How to make a scar less visible?

[bluebug32]

The FDH crashed his road bike in the fall and had a large gash on his chin. It's healing, but is still pretty red and noticeable. Any tips on products he can use to reduce the redness and visibility?

[Zen]

I was going to suggest a tattoo around it but seeing as how it's facial I guess that's not going to work. Except for Mike Tyson.

[zoom-zoom]

I think some people and some areas scar worse than others, but I will say the scars from my breast reduction operation 6 years ago are invisible unless a person is actually looking for them. My surgeon had me put medical-grade silicone sheeting over them for the first few weeks of healing once the incisions had closed. Worked very well. On a facial area that might be tougher to do. He'd have to apply it only at night or any time at home, I guess. Worth a try, though.

[badger]

I don't know if it would help him now as it's been several months, but some say vitamin E oil helps with minimizing scars. You can use the kind you ingest, just break the capsule open and rub the oil, or just buy a small jar of the oil.

Pure shea butter is also purported to help. But I think some people are prone to having keloids, or those lovely lumps of scar tissue. I, myself, am one who is in that category.

[softthings]

i second the vitamin E oil. both internal and external. i saw some oil in the face wash section at CVS the other day. they had a couple of different options. i wonder if any of those "face brightening" products work on scars? i have been using the aveda enbrightenment line for about a month now, and it has reduced the appearance of my purple acne scars. much lower level of scarring, but, worth a shot? maybe there is something comparable in CVS, i think aveeno makes something like it. i am sure the aveda stuff is expensive, i worked in an aveda salon, so i couldn't tell you the retail cost of the aveda line. good luck!

[zoom-zoom]

I'd be careful with the vitamin E. Around the time I had my surgery there were clinical trials that had found that E does little to help scars and in some people can cause a sensitivity (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10417589) that actually makes scarring worse--my plastic surgeon said a big no-no to E. Something to research. I know some folks swear by Mederma, but I never tried it.

[withm]

I'm using Mederma for my scar but it's really too soon to tell. I have 3" incision on my shoulder and 8 staple holes on either side, but it's only been 7 weeks and these things take months to heal and fade. I don't the incision will ever be un-noticeable but if the staple holes disappear I'll be happy.

[copperlegend]

My sister had a bad fall off her horse 2 summers ago, breaking her wrist and needing surgery to put things back together. This left a pretty ugly, obvious scar that she's awfully self conscious about. She used Mederma religiously and it did lighten it a bit, but it's still pretty noticeable. It's worth a shot.

[tctrek]

I had surgery on my hand on 12/1 which left 2 pretty nasty scars. I'm using 3 things -- scar massage with Vitamin E a few times a day. You have to really massage as hard as you can to keep the scar tissue from building up and adhering. I'm using Mederma twice a day also. At night, I put 2 silicone patches on it... the physical therapist gave them to me.

I used Mederma on a bad knee scar I had and it disappeared completely. Then I fell on the same knee -- 2nd time around I couldn't get rid of the scar.

[Kiwi Stoker]

For my road rash on my face the ER nurse gave me eye ointment (used to treat eye infections) and told me to use that. I don't have any scars on my face at all.

On my surgery scar I started out using Bio Oil (www.bio-oil.com) which I think has helped keep the scar supple but now I have switched to Mederma to try and reduce the redness.