will NEVER be 100% like it used to be before you got stretch marks,but with some of this treatment you can expect 50%"

50% ? thats very discouraging...if this is supposedly THE BEST treatment ever seen thus far like they say it is, then wow...i might as will kill myself now..

that video has been posted several times already and determined to not work.i did a 25% tca peel on my arms and it didnt do anything at all lol....it barely flaked......guess tca doesnt work for everyone but ill try it again i guess.

[Guest]

im a little discouraged at that video

the docs words were "the skin will NEVER be 100% like it used to be before you got stretch marks,but with some of this treatment you can expect 50%"

50% ? thats very discouraging...if this is supposedly THE BEST treatment ever seen thus far like they say it is, then wow...i might as will kill myself now..

that video has been posted several times already and determined to not work.i did a 25% tca peel on my arms and it didnt do anything at all lol....it barely flaked......guess tca doesnt work for everyone but ill try it again i guess.

Who determined it doesn't work?

[Guest]

I found this on the following site: http://www.medopedia.com/chemical-peel-stretch-marks-treatments

Those with deeper stretch marks and more visible blemishes may opt for trichloroacetic acid which reaches deeper into the skin than alpha hydroxyl acids can. An increase in the compound’s concentration will determine just how deep the peel will go, yet be cautious! Even though some home kits may be found on the ‘Net, the fact that if done without proper medical supervision this kind of peel can cause severe and irreversible scarring should have you think twice before thinking of going it alone. In addition to the foregoing, this treatment is only temporary and you will most likely have to repeat it at specific intervals to maintain the skin changes you will see as a result.