Your skin is your most precious asset. It’s strong because it protects your body, but it’s also extremely vulnerable. It’s important to treat it with care, and that means giving your skin the time it needs to heal properly.
When your skin experiences a cut, your body immediately starts healing the wound – first by limiting blood to the area. Then, special proteins like fibrin work in tandem with your platelets and plasma to form a protective coating known as a scab. Think of a scab as nature’s Band-Aid. Never pick at a scab, as your skin is working hard behind the scenes to regenerate. During that time, it needs that protective coating to keep bacteria and infections at bay.
The wound will gradually heal as new tissue starts to grow, starting with the edges of the wound, then working its way toward the center. Once the new skin has grown back and the underlying wound is healed, that scab will fall off. You don’t need to encourage it!
If you had a relatively minor cut, one that only harmed the outer layer, then you shouldn’t experience scarring. If the cut was a deep one that reached the dermis of the skin, fibrous tissue may form, resulting in a scar. In general, the deeper the cut, the higher the chance of getting a scar.
It can take between three and six weeks to fully heal a deep cut, as your body produces collagen – a skin-repairing protein. However, even once the wound is healed, it can take up to two years for a scar to truly take on its permanent appearance.
Scarred skin tissue differs from normal skin tissue, in that it doesn’t contain sweat glands or hair follicles. Take care with your scar, as it can also be extremely vulnerable to UV rays. Most scars are white in color, lying flat on the surface of your skin. However, in the case of hypertrophic scars and keloids, you may notice a raised appearance that looks red and may itch at times. Those may subside over time.
Keloid scars may even grow beyond the edges of the wound and take over normal healthy skin tissue. No one knows exactly why these abnormal scars form, but some speculate that they are brought on by changes in the signals passed on by cells at the site of the wound. Those cells are telling the body to produce more fibrous tissue than is necessary – even after the wound has closed up. Solutions to these include laser treatments and cortisone injections.
But perhaps the most non-invasive, affordable, effective and convenient way to reduce the appearance of scars is to use a scientifically proven topical treatment like Scarfade that helps regulate the body’s production of collagen and thus reduce scars. It’s a good idea to have a tube or two handy for when cuts get out of control!