Show us your scars

i... have... enough....scars.....

Okay lets get to work.
Heres what ive learnt about how to deal/ not deal with scars.

So lets assume you've had a tumble and given yourself a deep cut.

Whether or not it will lead to a scar will depend largely on particular skin type. But any cut that goes beyond the top most layer of the skin into the dermis resulting in the generation of fibroblast and collagen cells for repair - won't look like the skin did before.

There are some things you can do to help yourself.

First go to hospital and have them superglue or if unlucky sew the lacerations up with stitches.

Buy some self application sutures for when you get home - the tighter you can keep the wound closed as it heels the smaller your scaring will be.

http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Pharmaceuticals-Skin-Closures-8-Closures-_1132952/

Immature scars will appear very red as skin is still repairing and new blood flow forms into it. There a few different types of scar which basically depend on how much excess collagen is produced when they are forming. The treatment for them is still the same, massage the scars regularly to promote blood flow, keep them moisturized as they don't have any sweat glands and protected from the sun as its new skin.

Applying high concentrations of vitamin-e is thought to have some benefits, possibly by helping disburse collagen. Aloe vera or bio-oil are good options for this, I like bio-oil because it moisturizes as well and my keloids don't itch quite so much.

Superdrug just started producing cheaper knocked off version at half the price too

http://www.superdrug.com/superdrug/superdrug-restoring-skin-care-oil-75ml/invt/203163?source=179_75

Keep that up for about a year / maybe three and you should be back looking like brad pitt in no time.

Doesn't all that shit stop scars? Scars are cool.

Doesn't all that shit stop scars? Scars are cool.

No I don't want to set any false expectations.
Scar tissue is complete newly formed skin.
It will never look as the old skin did.
There is no way to remove it either with surgery or chemistry.

The best you can hope for it is that its colour and texture becomes similar to the surrounding skin that it becomes unnoticeable to casual inspection.

There is also a large difference between your typical Hypertrophic scar and Keloid scaring resulting from excessive collagen. Keloids look unsightly and are painful - I recommend avoiding them if possible.

The popularised belief that scars are 'cool' is only true within a golden ratio of size, location and number - still awaiting my crown as forums coolest member if wrong.

I know a Russian dude with giant bite mark scars on his arm and stomach, they look pretty cool.

Vaseline and a every tight bandage is the only way to deal with it. Plenty of falls and scrapes from my skateboarding days. Nowhere near as many scars as should have had. Treat it well and keep it clean and you'll be fine. Bio oil is good for stretch marks, apparently.

My forearms are an elaborate network of tiny scars from getting scratched to hell at work. They tend to be silvery to start with but after a summer they tend to tan to a similar colour as the surrounding skin. Only the bigguns stay obvious.

I just use superglue(pound shop stuff is good) in my personal first aid kit to close the cut quickly and vaguely attempt to keep clean/moisturised with whatever is to hand.
The hardest ones to deal with are the ones on the back of my hand where I've had to dig the tips of thorns/splinters/brambles etc out with a knife. They take over a month to heal usually and end up with a small crater scar every time.
/csb

Wait - what? You can self med with shop superglue? The big hole on my elbow from a crash three weeks ago still won't close up. Can't be at all arsed with A+E. Aint nobody got time for that!

You can self med with shop superglue?
Not the new stuff - you want the old stuff that dries really quickly.

I use it for straight cuts and tears(I also work with glass so get some evil cuts), can't imagine how it'd work on big grazed areas etc.

The cheap stuff stings like crazy at first but seems to keep shit out/stay on til it's basically healed. Whether or not it's a good idea I don't know but I know every tree surgeon I've worked with keeps a tube in the first aid kit..

Ceelox for when it gets really messy. I have a pack but really hope I never have to use it on me or anyone else. Apparently it's the business though...

Yeah that's the stuff you see grunts pouring on each other after an IED opens them up good and proper isn't it? I just fell off my bike so I might be overdoing it if I order a six pack of that stuff. I'll have a nifty scar though.

That's the stuff, def overkill for a graze but I play with chainsaws all day so it might come in handy some day..

No scars but this was a bit spiteful.
Broke both elbows ( one broken and bone separated ) both wrists , right thumb and dislocated bones in left hand . Oh and dislocated shoulder . Had surgery to wire my thumb back on , and wired all the bones in left hand back in place . Destroyed my Giro Ionos , paramedic told my wife impact would have killed me if not been wearing it . Ta for that then , she has only just given me the garage key back to go riding again .

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Yeah but I grazed my elbow.

I've heard of people using this before. Presumably 3m make a human specific version as well...

Six month update, since my accident.

I think the prominence and redness of the scars have reduced, nowhere near as much as I'd hope for but reassuring to see improvements. They are also as not inching as much and starting to feel part of my face - long process.

General comments from females have changed from "wow thats a really big scar" to "wow I didn't notice that really large scar before" = gains.

WIth the sun out in force, I've moved off Bio-oil and now just using factor 50+ sunscream

Forgot about this thread.
So this happened at work a few weeks back. Haymakered by a 20ftx6" length of conifer that against all probability bounced 15m across the site and smacked me in the side of the head without warning.
I'd been cleaned up once, stood up and keeled over again. Apparently it was far more bloody before the first cleanup.
Helmet smashed, knocked out for a few seconds, minor concussion. Quick trip to minor injuries where they glued it up and sent me on my way.

Healed pretty quick, despite my (new) helmet padding rubbing against the wound; leaving me with a 1inch L shaped scar just above my eyebrow(the cut was caused by a chunk of helmet embedding itself).

Nurse at hospital didn't recommend cheap superglue but apparently the 3m vetbond I posted upthread is identical to the human stuff, just packaged different as plebs aren't allowed to buy people glue...