Surgery.

Alright alright, i’ll add some explanation! Stretch marks are quite a common problem in both men and women. It’s true that they’re more common in women but any guy that’s had a particularly large growth spurt, lost weight or started working out can attest to the fact that men do, in fact, get them.

Just like almost everything else on SCforM, the way to treat this skin issue is universal…

Stretch marks aren’t just marks on the surface of your skin, they’re tears in the elastic fibers deep within your skin – like a torn piece of paper. Nothing applied to them is going to be able to go far down enough to treat them.

Now you’ve probably heard a lot of people saying they’ve faded their stretch marks by using various products (Olive Oil, Bio Oil, Cocoa Butter…) but unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way. Stretch marks will fade with time to become less noticeable – no matter what you apply on top. If you’ve heard someone talking about how X product faded their stretch marks, I can guarantee that they would’ve faded on their own in the same time frame anyway. If they manage to avoid getting them, it’s simply down to genes and how elastic their skin is.

So, how do you get rid of them? At the moment, only surgery (it’s quite invasive) and laser treatment (works best on fresh marks) have been proven to work. So if you’re really bothered with them – try either of those options.

As I said at the beginning, most people have stretch marks somewhere . If you’re not so unhappy with them that you’d consider surgery you can do a couple of things to help:

• Keep the area well moisturised. Use whatever body lotion you want, moisturising the area will plump the skin around the marks and make them look a little less pronounced. Also, well moisturised skin will just look healthier and better-looking in general.

• Self tan. Another option is to self tan your body – your skin tone and the colour of your stretch marks will look a lot more uniform with a light tan. If the stretch marks are a lot lighter you can just apply to those areas, a lot darker and just swipe a bit off them with a q-tip before it develops.

Sorry to be such a downer but honestly, save your money and take comfort in the fact that we’ve all got ‘em!