How to Exfoliate to Remove Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are every woman’s worst nightmare, though not particularly attractive on men either. Stretch marks appear when a person gains a significant amount of weight quickly, not allowing the skin time to adapt to the change, or when a person loses a large amount of weight quickly. Pregnant women commonly see stretch marks crop up on their burgeoning bellies. If you’re unlucky enough to end up with them anyway, you can still work to minimize the damage after the fact. Though you can’t completely remove all traces of the unsightly tears in the skin’s under layers, it is possible to significantly reduce the appearance of stretch marks with exfoliation.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Exfoliating scrub
• Skin-firming lotion

How to Exfoliate the Skin to Remove Stretch Marks

1. Prepare the skin for exfoliating by placing a damp, warm towel over the affected area for several minutes.

2. Wet your palms and scrub an exfoliating skin product into the affected area with your hands in a gentle circular motion. This can also be done in the shower, just step out of the stream of water. Make about 40 circles over the affected area.

3. Rinse the scrub off the skin and reapply in the same manner.

4. Rinse again and pat the skin dry gently.

5. Generously apply a lotion or cream that contains a collagen-producing active ingredient. As this is the would be the major selling point of the product, it won’t be hard to find on the label. Many skin-firming products will do. Collagen is what the skin needs to regenerate and renew itself, giving it’s appearance a smoother, tightened and more youthful look.

6. Repeat the exfoliation process every other day, but apply the skin cream to the affected area daily.

Tips & Warnings

• Regularly slathering the skin in oil, such as vitamin E, in preparation for a rapid change in weight is a good way to prepare the skin to stretch evenly and ward off stretch marks.