Overview
Stretch marks come about for a multitude of reasons. In women the most common cause is pregnancy. For both sexes, they can appear from gaining and then losing large amounts of weight. Men can experience stretch marks after bulking up in the gym, and then letting their muscles return to a more normal size.
Do Stretch Marks Ever Go Away?
One of the insidious things about stretch marks is that they’re a scar, so while they might fade over time, they are likely not going to go away on their own if left untreated. This is enough to get most people motivated to get rid of them, since there’s not a lot of hope at a spontaneous recovery in the near future.
Because there are stretch mark creams out there specifically for pregnant woman, as well as products aimed towards men and women both, it can be hard sorting them all out. We’ve done our best here to collect some of the most promising treatments, and also to alert you to some duds, so you can avoid them. Keep in mind though that we do not know your exact situation, so there’s no way we can determine whether these products will work for you. We give a Thumbs Up to products that show a high probability of working for most of the people that try it.
Revitol Stretch Mark Cream Recap
Revitol is one of the best stretch mark creams we’ve looked at, because they take such a proactive approach to treating your stretch marks. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and for each stretch mark you don’t get, that’s one less that you have to get rid of. The way they pull this off is to start treating your midsection with the cream while you’re pregnant. That way you can strengthen the skin, and build up its elasticity so it can expand without causing a huge problem.
The reviews are almost all positive for this product, and depending on how far along you are in your pregnancy, you can eliminate most if not all of your stretch marks by getting a head start on them.
See our full review of Revitol Stretch Mark Cream
TriLASTIN SR Recap
The biggest thing that swayed us to the benefits of TriLASTIN is that you can see real users showing off their results with before and after pics, and not just the ones that are featured on their website. Any product that gets people to show off their results without being compensated is doing something right. That means they were excited enough by the results that they wanted to show them off.
In addition to these convincing pics is the large amount of positive reviews and feedback from users. All signs point to this working, but of course it might not work for you depending on a lot of unknowns. Definitely worth a try though.
See our full review of TriLASTIN SR
Urban Skintrition Recap
Even though Urban Skintrition gets mixed reviews, we gave it the “Try” recommendation because there is enough positive feedback to create the possibility of it working. If you don’t have success with our other recommendations, give this one a try.
It’s not as likely that you’ll have success with it as some of the others, but if you don’t respond to those, you might find that this has the right mix of ingredients for your situation. To get a better idea of what it contains and how it works see our full review.
See our full review of Urban Skintrition
Revitagen Recap
Revitagen uses mostly shea butter in their concoction, so if you’ve tried other shea butter based treatments, you can effectively pass on this one. If you haven’t you might want to give it a go. Since it’s an all natural treatment, there isn’t any harm in using it, and there’s plenty of benefit in shea butter to make the skin feel silkier and smoother.
Whether or not it has enough oomph to it to get rid of your stretch marks is another matter. With this one you’re going to want to be religious about sticking with the treatment, and be in it for the long haul.
See our full review of Revitagen
Mederma Stretch Mark Cream Recap
Mederma started off by making scar creams to help lessen the appearance of scars. They’ve applied this technology to getting rid of stretch marks, which are a form of scar tissue so this should be right up their alley. You want to make sure you go with the formula specifically made for stretch marks, and not ordinary scars.
This will show the best results if you have superficial stretch marks that aren’t very deep or wide. If you have deep or wide stretch marks with ridges, you’ll want to go with a more aggressive treatment.
See our full review of Mederma Stretch Mark Cream
Palmers Stretch Mark Cream Recap
This is another company that goes for the prevention method, but doesn’t hit the target as well as Revitol does. The idea is that you rub this on your tummy while you’re pregnant, and with things like Cocoa Butter, Vitamin E, Collagen, and Elastin in it, why not? It’s not going to have any negative effects, and will make your skin feel great.
But whether or not it works at protecting yourself from getting stretch marks, that’s another matter. It might lessen their appearance, and for some women it might eliminate them altogether, but there were too many naysayers for us to get behind this one.
See our full review of Palmers Stretch Mark Cream
Why Do Stretch Marks Itch?
Stretch marks itch for a multitude of reasons, but one big reason is that they are still your skin and sometimes skin itches. Many women mistake this for the stretch marks itching. They do in fact itch on their own, and this can occur while you’re pregnant, but is more common after you have your baby. It’s just a matter of your skin having been stretched out, and is now returning to its former size. The result is an itchy feeling.
Why Do Stretch Marks Appear?
Stretch marks are caused by your skin being stretched beyond its capacity. That’s the only way they can occur, they don’t appear spontaneously or for no reason, and they didn’t get their name by accident. They can occur in any place where the skin is pushed to the limits, but they mostly appear in the midsection. Some women will get them on the shoulders and on the back and hips, anywhere the body gains extra weight and where the skin was made to hold more weight than it was meant to.
Can Stretch Marks Be Tatooed?
Other Extreme Treatments
Another procedure women turn to is laser treatments. This involves zapping your stretch marks with special lazers that are designed to break up the stretch mark tissue so that it can return to its natural color and feel. There is also an emerging procedure in which they take platelets from your own blood and inject them directly into your stretch marks. While this has been shown to have promising results, it also comes with a hefty price tag costing hundreds of dollars for treatments, and requiring several treatments in order to fix just one small track of marks. This just goes to show how desperate women get to get rid of these, and how resilient they are to most forms of treatment.
The biggest recommendation we have is to take a deep breath and have patience. We have yet to find any stretch mark cream that works overnight, and you didn’t get your stretch marks overnight. That’s why it’s important not to beat yourself up, or throw your hands up in the air in defeat after just a few failed attempts. You have to be persistant, not just with each individual treatment attempt, but for the long haul because it might take you trying out one stretch mark cream and then another until you get to one that works.